Cruising the Nile

Monday November 8 — We wake to a cool morning and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before taking a walk through the village and along the walls to the fort called Kab.  The fort was built circa 4000 BC to protect the village, the cemetery, temple and all the soldiers housed there.  The walls of the fort are protected so the villagers cannot build next to them.  The cemetery is not a royal one but it did hold the remains of the governor of the fort and nobles from the region. Thirty nine tombs were found here.

After lunch we stop again so we can ride our “chariot” to see the Temple of Edfu  which is dedicated to Horus, the god with the falcon head, and he is the son of Isis.  Pictures show the Pharoah smiting the enemies of God Horus while Horus’s mother and wife watching.

When excavation was done in 1880’s the town had already been built on top of the temple.  The sands of time had covered the temple up to near the top but the capitals and the upper hieroglyphs were visible and had been erased or written over with graffiti and in some instances used for  target practice.   This is one of the best preserved temples from the ancient world because of it location in Egypt.  People, flooding, invasions and weather is what ruins all temple but in this regions those effects are greatly reduced.

The sanctuary is surrounded by 11 rooms, a pillar courtyard and the walls are covered with detailed hieroglyphs.  This temple is from the 1st century BC.  Translated in 1931, the walls are covered with over 8000 different signs and symbols.  This is the first time a symbol for a chariot has been found.

The falcon statues are from modern times and were a gift from the French to Egypt.

When we stopped for the evening the crew prepared a barbecue dinner for us with ground lamb and skewered chicken and traditional side dishes, salads, soup and desert.  The dinner was set on the shore. We ended the evening (at least Ahmed, Josh and I) by smoking a hookah pipe.  Lots of laughter and jokes.