Day 18: Edfu and Kom Ombo

One of the engines on our boat malfunctioned during the night and we were so late in arriving to our first destination of the morning, Edfu. I didn’t mind too much and sat back and enjoyed our morning sail along the Nile.

When we finally arrived at Edfu we saw the most well preserved Egyptian temple. AMAZING. The temple was made for the God Horus, the hawk headed god. We entered through a massive doorway topped with a winged sun disk and cobras on either side, a symbol of protection and of the god Horus. The doorway was flanked on both sides by beautifully carved scenes on two big towers. Inside the massive doorway was an open courtyard with columns depicting palms, lotus, and papyrus flowers at the tops. The next big doorway led into the temple. Inside the temple was a series of doorways, and as we walked father back into the most sacred parts of the temple, the ceiling got gradually lower and the floor inclined up so that the back of the temple was the smallest and darkest part. The architecture was supposed the symbolize a sun ray originating at the back of the temple. Our guide told us that eventually the temple will be cleaned to revive the vibrant colors painted on the columns and walls, like those we saw at Denderah.

Us at the entrance to the temple.
Us in the courtyard.
The inner temple (view from the courtyard).
Next to Horus at the entrance to the inner temple.
The series of doors and sloping floor and ceiling leading back to the "Holy of the Holy."
A reconstruction of the sacred boat that was used to carry a golden statue of Horus to an annual feast, sitting in the Holy of the Holy.

Poor Paul was sick again and spent the afternoon resting in bed as we sailed down the Nile. I checked in a few times during the day, and spent the rest of my time on the boat sundeck trying to catch up on writing about all the sites we have seen. It is quite overwhelming to think about all the amazing places we have visited! As I sat on the sundeck dreaming of beautiful ancient Egyptian temples, our Egyptologist Mohammed stopped by and told me I was lucky to have the chance to look out on the Nile and see the sandstone quarries where the ancient Egyptians harvested stones for all the impressive temples we have visited! And in front of the sandstone quarries were a series of shrines.
The sandstone quarries.
Shrines in front of the sandstone quarries.
Views from our boat - A fisherman on the Nile.
More views from the boat - A man tending to his animals.

In the afternoon, I stopped by the kitchen for a little cooking lesson. It was hard to understand our chef’s heavy accent, but he tried to teach us how to make okra, baba ganoush, and om ali – an amazing Egyptian desert that Paul and I had tried and loved during lunch at the Mena House. I have the recipes printed, although I doubt I’ll be able to recreate his culinary masterpieces. Learning was okay, but the taste test was the best part!
Our chef.


In the evening we visited Kom Ombo Temple. It was the second temple (after Luxor) that we were able to visit all lit up at night. It was beautiful! Kom Ombo is an unusual temple – it is actually two temples, dedicated to two gods: Horus and Sobek (the crocodile god). We learned that the Egyptians used to take the biggest crocodile from the Nile and keep him in a tank on Sobek’s side of Kom Ombo temple. The crocodile was thought of as the earthly representation of Sobek and when he died, the crocodile was mummified and given a king’s funeral. That explains the big mummified crocs we saw in the Egypt museum. Another interesting part of Kom Ombo was the temples large water tanks and water system. From a big tank we saw a long narrow drain pipe leading to an open pool. The Egyptians put linen on little notches every few feet in the drain pipe to purify the water before it reached the pool! And we looked at walls that were covered in hieroglyphics of recipes for anesthetics and instructions for surgeries. Those Egyptians were smart!
Kom Ombo lit up at night.

Beautiful scenes.

Back on the boat we dressed up in galabeyyas for a dinner of traditional Egyptian food . I have ordered lentil soup at almost every place we have visited, and the boat’s lentil soup was by far the best. I wish I got that recipe during the cooking lesson.

After dinner, we danced to traditional Egyptian music…and then the twist, YMCA, and Mambo #5…The crew pulled everyone out onto the floor. There was no sitting out. It was a lot of fun, and I could not stop laughing after one of the girls in my tour group whispered that we all looked like escaped mental patients dancing around in our galabeyyas! We definitely did (especially me in my all white galabeyya – not a good choice)!
Galabeyya Time!
Sameh dancing with me and Sarah, from our tour group.

Sameh (we all called him "Sammy") and I breaking it down. He was quite the dancer!