Flaunting With the Pharaohs

Mark Mahon of Minneapolis, who visited the ancient Karnak Temple on a recent vacation in Egypt, sent this dispatch: “The core of Karnak—the temple of Amun, the king of the gods—has 134 pillars built by Ramses II. Subsequent pharaohs built their own vainglorious annexes, shrines, and temples over a 1,300-year period. Ego trips abounded in pharaonic Egypt.” Here, Mahon grandstands before the gods with his own offering of magnificence: the May 2007 issue of The Rake.