Egypt Trip (Episode 6)

Day 6 Edfu & Kom Ombo (10 Nov 2010)
Temple of Edfu
We took a ride on horse drawn carriage from the dock to Temple of Edfu. Though the cost is included in the tour, but tour guide said it is a custom to pay them LE5 as tips wo..

This temple is the second largest temple after Temple of Karnak, it is dedicated to the falcon God, Horus. The walls on this temple contain inscriptions that give details of religion and language during the Greco-Roman Period in Ancient Egypt, as well as showing battle scenes in perfect clarity.

It is said that every year the Goddess Hathor travelled from her temple to visit the God Horus at Edfu Temple. As husband and wife, they only get to see each other for 13 days in a year.

It also depicts the love story between Isis and Orisis where the brother of Orisis tricks him into a coffin and throws him into the river Nile. Then Isis susah payah search for his body parts and raise him from the dead and make herself conceived. Of course the story ends with her son grows up to take revenge from the wicked uncle.

Some of the kartush on the wall is left empty, because the kings keep changing over the 180 years to build the temple, they don’t know whose name to carve. Kartush is a name tag for the Egytian King, they all look ideal and perfect in the drawing, the only way to differentiate them is to refer to their kartush.

There is a small passage to access the Nile river in the temple, they calls it the Nilometer. The king will determine the taxes to collect from the people based on the water level.

Isis brings us to a shop she claims to have a lot of variety with reasonable price to force us buy the Galabia (traditional costume) for the theme party the next day. All of us bodoh-bodoh go in and choose without realizing all the other shops are selling at the same price, with more variety!

Temple of Kom-Ombo
We walk to the Temple of Kom-Ombo, which was dedicated to the falcon and crocodile god. It is said that a yong boy was eaten by crocodile, so the people decided to build a temple for the crocodile god, but they think it is not good to build a temple for crocodile god, so they balance up with another falcon god. That is how it become a double temple (normally temples are only dedicated to one single god).

Some famous drawings on the wall include the ancient calendar, where they have 24 hours a day, 30 days a month and 3 seasons a year. Another drawing shows a women sitting on a birthing chair, with various medical instruments depicted. So canggih!! We have not even thought of birthing chair with all the modern technologies.

Tour guide teaches us how to differentiate the drawing between ancient Egyptian time and Greco Roman time: 1) the Greco Roman pays attention on the details, even crease at the knee and tummy can be seen 2) Kartush are written in alphabet, not symbol .

Too bad the Crocodile Museum are not ready, if not we can see mummified crocodiles. Crocodiles also they mummified? Yes.. indeed later on we found that they mummified everything, animals, fruits, seeds, all the things they need in the afterlife.

So called Galabia Theme Party on the cruise..