karnak, egypt:

From Aswan, we drove up to Luxor, the infamous ancient Egyptian city once known as Thebes. Luxor is the place to go if you want to see the Valley of the Kings, Karnak and Hatshepsut's Temple. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, Cairo and the Pyramids of Giza are just the tip of the ice berg when exploring ancient Egyptian architecture and culture.
After been blown away by Abu Simbel in the south, Karnak was the next site to visit. Built around 1300BC by Ramses II, it was a temple complex to worship the Egyptian gods.  And it is phenomenal. As you walk through the area, you are surround by gigantic columns, which are covered in the most beautiful hieroglyphs. You can also see evidence that these were once painted in beautiful, bright colours. It is stunning!
The scale, the age and the detail all take your breath away. We just enjoyed sitting and taking it all in. There are also other areas with room like spaces, one of which, near the end of the complex still has a significant amount of paint left on the carvings. It's just beautiful, and trying to imagine what the Karnak looked like when it was built - with all its colour - it just would have been incredible! Karnak is amazing.

Next: Valley of the Kings