Just as the answer to the riddle of the Sphinx is man, the answer to the riddle of Luxor and Karnak is god - more specifically, the sun god Amun-Re, all powerful giver of light and life.
How else could mere mortals properly express their puny role in the scheme of things than by designing temples to their gods on such a grand scale? How else could even the greatest of men show they are lowly specimens when compared to the greatness of Amun-Re than by taking stone from the earth and constructing pylons and pillars and obelisks that reach high into the sky? How better to acknowledge that the glory of man may fade, but the glory of Amun-Re is eternal thanby building wondrous edifices that would last forever?
This is what the ancient Egyptians did. In the heart of Upper Egypt, in a valley of the Nile, they built some of the most amazing structures the world has ever seen. And after 40 centuries of history, these temples still stand as a symbol of one of the oldest and most magnificent civilizations the world has ever known.
This dry and dusty valley is an unlikely place for any civilization to flourish, and were it not for the Nile this would have been the home of nothing more than wandering tribes.
But the Nile brought life, and civilization followed. Some 5,000 years ago the Egyptians had learned to make bread, smelt copper, glaze stone and hoe their gardens.
In 3100 B.C. Narmer took on both the red crown of Lower Egypt and the white crown of Upper Egypt - a unification that has lasted up to modern times. And Luxor became the capital of the Egyptian Kingdom. At the height of
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its glory, from 1570 B.C. to 1090 B.C., its population was more than a million.
This was the time of the pharaohs, divided by historians into the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom.
Construction on the temple of Karnak began around 2000 B.C., during the Middle Kingdom. But the work went on for the next thousand years. The temple seems to have been a symbol of the empire, and grew as the empire expanded. Each new pharaoh added a room, a hall, a pylon all gloriously decorated in hieroglyphics that recorded his achievements.
Karnak grew to cover some 60 acres (large enough to hold about 10 cathedrals or cover half of the island of Manhattan). It includes 20 smaller temples and shrines and is known for its forest of columns - 134 in the hypostle hall - and its ram-headed sphinxes. Not to be missed is the nightly sound-and-light show.
Luxor is built on a slightly smaller scale - about 780 feet long. Colossal statues of Ramses II guard the passageways. A red granite obelisk (its counterpart now decorates the Place de la Concorde in Paris) oversees the entrance.
At one time the two temples, two miles apart, were joined by a road lined with sphinxes. There is still an impressive stretch of the statues.
Across the Nile, in the Valley of the Kings, is another look at ancient Egypt. Here the great pharaohs were buried: Seti I, Ramses I, Tuthmosis III, Tutankhamun, Horemheb, Ramses IX.
It is a fitting place for a city of the dead; nothing grows on the sun-baked cliffs or the scorched sand.
As soon as a pharaoh took the throne, work began on his tomb; the longer he ruled, the more magnificent it was.
The tombs were designed to resemble the underworld, with a long corridor descending into an antechamber, where the mummy and treasures that may be useful in the next world were placed. Though the tombs were well-hidden, few escaped the ravages of grave robbers. But the colorful paintings that cover the walls, designed to assist the dead pharaoh in the after-life, provide a telling look at ancient beliefs.
Only Tutankhamun's grave was left untouched for centuries, buried under the rubble of another grave. When it was discovered in 1922, more than 5,000 articles were uncovered near the rose stone sarcophagus that contains his mummy. The sarcophagus is still there; the treasures have been removed to the museums.
Also on the West Bank the Temple of Hatshepsut rises from the desert in a series of terraces cut partly into the cliff walls.
Hatshepsut became Queen of Egypt in 1478 B.C. when she was 24; she ruled for 34 years. Part of her story is recorded on the temple walls: an expedition to Somalia that returned with exotic trees and giraffes; the cutting and placing of obelisks at Karnak. But interestingly, her image has been defaced everywhere it appears. This was apparently done by her successor, Tuthmosis III, who took an extraordinary dislike to the queen and decided to rewrite history; if it not written it was not so.
Luxor began to decline at the end of the New Kingdom, when Ramses II moved his capital to the north. The city was destroyed by Assyrians in the 7th century B.C., and again the citizens rebelled against the Romans. Early Christians converted Luxor temple into a church; the Moslems built a mosque there. But the pharaonic presence lived on.
Modern-day Luxor is an interesting contrast to the antiquities. Located 420 miles south of Cairo, it is easily accessible by plane, train and cruise ship.
The main street of Luxor parallels the east bank of the Nile. Feluccas (the Egyptian sailing boats) catch the gentle breeze and create a feeling of serenity. But cross the street and bustle is the order of the day. Donkey-drawn carts jostle with taxis. Horns honk; merchants call. Natives clad in galabeahs (a wide-sleeved, full-length costume) interact with tourists. And mixed with the sounds of traffic are strains of music.
This is the land of the tablah, a percussion instrument made of fish skin stretched over a clay sound box; and the rababah, a two-stringed violin held vertically and played with a horse-hair bow; and the arthul, a double-reed clarinet said to be the quintessential Egyptian instrument. The sounds such things produce are distinctive and permeate the air. Musicians sit at the doors of hotels and along the waterfront, playing their songs and playing on the senses.
Luxor also has a Greco-Roman touch. Alexander the Great was here as were various Roman rulers. Equally impressive are reminders of early-20th century Egypt: King Farouk's winter palace that is now a hotel, for example. The blending of eras and cultures gives the city a charm all its own.
Visitors have been coming to Luxor for centuries. The Greeks called this area Thebes and looked on it with the same awe as we now view the classical Greek civilization.
In the 5th century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus visited and wondered. "Nowhere are there so many marvelous things, nor in the world beside are there so many things of unspeakable greatness."
The message of Karnak? It may simply be: Some things never change.