On our way to dinner at one of Mohammed’s top recommendations, we had the opportunity to buy tickets for the evening’s light show at the Temple of Karnak, which included a narrative of the temple’s history a show that Mohammed highly recommended. So, after a delicious early dinner at a popular restaurant, we made our way through the bustling night streets. What followed turned out to be a rather unique driving experience.
Driving during the day, when traffic wasn’t too bad, I had accepted that the rules of the road much like the Arabic language were beyond my comprehension. But at night, after the heat of the day, the colourful streets really came to life. It became immediately apparent that no cars had their headlights on. Instead, drivers would only use their lights to communicate with oncoming vehicles. At first, this was unnerving, but it seemed to work. Once I accepted it, it became pretty entertaining.
We arrived just after 7:30 PM at the Karnak Temple, which dates back to around 2055 BC and was continuously expanded over a 1,500-year period. It is the second-largest temple in the world, after Angkor Wat, and is visited by millions of tourists every year. After passing through security, we made our way toward the entrance and were delighted to find that there weren’t too many people there with the same idea.
For me, this is one of those places where my mind seems suspended in time. As I look around, I’m not just processing what I immediately see, but also trying to imagine how it must have looked back in the day. The music and lights were perfectly coordinated, illuminating only the parts of the temple relevant to the story. The sound boomed, and the voices remarkably resembling Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor brought the history of the place to life. The tour lasted about an hour and provided a fantastic introduction to this awe-inspiring location, all set against the backdrop of a stunning starry night sky.
The following morning, we returned around 9:00 AM—slightly later than planned, but it had been a late night. The temperature was already around 30°C, and since it had been hovering around 40°C most days, we usually sought shade by late morning. The daylight gave us a more detailed view of the ram sphinxes that flanked either side of the path leading up to the carved entrance walls, which were adorned with scenes of Ramesses II worshiping the gods.
Once through the entrance, we were greeted by the towering rows of pylons in the Hypostyle Hall, stretching up into the sky. Each pylon was covered in intricate drawings and hieroglyphics, depicting past pharaohs’ glorious battles, opulent lifestyles, and their relationships with gods and their subordinates.
There was so much to see over an area covering more than 200 acres, including multiple smaller temples, mausoleums with intricately decorated chambers, each telling its own story, and even a ceremonial lake. We’ve explored many ancient sites during our travels, but this one is by far the oldest and largest. We spent the morning in awe of this incredible place, absorbing every detail, until the heat became too intense to continue.
Dream Chasers 