During our last tour, with Houston Baptist University, I ran into my friend Robert Bauval over breakfast at the Mena House and he reminded about a spectacular phenomenon: the “solar rebirth” at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor which occurs at dawn on the morning of the winter solstice. I was familiar with this, but it was the first time I had been in Egypt, and at Karnak on the right days to experience it.
The entire temple (indeed, several sites in Thebes) has been built along a solar axis, such that the temple both “gives birth” to, and is re-invigorated by, the rising sun precisely on the day of the winter solstice.
In the modern era this occurs on December 25th (interesting coincidence there, eh?) but several thousand years ago, when the temple was primarily built, this date fell on December 21st. We visited a few days past the solstice – on the Gregorian New Year to be exact – but the effect was still dramatic and moving.
We had all been up quite late the night before, celebrating New Year’s Eve – so the 5:30am wake up call came especially early, but it was more than worth it. We had Karnak completely to ourselves, what was, in itself a great treat. We had taken the group the day before in the afternoon and there were at least 6,000 people there. I am very spoiled since we normally secure private visits for our groups and it made me sad to see the place so filled up with noisy, gawking tourists. I am, I admit, a travel snob.
So in addition to seeing the beautiful temple in its quiet repose and feeling the peaceful, powerful flow of energy from the place (I find the temples lapse into slumber when the tour buses arrive, only offering their true spirit to those who approach with consciousness and awakened intent), we were able to experience a remarkable spectacle combining the natural and the man-made, fused into a moving reminder of our place in the cosmos and the unending renewal of life and the natural world.
The light from the sun progressively awakens the temple from the darkness, and the holy-of-holies becomes the womb of the sun as the new season is born again.
