I slept fairly well last night considering I was on the deck of a metal boat sitting on the cold, cold Nile. People assume Egypt is hot year round. It is not!! Winter here (especially at night) gets quite cold and even reaches single digit temperatures. Many tourists are caught out because they see all the sunny photos and only pack summer clothes. The difference between winter here and at home though is that it basically never rains here. You get perfect sunny photos every day! It’s no wonder they worshipped the sun here in ancient times, because the minute it is up you instantly feel a bit warmer.
Dinner last night was yummy and then we headed to bed fairly early. My sleeping bag kept me very warm and I woke up quite a number of times (mainly due to Carl’s snoring - haha!).
We got up at 5am and were ferried across the river to our awaiting van. Then we drove to Kom Ombo Temple. En route we passed through lots of farmland, and saw farmers up nice and early selling their products by the side of the road. As I said yesterday, the Nile really is the lifeline providing a way to grow such products. We also saw pigeon towers as people here feed and keep pigeons. It’s even served in restaurants as a delicacy!
For the first 5-10 minutes, we had Kom Ombo Temple to ourselves which was very special, especially considering the rising sun was making it glow beautifully.
This temple is the only twin dedicated temple in Egypt - ie dedicated to two gods. The temple was symmetric and had halves for each god. The two gods it was dedicated to were Horus and the local crocodile god, Sobek. I hadn’t really seen him before so it was interesting spotting his crocodile head/human body on the reliefs here.
The location of this temple was chosen because it’s on a bend of the Nile and once upon a time, crocodiles used to bask in the sunshine on the banks here. Due to the dams in Aswan, nowadays they are believed to only be south of the dam. I’ve seen enough crocodiles in my time so I’m ok with this!!
Reused blocks at the temple suggest an earlier temple from the Middle Kingdom period, but the main temple was built by Ptolemy VI, and most of its decoration was completed by Cleopatra VII’s father (yes, THAT Cleopatra!), Ptolemy XII. The decorations were beautiful and we saw some amazing examples of coloured paintings on columns and higher parts of the temple. It astounds me that after 2000+ years these decorations are still so beautiful and look the same as they did back then. It also astounds me how the ancient Egyptians erected the gigantic columns like the ones here. They truly were an amazing group of people. I feel kind of ashamed about what we produce these days in comparison - crappy quality everything that breaks down after five minutes.
We saw the typical open courtyard at the front where the locals would come to worship, and Mudi showed us a wooden ‘clip’ between two blocks used to help secure it. Again - very clever!
Other highlights of this temple included the only example of scenes showing medical instruments. These have been seen in drawings on papyrus, but never in temples aside from here. We could see saws, scalpels etc. Very cool! The well at the temple was interesting too, because apparently some poor crocodile used to be kept in there and animals were sacrificed and fed to it. The well wasn’t very big, and considering crocs here were about 4m long it didn’t look very comfortable! They also found rooms here with many mummified crocodiles.
To finish our time at the temple, Mudi got a photo taken of our whole group “walking like an Egyptian” out front. We were very popular with a bus load of Asian tourists who then followed suit as we left. Habibi (meaning ‘darling’, our group name!) are trend setters hahaha.
On the way out of the temple we checked out the small but interesting Crocodile Museum and saw many mummified crocodiles. Sobek was seen as a god of great protection and power, because crocodiles have great strength. Their daytime sunlight basking followed by disappearing at night also fitted in with Egyptians’ beliefs to do with the sun. Interestingly, crocodiles were also respected by the Egyptians because they seemingly ‘predicted’ the flood levels each year and created their nests in advance at a height that they believed to be above the eventual water level.
Then we drove for 4-5 hours to Luxor. Kearra (Collingwood girl from the plane) and I were chatting on Facebook and we actually passed each other today. We are each doing the opposite of one another’s tours!
Onwards we drove towards Luxor, watching people farming and being waved at by lots of local people as we passed. Many were also riding donkeys. I forgot to mention yesterday that, at least in ancient times anyway, people were taxed according to the fruitfulness of the harvest season each year. If not much was produced, not much tax. If a lot was produced, lots of tax.
What surprised me as we drove along is how green some sections are near the Nile. It provides a huge contrast to the dry and dusty background.
When we arrived, we checked in to the hotel (up can see Hatshepsut's Temple from our window!) and then I went walking with Kristene, Harrison and Brabbyn. We noticed straight away that Luxor is much cleaner than Cairo and Aswan (Egyptian clean, not quite Australia level!). There were some nice manicured walkways along the Nile and it was really beautiful. What we did notice though is that lots of horse and cart drivers follow you along trying to con you into a ride. The horses look very dirty and skinny :(
Luxor has an unbelievable 30% of the world’s monuments apparently, and 70% of Egypt’s monuments are in Luxor. What an incredible place! On our walk we could see Karnak Temple in the distance, Luxor Temple, and what was once the 3km Sphinx Road that connected the two. The government are currently working to restore and reopen this. Lots of locals seemed to have jumped the fence to get a closer look!
We met the group again and headed off to Karnak Temple, one of the biggest complexes of temples in the world taking up an incredible 1.5 km squared. It was started in 1900 BC and added to over time many times. We could have spent hours here, we had 1.5 which was still enjoyable.
We saw many different temples and took in the beautiful colours inside some of them. Mudi thinks they used special oils to preserve the colours - I still can’t get over the fact that they’re bright and clear to this day. The Holy Lake, fed by the Nile, was impressive. Nearby to this there was the largest scarab beetle statue in Egypt. It is said if you walk clockwise seven times around it, the wish you make when starting will come true. So I did it - why not! We had a giggle at the Chinese tourists walking around in the wrong direction. To be honest though we looked just as silly!!
We wandered around and just before we left I went and sat on the edge of a column in the hypostyle hall and just took it all in. It was amazing. The columns are 3m in diameter and 21m high. Just in that section there are 134 columns. They placed them first and then carved - I can’t fathom how they made it all so perfectly!!
Dinner was at a nearby restaurant. I enjoyed a camel burger - yes, you read that correctly, camel!! It was really nice and just tasted like beef. Our guide is so beautiful. Tonight for the third time on our tour he took aside a homeless child and bought them food and a drink. He also chatted to him and gave him a big hug. What a legend! We had a quick look in a cotton shop on the way back.
Valley of the Kings tomorrow - WOOHOO! *cue ‘Indiana Jones’ music*
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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