Sunday June 22, 2008 at Edfu on the Nile River.
As promised, we made it to Edfu in about 2 ½ hours and most of us were asleep by then. IT is very quiet on the ship and the crew and service is superior. They look after your every needs even to carrying your plates to the dinner table should you nod your head!
In the morning we were scheduled to get an early start to beat the heat of the day (another 115F +) and head for the first temple of the day, hence no breakfast but only hot drinks (and the trusty water bottles) to start the day at the Temple of Kom Ombu. ‘Kom’ mans mountain and ‘Umbu’ mean gold. IT is an example of a temple built by the Ptolemy’s and used irregularly by others so lost much of its original form. It was built in the 200 BC era. It is what is known as a “double temple”, that is two temples built side by side. One to the crocodile God Sobek, The god of fertility and the other side to the falcon god Haroeris or Horus the elder. The Nile and earthquakes and other users have destroyed part of the Temple, and the Copts (Coptic) used it as a church. Over three hundred crocodile mummies have been found in the area and two are displayed there.
IT was not hot yet (Already 90 F) so we hustled back to the ship to move on to Edfu.
After eating a let breakfast at 10:00 AM with a pre travel meeting at 11:55 in the lounge. I had a chance to talk with George (Greece) before hand and discovered he is an Athenian and his wife’s family from the Islands off the coast. They have two girls with them. There is also a group of 30 students from Harding U. in Searcy AR who each semester takes a group on a cultural tour of two months. If I mentioned this before, OK. Hassam met us there, and gave us instructions before leaving. “Pay the driver of the horse cab only once and only the agreed upon amount” (25 Egyptian pound or SIP). That was $5.00 per ride to the Temple and back (the horse would be extra if you wish). There were seventeen in our guide group so we split up into various cabs. (See). Our driver was Nasser (about 23) and his horse was “Awadi”. The horses like in Aswan are healthy although not overfed by any means. They seemed to hold up well and managed the Bazaar traffic easily. Nasser tried to earn more money by stopping the horse and taking our pictures with OUR camera. Sorry…No!
The Edfu Temple is an intact Temple at the outskirts of Edfu the town (4-5,000). I was discovered by the French in the late 1800's under a pile of sand (dune). That meant it was more than 100 feet deep. It took 40 years to excavate and remove all the sand, but when it was finished there was an intact Temple with few pieces missing. (see) It was dedicated to Horus, the Falcon god by Ptolemy III in about 237 BC and finished by Cleopatra’s husband, Ptolemy XIII, 200 years later. The story of the temple tells of the murders and births to avenge the death’s .Horus (the avenger) loses an eye in the battle with Seth, but his eye becomes an important symbol in Egyptian religion. We got out of the heat in the temple as much as possible but by now (noon) the sun was overhead (literally) and in the 115 F range. The ride back with the same cab driver and horse was uneventful and Nasser let Jim drive the horse most of the way carrying Shirley Myers and Ruth. Hassam wanted to know if any of the drivers had been paid on the way over and I did, so told him so and also said I gave Nasser a $1.00 for his horse. When Hassam translated that for the other drivers, they got a good “horselaugh” out of that. Nasser didn’t ask for many other tips.
It was back on the ship and off right away for the one lock passage we have at Edna. This usually takes about 2-3 hours as each of the ships must take turns (two north and then two southbound). Then on the Luxor our last stop. I’ll be back with more later this tomorrow.
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