Sam and I didn’t feel like going too far today, so we spent the afternoon in Karnak temple again. It’s so convenient being practically just around the corner and even if we went every day there would still be plenty to see. It’s a bit of a hike now from the car park, having to go through the new visitor centre to buy tickets and out across the wide stretch of empty plaza that now fronts the temple.
I’m still not sure if I like the re-design – it all feels sort of ‘sanitized’ now, an archaeological theme park with the sole purpose of getting the dozens of coach-loads of tourists in and out as quickly as possible. While I understand how vital tourism is to the Egyptian economy, on this trip and especially around Luxor, I’ve been forming the impression that Egypt no longer has a place for, or an interest in, the serious student of Egyptology. This saddens me.
I followed the neatly paved path that winds around the museum, looking at some of my favourite, more familiar monuments, such as Senwosret’s beautiful barque chapel and some of the lovely blocks and lintels from Medamud. The huge porch wall of Amenhotep IV that once stood before the third pylon is in an area of the museum that has been opened up, displaying various doorways and statues that are now much easier to see. Not everything is labelled, but there are more information boards than there used to be. A couple of new barque stations are being put up, though they seem to be mostly constructed from new concrete with a few lonely pieces of relief cemented onto the walls and I wondered what was the point when there were so few original remains. I suppose it gives the visitor some idea of what the original monument would have looked like.
Finally I arrived at the back of the museum where the portico of Tuthmose IV has been reconstructed and this at least looks magnificent, with it’s colourful portrayals of the King before various deities on the pillars. I met up with Sam again in the cafeteria. Even this has been smartened up with even higher prices to reflect the changes. After parting with 20 EL for a small bottle of cold Pepsi, we went and sat out by the lake under the shade of the trees – our favourite place to take a break. I had a moment of panic when I found two sets of my rechargeable camera batteries were corroded (one set brand new and as yet unused), but luckily Sam had a spare set I could use for the rest of the day.
After a while we skirted the ninth pylon and walked down towards the little jubilee temple of Amenhotep II, between the ninth and tenth pylons, probably the only monument at Karnak I’ve never actually looked at properly before. The
On the way out of Karnak I walked over to the older shops to the right of the new plaza that advertise Camera batteries. I eventually found some rechargable AA’s but I could not get the price below 100 EL for two (I needed four)