kom ombo and edfu

I checked out of my hotel far too early and met my driver outside the hotel. The convoy starts at 8am, so we had to leave early. It was a really pretty ride about an hour long through various tiny Egyptian villages. It’s always amusing to see carts full of vegetables and the farmer sitting on top going along beside the cars on the main “highway”. You also see people walking and leading bulls or other animals. Considering the driving in Egypt I’m surprised any of these people survive lol. The Kom Ombo temple is a dual temple of both Horus and Sobek. In ancient times people would make pilgrimages to this temple to say overnight for healing. Well they don’t allow people to sleep overnight in the temple (and I doubt I would have had enough baksheesh to make it work anyways, so I only stayed there for 5 hours. Everyone else only stays an hour, then catches the next convoy either to Edfu or Aswan out of town. So I was fortunate enough to get the entire temple to myself for at least 3 hours. Well myself and a few annoying guards that were asking if I was married and trying to be my self appointed guide in exchange for money. The one guard told me he had a couple of wives and five children to feed. I was tempted to tell him it’s not my fault he didn’t use a condom (he had already been pestering me for hours at this point).Unfortunately most of the temples in Egypt are jam packed door to door with an insane amount of tourists in tour groups. It can get very annoying and take away from the experience of the temple, so to be able to go when there is no one else inside the temple is very nice. I had the guide give me the standard tour of the temple at first, which took about an hour (at most), but fortunately he did a very good job of it. I have to say it is quite awesome to have someone show you around the hieroglyphics and pictures in the temples and explain what each is about. On your own you can sort of guess, but still they do provide extra tidbits and lore that you may have missed, and that is not in the guidebooks.This particular temple had the new kingdom pillar tops which were both papyrus and lotus flowers combined, instead of just one or the other (so new kingdom). The hieroglyphics in this temple were outees, in otherwords they had to carve out the rest of the wall so that just the letters were left! Needless to say this particular temple took a few hundred years to build. The top half of the temple is missing in large areas due to damage and an earthquake. Even the 2 altars area heavily damaged due to the earthquake, Sobek’s more so then Horus’. Unfortunately more of the outer wall on the Horus side is damaged then the Sobek side, so you don’t get to learn as much about the offerings that are to be given to Horus. One of the neatest bits of the temple is the calendar for an entire year, complete with which offerings to give Horus and Sobek on each day. Along the outer wall you actually see pictures of penises with drops of sperm coming off of them to represent prosperity and life. Apparently the ancient Egyptians weren’t prudes. Since Horus and Sobek didn’t necessarily get along, the temple is divided into two exactly equal halves, with Ma’at watching over it to make sure all is just and fair. The halfway point is carved into the outer wall. In this particular temple Sobek has Hathor as a wife instead of Horus (who usually does), and apparently Sobek stole Hathor from Horus, so no wonder they don’t get along. One part of the temple is the Hathor chapel, which comes complete with the mummies of three crocodiles! They are all in glass cases. The ancient Egyptians used to mummify animals quite often, and for obvious reasons if you look at the Sobek temple example. In the Cairo museum every animal imaginable has been mummified. With all of those people who have their favourite pet stuffed after it dies, you would think some would prefer mummification *g*.Going around the temple taking photos, and meditating was extremely fun and relaxing (accept the when the annoying guard was pestering me). I saw on the Horus side more often, and was able to meditate off and on there for about an hour with no tourists, not too much guard interference and a decent amount of shade. Since the roof was missing in most places, the sun was quite bright and hot in the temple. In the afternoon when the sun had moved over to the other side of the sky a bit, I was able to get photos of the hieroglyphics on the other side of some of the walls.There was also a nilometer in the temple that was quite deep, and still to this day gets a little water from the nile in it. The temple is overlooking the nile (as most are). There is a mamassi, or birth house near the temple as well. This is standard for many of the Horus temples, an area that is said to be where Isis gives birth to Horus, often complete with inscriptions showing the details.One of the famous parts of this particular temple is the part where they show the ancient medical instruments, including those for mummification, birthing, and other medical practices. Some books say that they are more likely to be ancient ritual instruments, and not medical ones afterall. It’s difficult to tell, but I’m not sure how things like scissors and forceps would be part of a set of ritual tools.Off to the left is the ruins of the old temple. As with many of the temples now standing in Egypt, a newer temple was usually built on top of, or beside an old one. This was generally because the old one would be in too much disrepair or mostly covered in sand. It sure makes me wonder what the even older temples looked like. The ruins were interesting, and had a different style of hieroglyphics on them then I am used to seeing in other sites. I’m glad they have a habit of keeping every piece, since what can be inscribed into the ruins can be just as interesting as what is inside the temple.After I left the temple I went for a juice at the local cafe, an outdoor cafe with straw and reed roofing and walls, which were quite pretty. Unfortunately the fresh squeezed mango juice was a bit old. I was so hot and tired from a full day in the temple that I forgot to ask the price before I drank it, so when asking the guy quoted me $5 US. I looked at him like he had to be crazy, and he laughed and said “OK 6LE (US $1.25)” Perhaps they try their best to get one over on tourists who don’t know how much fresh squeezed mango juice goes for in Egypt. Even $1.25 is a little more then the usual going rate of $1 LOL.We left with the afternoon convoy into Edfu, and I checked into my hotel. According to all of the guide books there is only one hotel in Edfu, and according to most travel agents there aren’t any. So I stayed at the one. I would call it perhaps a 1 or 2 star hotel! The room was clean enough, and large, but the bathroom was scary, mostly due to the building being so old. There weren’t any insects in the room, and it smelled fine, so I stayed. The hotel manager is quite nice, and brought a huge plate of various fruit and some tea when I checked in. However with the manager if he ever gets you to sit down, an entire hour is usually gone talking with him, while he tries to fill you up with more tea and more fruit.Fortunately the hotel was able to supply me with a converter plug for my converter plug, since they have the older style, and my plug was for the newer style. The people at the travel store assured me I wouldn’t need the older style. Apparently they had never stayed in Edfu! It is a small farming town afterall, and needless to say there aren’t any internet cafes about. The manager is an extremely friendly person, and quite well known for this. He introduced me to his 3rd wife, since the other two had colds at the time. I also met a few of the other people in his family. Apparently he has 3 wives and FIFTEEN children!! I made a joke about how he’s nearly catching up with Ramses II, but I think it was lost in the language barrier.Now this hotel is famous for the large breakfasts... so when I got back from the Horus temple the next morning, I was brought a huge plate of fruit. I ate quite a bit of fruit and was disappointed that that’s all that there was, and I ate quite a bit so I wouldn’t be hungry until lunch. Oops, apparently that was just the breakfast appetizer ROFL. The actual breakfast came afterwards. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much breakfast in my life! The owner also likes to encourage you to eat more and more (I’m surprised his guests can fit through the door when they leave!) There was an egg dish much like a plain omelette that came in a heated cast iron pot, lots of bread, a huge plate of Egyptian cheese (much like feta) a bunch of buns and jam), fuul (fava beans), a tomato and cucumber salad and I forgot what else since I was so stuffed I couldn’t finish my 3rd serving, no matter how much the manger insisted LOL. I’ll be surprised if I’m hungry in time for dinner! Details on the temple of Edfu will be in the next post.