Got up a little early so I could prepare for returning to civilization (as civil as one can be bathing in the Nile). Took a service taxi to Edfu. Spent an hour exploring the Temple Edful (an hour was all the taxi was willing to wait). The temple is huge, and is in amazing condition. It even has the original roof still. Lots of carvings, some statues, some color, not too many tourist. I would have liked to have spent a few more hours there. The main temple is a maze of roomd snd coridors with every surface carved. The other buildings aren't as elaborate, but there were still courtyards and tunnels to explore.
Took the taxi the rest of the way to Luxor. Checked into the hotel, had lunch (at Mc Donalds - airconditioning!) and took off to see Karnak. Karnak is huge, probably about the same size as Palyra in Syria, maybe larger. The temples and courtyards are huge, a forest of giant carved pilars. Huge (20 to 40 feet?) statues stand and sit everywhere there are tons of carvings, and some color remains. Spent the entire afrternoon here. It was almost unbearably hot, but the advantage was that there were almost no other tourist, and it encouraged me to take my time.
