Karnak and Luxor Temples

Highlights of the sites in Egypt we visited were the pyramids, the Karnak & Luxor temples, the decorative tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including King Tut’s Tomb, a camel safari through a village on the west side of the Nile River, and two historic mosques in Cairo. One of the most surprising finds was when the guided tour in the Luxor temple concluded and we went with David Seely (the Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor) and his family to a room off to the side of the main corridor of the temple. On the walls the reliefs depicted an account of God begetting a Son that read much like our nativity story in Luke or the visions of Nephi in 1 Nephi 11. There are echoes of the gospel everywhere in Egypt. We surmise that their knowledge comes from the time of Noah’s posterity settling tin Egypt, to Abraham, and later the years that the children of Israel spent there. In fact, the theme that reoccurred over and over was that of eternal family relationships and the resurrection. The messages of the scenes on the walls of the temples and the tombs were hauntingly familiar from the temples in the restoration of the gospel. For example, they have doors leading to the spirit world and make many references to life after death being family oriented.