Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, and Dandara

At the end of our boat trip down the Nile, we met a new guide, Mohammed, and set out for Kom Ombo ("golden mound"). This was a crossroads for importing gold for the pharaohs, as well as where the Romans trained elephants for their campaigns. They found out that African elephants are not that trainable, so that didn't last long.

Kom Ombo was built around 150 BC during Greek rule is a strange temple in that it was dedicated to the gods Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus, the falcon god, who were traditional enemies. Some think the Egyptians were trying to placate the actual crocs in the river, who were eating people crossing the river. The temple has a dividing line inscribed to separate the halves for the two gods. 

At the rear of the temple were a a depiction of medical tools and a calendar of festivals by days of the month. It's thought that people might have come here for healing.




Archaeologists found many mummified crocodiles at the temple. Though the real crocs were eating people, Sobek was believed to bring fertility. Everything in balance, I guess.

We stopped at the temple of Edfu, where the highlight was a stairway lined with the images of Egyptian priests.

The next morning we were off to the famed temple complex of Karnak. About thirty pharaohs, from the Middle Kingdom to Greek times contributed to it, and it's the second largest religious temple complex in the world, after Angkor Wat.

You wonder how the Egyptians raised huge blocks to build pyramids and great walls. Behind an unfinished pylon, or entry wall, are the remains of a mud brick ramp that was used to raise the blocks. That's a lot of mud.

Hatshepsut, the woman who ruled as king, erected two obelisks here. This one is over 90' tall. Her son Tuthmosis III, perhaps miffed at having to wait to be pharaoh, later built a wall around it so no one could tell it was hers.

Each temple has a "holy of holies," a room at the back of the temple where an image of the temple's god was kept and only the high priests and pharaohs were allowed. The ceiling of one of these was decorated with stars on a blue sky.

With a bit of a gratuity for the guard, we were able to get into the small and seldom-visited temple of Ptah, which contains this exquisite statue of Sekhmet, the warrior goddess and also the goddess of healing. I don't know how to put words to the silence in this room other than say it was transcendent and indeed, healing. We both felt changed. I'm the empirical and practical sort, yet can't help but believe that bits of the old magic live on in places.

The temple of Luxor is nearby, in fact an "avenue of the sphinxes" used to connect the two temples and was used during special festivals. It's romantic to think that these temples are out in the desert, but they're right in the modern city.

The hipostile hall is not as large as Karnak's, but big nonetheless. Statues of Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great") are everywhere in Egypt; he seemed to think highly of himself.

The Romans, when they came, plastered over the Egyptian carvings here, but time and weather caused most of it to fall off. Empires come and go.

On Sunday we set off early to the temples of Abydos and Dandura. In Egyptian mythology, the god Osiris, after being chopped up by his envious brother Set, was reassembled and brought back to life at Abydos by his wife Isis. 

King Seti I offers the deed to the temple to Isis

There isn't much to see outside, but the wall carvings and paintings at Abydos are beautifully preserved after over 3000 years.

The king makes an offering to Isis

Even in the unpainted carvings, the detail is exquisite.

Anubis gives the king his symbols of power

On the way to Dandura, Mohammed picked up some molasses for home from this guy who set up shop at the highway intersection.

The highlight at Dandura, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, is the ceilings that have been restored to their original color. Hathor's image is at the top of the columns.

The goddess of the sky, Nut, arcs over a series of ceiling panels.

Under the temple floor is a long storage crypt with more spectacular images. It was feeling a bit like an Indiana Jones movie.

No one knows what this long eggplant-shaped thing with a snake is--nothing like it is seen elsewhere. There were other images of a snake emerging from a lotus nearby, so my guess is it has something to do with the serpent.

Dandara,  built during the era of Greek rule, is the only place bearing an image of Cleopatra VII. There were several Cleopatras, but the one made famous by the movie was the last ruler of Egypt before it was conquered by Octavius the Roman. So ends 3000 years of history. Cleopatra's on the left, her son Caesarian on the right.

Tomorrow we're off the Valley of the Kings!