You walk into Karnak after dark, when the crowds are gone and the temple is lit for the show. The performance moves you through the site in stages, beginning at the great pylon and the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, then into the Hypostyle Hall where 134 columns rise out of the dark as the lights sweep across them. A narrated soundtrack tells the story of Thebes and the pharaohs who built here, voiced as if the stones themselves are speaking. It ends beside the sacred lake. Your driver waits to take you back to your hotel.