MAY PHOTO COMPETITION

[Horus]

Hello again everyone, time to post the theme for the month of May photo competition.

Each month I will post a ‘David Roberts’ picture of an Egyptian site of historic interest and use that as the months photo theme.

As many of you may know David Roberts was famous for his water colour paintings and drawings and he did some of his best work during the years 1838 to 1839 when he did his journey along the river Nile and produced his ‘Ancient Egypt & Nubia’ portfolio.

He painted pretty much as he saw things at the time and as such they are a very good guide as to what these places really looked like over two hundred years ago. In many paintings he shows colour or buildings and structures that are no longer visible on the actual monuments today, so they make an interesting comparison with our own recent photographs.

Please post your own pictures and comments into this section and hopefully we will all learn a bit more about that particular site. You may possibly have noticed a particular change from the original painting and what can be seen today or have some other interesting point to make. Maybe a picture to illustrate your point, or just a nice picture that you took whilst you were there.

Then hopefully we will enter them all into a competition and pick a winner.
Last months theme of The Temple of Hathor at Dendera was won by CrazyCat.

So onto this months theme, which is: The Temple of Luxor.
I am sure that most of you have some good pictures and observations to make.




Here is a modern picture taken from the same viewpoint as the painting, that is, standing on the 'Avenue of the Sphinxes'.

[Karenh]

What a difference from the painting to the photo

[Ebikatsu]

Oh that's sad

It seems the mud bricks buildings in the painting were removed .

I wonder also if the sphynxes really were in the position they are in today?

Looks more like they were PUT there afterwards doesn't it?

[Horus]

There have certainly been a lot of changes and we have to remember that the ground level at the time of the painting was considerably higher than it is today. The avenue of sphinxes was certainly there, it was just buried by the build up of debris over many many centuries of habitation. As anyone living in or visiting Luxor will know, the current excavations taking place are revealing the original 'festival way' that once linked the two temples of Luxor and Karnak. Along the route there are many in situ sphinxes being revealed on each side of the avenue, it is also noticeable as to how far below the surrounding ground level they are located. In a similar manner there is a row of ram headed sphinx inside of Karnak temple that look like they were placed there for storage by someone quite recently, but in fact they were put there by Ramesses II if I remember correctly.

[redsaffy]

I love Luxor at night

[redsaffy]

I did it I got a picture in!!!!!!!!!! :lol::lol:

[Horus]

Well done Redsaffy, it just takes a bit of perseverance That is a lovely picture, Luxor temple certainly looks great at night. I like to walk a little way along the avenue of the Sphinxes and take a few pictures from that viewpoint.

Here is an old picture taken in 1945

[Karenh]

What a great photo red saffy!
Horus Its amazing seeing photos taken such a while ago and now it makes it sink in more just how many thousands of years these temp[les have been stanidng and how many people have seen them. The engineering was most certainley the most advanced

[Horus]

On the theme of how the original ground level has changed from when David Roberts did his painting, have a look at this one from around 1885. Compare the half buried statues of Rameses II in this picture with the modern day photograph, also note that the base of the obelisk is not even visible in this picture If you look at the entrance pylon you can also see a very dangerous area of loose blocks!

[redsaffy]

I love the old pictures of Egypt.

[bigken]

On the theme of how the original ground level has changed from when David Roberts did his painting, have a look at this one from around 1885. Compare the half buried statues of Rameses II in this picture with the modern day photograph, also note that the base of the obelisk is not even visible in this picture If you look at the entrance pylon you can also see a very dangerous area of loose blocks!

You don't mind me asking Horus but you must be well over a 100 yrs old now to have taken this picture

[Horus]

Bigken wrote:

You don't mind me asking Horus but you must be well over a 100 yrs old now to have taken this picture

not quite Ken, but sometimes it feels like I am

[LivinginLuxor]

I do like the temple by night. Here's one I took from Ramla.



(by the way, Horus, why aren't there any photos in the photo competition album - how can we vote? I don't often come to the green side, so I hope you don't mind me asking)

[Horus]

A lovely picture Stan and even better when you click to enlarge it, it would make a nice wall picture.
To answer your question, at the moment I am still trying to generate enough interest to get the competition going. The original idea was to try and get people to post their pictures and maybe get a bit of discussion going about that months topic. The idea being that the knowledge gets spread around as people give there input, for example someone like yourself may point the way to some interesting feature or make a particular observation that you want to share with the rest of us. Then at the end of each month we could have a competition for the best picture, even if it had already been posted in the general topic being discussed, does that make sense?

[Grandad]

Thank goodness I have found you all
Was beginning to wonder why it had gone quiet on the blue zone.

Anyhow, whilst in Luxor earlier in the month we explored the new 'Piazza' area behind the temple to the east side. Now a very nice area enjoyed by locals which also gives new aspects for taking pictures around the temple.

My submission was taken just across the road from Sinbads. I needed to crop some of the columns to the left to remove an unsightly electricity transformer but I think it gives another viewpoint for pictures of the temple.

[Grandad]

The mosque from inside the temple helps to appreciate how deep the temple was buried before being excavated.

[Horus]

Glad that you found us again Grandad
Smashing pictures, look forward to seeing more as the year goes on. I agree with you that the new plaza area gives you a better photo opportunity, it's just a pity that it has little or no shade and it was looking decidedly scruffy the last time I saw it.

[HEPZIBAH]

Glad that you found us again Grandad
Smashing pictures, look forward to seeing more as the year goes on. I agree with you that the new plaza area gives you a better photo opportunity, it's just a pity that it has little or no shade and it was looking decidedly scruffy the last time I saw it.

[face=Comic Sans MS]Yes, good to see you over here on the Green side Grandad - welcome. It's always a pleasure to see your photo's too.

I remember being facinated by the Mosque when I first saw it, infact I spent more time looking up at it than I did paying attention to our guide in Luxor Temple. It then made much more sense when I read the book by Lucie Duff Gordon (I heck I think that was her name -my minds gone blank) when she described her house and the area around the mosque.

Re: The Plaza - I had started to walk across it a couple of weeks ago thinking I was taking a bit of a short cut in the heat, but had to very quickly come off it as I could feel the heat bouncing up from the tiled flooring and rushing up my skirt. [/face]

[Kiya]

Luwor Temple is 1 of my favourites amongst many, this photo I took on my very first visit to Luxor in 2004, I read not many folks like the modernisation around Luxor temple/town, I love this photo in particular with all its greenery

[Horus]

Lovely picture Kiya It really shows how nice it used to look Where did you take this one from?