7. Edfu and Kom Ombo Oct 1st
I woke up around 1:00am. There was a lot of noise going on outside the boat, some sounding like it was docking, a bit of engine reving and even some heavy metal creaking and groaning. I looked out the window and saw a wall of metal as we floated by. I thought we were passing by big bridge footings but since then I learned we went through the locks at Esna.
The Nile river locks at Esna were built to control the water flowing through the Nile, preserve and store the water for agricultural purposes and to provide safer navigation for boat traffic. The locks are a popular destination for tourists who come to see the massive structure and watch boats pass through it. This is totally lost on cruise tourists who are on a boat that comes through during the early morning hours.
Since I didn’t know we were traveling through a lock, I just went back to sleep. When I woke, we were moored at Edfu about 110 km downstream from Luxor. We had a leisurely breakfast on board. They had the fresh honey drip tray, so I helped myself to a bit of honey with my fresh fruit that morning.
This is the honey tray set up. A whole honeycomb frame is secured into the top part of the tray and the honey just drips into the bottom tray. I scoop up some honey and put it on my plate. Doesn’t get much fresher than this. Yum.
We meet up with our guide, Osama and our driver at 8:00am. Our boat is moored on the outside of 3 other vessels so we must cross through the reception areas of each of these 3 vessels to get to the shore. The reception area on all these cruise boats is located midship. There are staff stationed at each point where you need to cross to give assistance to anyone who needs it. There is a bit of variation in the height of the ship’s decks so some care is warranted if you don’t want to end up tripping.
Our destination is the Temple of Horus, dedicated to worshiping the Falcon god. It is also known as the temple of Edfu, the town where it’s located. The temple was constructed by Ptolemy and his successors between 230 and 57 BCE. It is well preserved mainly because it was one of the last ones built during the Ptolemaic period, the final dynasty of Egypt. It is the second largest temple after Karnak.
The inscription on the walls of the temple provide important information on the language, myths and religion of this period. The temple fell into disuse after the Romans conquered Egypt and non Christian worship was banned in 391 AD throughout the Empire. Many of the temple’s carved reliefs were razed by followers of the Christian faith, which came to dominate Egypt.
Over the centuries, the temple became buried to a depth of 12 meters due to drifting sand and layers of river silt deposited by flooding from the Nile. Only the very upper portion of the pylons were visible in 1798 when the temple was identified by a French expedition. Excavation of the site began in 1860.
Due to being buried for millennia the temple is the best preserved Ptolemaic temple.
On our way to the temple in our vehicle. Edfu only has one main road and it’s a busy one.
Small half ton service trucks, carry goods and people to work. Horse drawn carriages carry tourists to and from the temple. Tuk Tuks are cheap transportation for both tourists and residents. There’s always people to dodge walking across the street. And don’t forget all the motorcycles.
We walk up towards the entrance for the temple. In the distance you can see the tall first pylon or entry gate. The structures in the foreground are the part of the enclosure walls.
The first pylon. It’s 36 metres high and only the very top part of the two towers were visible prior to excavation. The doorway would have been enclosed by two large doors.
The four vertical depressions on the face of the pylon show the location of four 40 metre high wooden flagpoles that would have adorned the entrance to the temple. The figures are of the god Horace.
Inside the pylons is a courtyard. The Forecourt is surrounded by 32 columns on three sides. Apparently each of the pillars are unique.
Through the rear courtyard passageway is the Outer Hypostyle Hall.
Two large statues of Horace Grace the entrance to the hall. These were apparently carved from a single piece of granite from Aswan.
The Outer Hypostyle Hall. Hypostyle rooms have roofs supported by rows of columns. There are astronomical images on the ceiling
There are side rooms on each end of the hall. One of the rooms was used for ritual purification which was necessary to proceed any further into the temple. The other room was a library which housed religious and scientific texts recorded on papyri.
Just beyond the outer hall is the Inner Hypostyle Hall. This one is smaller than the other one and marks the beginning of the most sacred area of the temple. This sanctuary area was known as the naos.
There are three small rooms off the Inner Hypostyle Hall and we explore all of them.
This narrow room was known as the Court of Offerings. It was used for the burning of food and oil offerings for the god, who would be nourished through their aroma and smoke.
Everyone is looking up at the hole in the ceiling, presumably used for the smoke to escape. In reality they are looking at the bats surrounding the small hole. I had a turn at that too.
This is the vestibule which acted as the buffer zone which transitioned to the most sacred parts of the temple: the sanctuary and the 13 surrounding chapels.
On the opposite sides of the vestibule were two staircases that led to the roof.
We did check out both narrow stairwells. There was a locked door at the end of each stairwell preventing access to the roof. One of the stairwells had a ventilation system which comprised of a small rectangular open slot built into the outside thick rock wall which got much wider in all directions by the time the opening reached the inner wall. It was very effective at funneling colder air into the temple.
Venting system. This one was located in another part of the temple.
We toured through the chapels and many of their side chambers and then ventured outside.
We walk though this narrow corridor filled with carvings depicting the story of the beginning of the world when it was still entirely covered by water. There was a struggle between land and water and when the land managed to come close to the surface, reeds grew with the help of a falcon. These reeds grew at Edfu and Horus landed here as a falcon. Many other story scenes are depicted that basically show 1, enemies trying to stop creation and 2, enemies being defeated and 3, creation continuing. This theme repeats many times.
A small rowboat on the Nile. Everyone used boards that looked like 10 foot long 2x6 framing lumber for their oars. They must have been pretty heavy to use. I have no idea what they used the big grappling hook on their boat for. It’s probably related to that big bucket, but I never got to see it in action.
All of the scenes (and there’s hundreds of them) had been defaced by the early Christians. Once they became the overwhelming majority, they attacked sites of the old faiths to confirm they had the upper hand to perhaps neutralize any supernatural force these temples might have.
We leave the temple and head back to the ship. We traverse across the other boats to be greeted at reception by staff serving up a cold moistened hand towel and a refreshing cold beverage. This happens every time we return to the ship. It’s very nice after a hot day out in the sun. That cold moistened towel feel pretty good pressed against the back of my neck. It instantly brings down my body temperature.
We arrive back in our room and find this towel arrangement.
A little crocodile. I forget how many towels were required to make this guy. I don’t think it wasn’t as many as the last one.
It’s now about 10:00 and the ship begins to get underway. We are sailing to Kom Ombo to see a temple there. I spend the time between now and lunch to blog, but I’m not able to concentrate. I have come down with a cold, so I succumbed to extra naps in between watching the shoreline drift by. We both go down for lunch around 1:00 but my appetite is off and I mostly pick at the food I ordered. Judith has booked a hammam spa treatment sometime after our late lunch. She can’t find her room key so I offer her mine. It means I can’t leave the room until she comes back, but I am too tired to think about going anywhere.
We arrive at Kom Ombo about 30 minutes later than planned. Our guide isn’t that happy about the ship being so late. He had traveled by public transit from Edfu to meet us here, which is significantly faster than by our Nile cruise boat. Our boat had problems rafting up along side one of the other cruise boats, and had to come in for a 2nd time to line up our reception door with the next boat. This delayed our start time by another 20 minutes as the boat jockeyed around. If it’s not lined up, passengers would need to walk along the boat’s narrow ledge until they reach to reception door of the other boat. That would be too dangerous for passengers.
We disembark and make our way to the temple. It’s not far; only a few minutes of walking and we’re there. We’re just in time to get a sunset picture.
Sunset over someone else’s cruise boat.
The Kom Ombo Temple is a temple with an unusual design. It is a double temple worshiping the crocodile god, Sobek on one side of the building complex and on the other side, the falcon god Heroeris (Horace the Elder). The buildings sides are symmetrical with each other, so that the courts, halls and sanctuaries were duplicated for the each of the two gods.
Entry into the Kom Ombo temple. There would have been two sets of double doors, but these would have long since rotted away.
Much of the building has been destroyed by flooding from the nearby Nile River, earthquakes or by people using the stones for their own building projects.
There are many (hundreds?) scenes carved into the walls of the temple. This panel appears on the inner face of the rear wall and is a scene of particular interest. It was carved sometime between 138-218AD during the reigns of Roman Emperors Antonius Pius and Macrinus. It depicts medical and surgical instruments including scalpels, saws, hooks, forceps, scales, a sponge and various vessels indicating that surgery occurred in this time.
It is about 7:00 pm and the latest we have been at any temple. The temples are lit up giving them a dramatic look.
A Hypostyle Hall
On site is the Crocodile Museum. It seems to be a logical place to have this museum given that one of the temples at Kom Ombo worshipped the crocodile headed god Sobek. We walked through display cases of mummified Nile crocodiles found in tombs throughout Egypt.
Mummified crocodiles. The longest one was 4.3 meters in length. These were considered sacred animals and over 300 crocodile mummies have been discovered in this region.
Also in the museum were statues of the god Sobek.
A large part of the restoration work at Kom Ombo has concentrated on lowering the groundwater table. Rising groundwater accelerates deterioration and there has already been irreversible damage to the temple from corrosive salts being wicked up into the foundations and structure.
We leave the temple and walk through the tourist market back to the ship. All passengers from the various cruise ships have to walk to and from the temple on this path and the vendors are well prepared to sell their goods to us.
Judith finds a soccer (football) jersey that will be a future gift for her nephew. This is an Egyptian national now playing in the Premier League. She’s not sure of the size so a few of the nearby vendors are solicited to stand in as possible models. It takes a few minutes to find the right vendor/model and makes for an amusing purchase experience.
We return to the ship to have dinner on the upper deck. The sun has gone down and it’s perfect weather. The dinner is buffet style.
We return to our room and find a new towel creature.
I’m not positive. Is it a scorpion?
Time for bed. More temples tomorrow!
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