Young Temples: Temple of Edfu and Kom Ombo Temple

Our journey on the Nile continues in a very relaxed manor. The accommodations on The Senator make me feel as if I'm in a British colonial novel  The lounge is very comfortable, and the passing view is pleasant.

The lounge on The Senator makes me think that this is the Mohonk of the Nile (Mohonk Mountain House is my favorite old hotel in upstate New York)

The edges of the Nile are lush and green, but desert soon overcomes the green.

Edfu Temple
We aren't allowed to relax for long. After all there are temples to see, and adventures to experience.  We leave The Senator and jump into carriages for the drive through the town of Edfu, headed for Edfu Temple.

Carriages seem to be the preferred choice of transport in Edfu.  These carriages are also known as  Egyptian Ferrari.

We no sooner take off in our Egyptian Ferrari than I made the mistake of smiling at a man on the street.  Before we knew it, he was in the carriage with us!  Naturally  he had a shop somewhere and wanted us to come see his goods.

Here are some tourists negotiating prices on carriage rides.

After our carriage ride our immediate goal is to visit Edfu Temple  This is the youngest temple we have seen so far.  It is also one of the largest temples in Egypt, dedicated to the Falcon God Horus and built in the 2nd century BC.

The Temple of Edfu, dedicated to the Falcon God Horus.

Front door.

Here he is, the falcon god, Horus. He is a sky god, protector of Egypt. He is wearing the crown of upper and lower Egypt.

We take the carriage back to The Senator where we enjoy more of the Nile...................and shopping.  There is always shopping.

This row of shops is right outside our cabin window.

I still have not gotten weary of the river view.

Kom Ombo Temple
Although we get lunch and a little rest mid day, we still get to soldier on to view yet another temple.  It seems that two temples a day is the minimum for this trip.  Next on tap is Kom Ombo Temple.  This is a very young temple, built in 119 BC. An interesting fact about this temple is that it was at one point in it's existence defaced by Copts and used as a Christian church.

Kom Ombo Temple is dedicated to Sobek, the god of strength and power.  Egyptians feared and worshiped him.

Here he is - Sobek.

Crocodiles are carved everywhere in this temple.  And, hundreds of crocodile mummies were preserved and later found in the temple.  We saw many of these mummies in the Crocodile Museum.

The ears have it!  If you pray to these ears, they will listen and you will get a response - from the priest standing behind the wall.

As usual, it's been a busy day.  Lest we forget, we are cruising on the Nile and we have another towel sculpture to remind us.  Good night to the Nile, and good night to the peacock.

Transition from Lake Nasser to the Nile

This will be our last day on the Omar Khayam and Lake Nasser. Later today we will arrive in Aswan.  We will disembark from the Omar Khayam and move into a smaller ship, The Senator. Omar Khayam has been our introduction to cruise ships, and I must say we have enjoyed ourselves.  In addition to providing a comfortable journey it provided a means for us to see the remote Nubian portion of Egypt.After today we will travel the more populated areas north of Aswan Dam.  In other words, we move back to civilization more like we know it.

Before we get to Aswan, there is another temple for us to explore:  Kalabsha Temple.

This temple, like the ones we have already seen, has been moved to avoid being flooded when the Aswan Dam was built.  This is the youngest of the temples we have seen so far.  It was built by the Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus from 30 to 14 BC.

One of those two little boats is what we take to get back and forth from our ship to Kalabsha Temple.

This is one of the small temples off the the side of the main event.

Front door

I was surprised to see petroglyphs, not so different from the ones found in Oregon and Washington.

Kalabsha Temple is the last Nubian temple that we will see.  Our next stop is Aswan.  As you can see from the photo, Aswan Dam, which created Lake Nasser, is immense.

Aswan Dam

I still can't believe I'm in Egypt and here I am, overlooking Aswan Dam.

While the Omar Khayam was certainly luxurious by our standards, The Senator, which is much smaller had an elegance that we weren't prepared for.  Although unprepared we settled right in to life on a ship with only 16 cabins.  

Before checking in to our cabins, we all enjoyed a welcome drink in the lounge.

AFter the welcome drink, and lunch, we left The Senator and enjoyed a felucca ride on the Nile. This was a very relaxing introduction to the city of Aswan.

Here's our Nubian captain, steering the felucca, playing the drum and singing.

Our captain and his assistant.

This is the old Cataract Hotel.  Agatha Christie wrote some of Death on the Nile while staying here.  

Back on The Senator, after our felucca ride, we sat on the top deck and enjoyed the river and the sun.

Lots of felucca's drifted by as we enjoyed relaxing on the top deck.

The sunset, and the lights on the tombs across the river, give our view from The Senator a magical quality.  The structure on top is a tomb.

This has been another perfect day on the Nile.

Temple of Wadi es-Seboua

Since we had a free morning  on the Omar Khayam, I took advantage of being away from the real world and had a massage!!! I can't believe I did a cruise ship massage, but it was quite wonderful.  After the massage I spent a few hours on the deck watching the banks of the Nile float by.  I was thoroughly prepared for the afternoon sights.  Our first stop is Wadi es-Seboua - the Valley of the Lions! Wow!  This temple was built by the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotop III and restored by Ramesses II.

Temple of Wadi es-Seboua

One of many sphinx of Ramesses which originally lined the road approaching the temple.

This man at the entrance holds a large stick.  Periodically he strolls through the temple and rids it of any venemous or other snakes who have attempted to take up residence.

There are beautiful carvings inside Wadi es-Seboua, as well as places for snakes to hide.

Taylor and I chose to walk to the next temple, but another option was to ride on this pony cart.

Oh what a view!

There's our boat.  This may be one of the more remote spots we've ever been in.

After visiting Wadi es-Seboua, it was hard to imagine there would be much else of interest in the neighborhood, but I was wrong.  A smaller temple is short distance away.

A simpler temple than the first, but lovely inside.

I know this is Isis.  She has the sun resting between two horns and a cell phone resting on top.

These are only a few of the many columns in this little temple.

On our way back to get the small boat which will ferry us to the Omar Khayam we notice we are not the only tourists here.  Another ship has joined ours.

We weren't lucky enough to see a crocodile in the Nile, but this fellow greeted us on our return to the ship.

After dinner the crocodile was gone, and this baboon greeted us instead.

After a long day, we enjoyed a little Nubian music and dance.

No Time to Write a Proper Blog Post

We've been busy sailing on a felucca on the Nile in Aswan, Egypt.

Time flies as we clap along with our Nubian captain's tunes.

So sorry to hear that folks in Portland, and other parts of the U.S. are experiencing snow and ice.