Temples and more temples!!

Trip Start Dec 16, 2004
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Trip End Jan 17, 2005


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Friday, January 7, 2005

Okay, so it's been an action packed 5 days or so since I left you all last in Aswan, preparing to set sail on the felucca. The felucca was indeed very relaxing...almost too much so for those who know me well and know that I need to constantly be "doing something!" But luck was on my side and the ride got cut short, but I'll get to that. The felucca is a traditional sailboat and you basically live 24 hours/day atop the boat. We slept sardine style on a wood plank covered by a 1/2 inch mattress. There were about 10 of us on the felucca. So we sailed down the Nile, with time to chat and play board games, read, and listen to music. I was very impressed with our dinners that they mixed up as they were cooked right there on the boat! So the first 1/2 day was just sailing. I have to admit, the sleeping conditions were absolutely FREEZING! The days were quite windy, but sunny, on the Nile and as we pulled to the side to sleep, it was just so cold....definitely below freezing temperature.

The second day we got to stop along the Nile to visit a temple by the name of Kom Ombo. It is the only remaining Nile side temple in Egypt. It was great because we had the entire temple to ourselves!!! It was completed by Cleopatra's father and is a dual temple to Sobek and Haroeris. Let me explain the tourism industry here in Egypt really quickly. As you can imagine, it is the mainstay of their economy. In 1997 there was a
terrorist attack in Luxor at the temple of Hatshepsut in which loads of German and Japanese tourists were murdered. Children of the Nile
Children of the Nile
 Ever since then, the tourism police highly regulate all movement of tourists. Thus, we have to do whatever they say. For example, when we travel city to city, we must do so in giant convoys led and followed by fully armored police cars. The entire journey is lined with tourist police and all traffic is brought to a halt to allow the convoy to pass. So they take this all very seriously. Well, the
tourist police said it was much too windy for us to get back and sail on our felucca. After some negotiating, we were allowed to sail to the opposite bank of the Nile to eat lunch and sleep for the evening. So our felucca journey was basically ended a day short--hallelujah!

So Friday morning we left the Nile and made at stop at the Edfu temple before we drove into Luxor. Wow--I have to say that Edfu was one of my favorite temples. Like I said, after a while they really all start to look the same! But this temple was built to worship the falcon god Hathor, who was the husband of Horus--the goddess of passion, music, wine, love, etc. The entire structure was very well-preserved and had amazing reliefs on the walls. There was also still standing the granite shrine in which the statue of Hathor was kept and only removed for special ceremonies. Also, the small boat type thing in which the statue was carried for the ceremonies was on display.
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