Egypt 6: Temples on the Nile

Today we visited Edfu and Kom Ombo temples and the Crocodile Museum and sailed to Aswan.

You can't drive to the temple to Horus; you take carriages.

Leaving the waterfront

A little mosque with a new, modern minaret

Traffic jam! Notice - no bit!

Parking lot at the temple site

One second later, our horse (the gray) tried to kick the friendly chestnut in the head.

 Edfu is the site of the famous Horus statue.

The present temple was started during the reign of Ptolemy III, in August 237 BC, and completed in 57 BC under Ptolemy XII. It was built on the site of an earlier, smaller temple also dedicated to Horus, under the New Kingdom rulers Ramesses I, Seti I and Ramesses II. The temple is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt.

A gift of water

Cartouche of one of the Ptolemys

In the main courtyard

Me and Horus

Symbols of life and power, the ankh and the was (a bird-headed scepter). 

Horus and the king

Some slightly damaged carvings

The entrance, with Horus facing the king

 The mirrored other side of the entrance, with a complex employee for scale

Offering to the gods

 Rows of gods receiving offerings

The inner courtyard

The king being bathed by Horus and Sekhmet

Osiris and Horus presenting the Key of Life to the king

A tiny Horus

Another shot of the entrance

After rejoining the boat, we had lunch while sailing to Kom Ombo.

Kom Ombo, our guide said, most likely means "pile of gold" - Nubian gold.

The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple,  constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC. The building is unique because it was built to honor two sets of gods. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world, along with Hathor and Khonsu. The northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris, also known as Horus the Elder, along with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands).

Walking up to the temple

Sobek

The cobras are a symbol of kingship

Kleopatra (not the famous one, of course; there were seven in all - more if you don't restrict your count to ruling queens)

Ptolemy

Somebody else, I forgot to not who!

Sobek

This well was used to measure the flooding in order to assess taxes.

Horus and Tasenetnofret watching as the king is ritually bathed

Sobek and Hathor watch as the king is crowned by Upper and Lower Egypt

Sobek's crocodiles were especially venerated here, and hundreds of mummified crocodiles have been found here, many of which are displayed in the Crocodile Museum. Unfortunately (perhaps), the construction of the High Dam has banished the crocodiles from the lower Nile to Lake Nasser.
 
We returned to the boat and sailed on up the Nile, to Aswan.

A bridge being built across the Nile

We would leave at midnight(!) for Abu Simbil.