Memories of Egypt

Our last overseas holiday was early in 2009, before we moved house.  We went to Luxor in Egypt and saw many wonderful antiquities.

Photographing Luxor Temples

The pictures above were taken in the temples of Luxor. The first is at the entrance to the famous Temple of Karnac, while the second was taken inLuxor Temple itself. The two are only a few kilometres apart on the banks of the River Nile, and were once joined by an avenue of sphinxes, which is now partly excavated. You can read more about this in a previous post.

I chose these two from my literally hundreds of holiday pics today because they illustrate two points. First, I think they epitomise this part of Egypt: the ancient carvings at Karnak inside the high external walls, the cloudless sky and the laid back feel of the men presumably there to stop tourists getting too close - note the rope barrier; then in Luxor temple the ancient column, jumble of stone - some old and some not so old, the palm trees and the mosque tower behind.

Second, there's a great feature on the Edit menu in Picasa called I'm Feeling Lucky. If you have a photo opened and click on this, it adjusts the photo automatically in the way that seems appropriate. In the two photos above, I was able to use it for the second one to make it brighter and deepen the contasts made by shadows. When I tried it out on the first one though, I immediately reversed it because I wanted to be able to make out the features of the two Egyptians in the bottom right of the picture. When the adjustments were made the rest of the picture looked great against the bright blue sky, but the two men's faces were so dark, they could hardly be seen.

It's not easy to get exposures perfect in glaring light conditions. In fact I used to prefer taking pictures on cloudy days. But now, in the digital era, it's amazing what editing facilities allow you to do when you have uploaded the pictures you've taken.

Avenue of the Sphinxes

I took these pictures during our holiday in Egypt last March. They are of the avenue of sphinxes that is partially uncovered between the temples of Luxor and Karnak closed to the River Nile.





We discovered that it is considered of such great importance that people’s homes along the route are being destroyed so that the excavations can continue. It is, of course, a contentious issue. Whatever compensation is being paid, I can't imagine how dreadful it must feel to lose your home like that. One Egyptian in the bar of our hotel showed us a video on his mobile phone of a house being destroyed.

“This is one of many,” he told us.

Of course, Luxor is highly dependent on tourism. Without it many would go hungry. And we were delighted and amazed by the parts of the avenue that we saw. How sad that such paradoxes exist and are bound to keep on doing so.

Relief from a Manic Monday

I’m having a hard time writing anything that’s not related to packing and moving at the moment, since clearing the house and packing what’s left is occupying most of our waking moments.

So for a bit of light relief tonight I thought I’d look through the Egypt photos again. Here’s a pic of a giant statue in Karnak Temple, that reminded me of how awe-inspiring it all was.