After the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt’s next most visited historical site is the Karnak temple complex just outside Luxor.

Karnak was constructed over a period of 1300 years by approximately 30 different pharaohs, and eventually grew to become a collection of 25 temples. Known in ancient times as Ipet-isut, ‘The most select of places’, it is the largest ancient religious site in the world.

At the south west of the complex is the Precinct of Mut, an enclosed area which is not open to tourists, as it’s currently being restored. It contains the temples of Ramesses III, Khonspekhrod, and of course Mut herself, as well as a large crescent-shaped lake.

Leading north east from the Precinct of Mut is a 400m long avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, which leads directly to the Precinct of Amun-Re.

At 250,000 sq m, the Precinct of Amun-Re is by far the largest area at Karnak, and is the only area that is open to the general public. Amun-Re is dedicated to the Egyptian God Amun, who was the focus of the most complex theology in Ancient Egypt, and the huge scale of the complex here stands as testament to that.

The Ninth Pylon, and The Sacred Lake of the Precinct of Amun-Re

The main attraction here however is actually the entrance to the Temple of Amun, The Great Hypostyle Hall. Fortunately for us, the roof no longer exists, which means we can see the famous 16 rows of 134 columns.

122 of the columns are 10 metres tall, and the remaining 12 are a gargantuan 21 metres tall, each with a diameter of over three meters! (Ground-level photo)

Inscriptions of the names of the Pharaohs, as well as reliefs depicting an expansive history, can also be found recorded on the walls of this ancient fossil of humankind’s past.

For more information, be sure to check out the Karnak page at Wikipedia, which has links to a wealth of information about each of the sights we’ve seen today.

Welcome to the second annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week!

The beautiful Wadi Rum is a mere 720 square km desert valley located in the southern part of Jordan. Once submerged under the Red Sea, it is now home to the native Bedouin people and is a favourite spot for foreign travellers looking to explore the vast desert wilderness. Wadi Rum was also the set of the classic film, Lawrence of Arabia the story of T.E. Lawrence, a British officer during WWI.

Wadi Rum is surrounded by some spectacular mountains of sandstone and granite, which cater to all kinds of adventurous activities if you decide to take a trip there. Although the Bedouin¹ were traditionally a nomadic tribe, today most have built homes and adopted a more stationary lifestyle – with many living off the revenue generated by local tourism.

It wasn’t until the 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia that Wadi Rum became widely known to Western society. In the film, British officer T.E Lawrence spends time in Wadi Rum during the Arab revolts of WWI, helping the Arabs fight against the Turks and eventually conquer the Ottoman Empire. While the movie is a bit misleading, Lawrence did at least spend some time in Wadi Rum during the war. Nevertheless, because of the amazing scenery, Wadi Rum was an excellent choice of location.

Check out Wadi Rum’s official site, or Wikipedia for more info.

In the north of Vietnam, a few hours east of the capitol, Hanoi, lies a beautiful area known as Hạ Long Bay. Hạ Long, which can be directly translated as “Bay of Descending Dragons”, comprises just under 2000 islands, only half of which have been named.

Other than the truly spectacular scenery which features some absolutely amazing caves, some of the most impressive sights in Hạ Long Bay are the local communities. With a population around the same as the number of inhabitable islands, many of the locals live on floating villages, and some of these small communities are like little towns – complete with banks and schools. Most of their income comes from local fishermen, but tourism also plays a part.

The bay gets its name from an ancient legend which tells of how, during a Chinese invasion, the Jade Emperor sent a mother dragon and her children to aid the Vietnamese and prevent them from facing defeat. The dragons shot from their mouths around 2000 stones which immediately transformed into the jade islands seen today.

The dragon’s defenses supposedly blocked the Chinese ships and gave the Vietnamese the leverage needed to gain victory.

For more info check out the Hạ Long Bay official website, or the Hạ Long Bay Wikipedia page.

Google is at it again. As we have seen before, El Goog is sometimes asked to censor specific areas from public view. This time they are not just using the typical “this image is no longer available” message or an amusing Photoshop technique, but instead giving us these fun and exciting images to gaze upon.

While it’s probably true that if a 4th dimension were discovered then you’d see it here first, this is actually an active missile launch-site in North Dakota that houses the destructive one-and-a-half ton Minuteman III nuclear missile.

This is an intercontinental-range, silo-based, solid propellant ballistic missile system. Sounds dangerous! Even more shocking, a quick Google maps search of “Minuteman III ICBM Launch Facility” along with a random letter of the alphabet such as the letter a or the letter v will show hundreds of these launch sites, mostly situated in the central United States. These missiles have a range of 13,000km – which is over a quarter of the circumference of the planet!

One reader suggested the images bring to mind the Candy Land board game, but to me it’s more along the lines of an eerie backdrop for a new Willy Wonka movie. Either way, I can’t figure out why they chose to replace the images in this way.

What do you think is the reasoning behind this?

Thanks to Bob P.