Sooooo, picking up at Edfu - -
Sailed from Esna in the morning and got to Edfu around 10:00 am and disembarked and visited the Temple of Horus. It was one of those beautiful, immense rectangular structures on the outside with huge carvings of what looked like ancient warriors and Gods. Inside was similar to other temples with carvings, cartouches and pillars. This one was dedicated to Horus so there were lots of falcon type carving and statues. It was beautiful.
Back on board ship for lunch and afternoon cruise to Kom Ombo. The food on the ship was quite good - but as usual more than you would eat at home…(you'll never go hungry on a Tauck trip…) Late afternoon we arrived at Kom Ombo and toured the temple there. Again the flashlight was helpful because we were there after sunset. The Kom Ombo temple was beautiful - two sided temple, one side dedicated to Horus (falcon) and the other to Sobek (crocodile) and this was the first time we had seen the crocodile diety. Really beautiful 3-D type carvings and a crocodile museum with crocodile mummies. The only down side was the time of day and lots of other tourists. They had spotlights from the ground shining directly up to light the temple and they practically blinded you so you could not see where to step…several people tripped (no one fell) and you felt a little uncertain walking after dark.
We were in Aswan overnight and the next morning took a short boat ferry type ride to the Temple of Isis at Philae. This temple had the giant carvings on the outside and some columns on the inside. This one had some really good carvings of Hathor - the woman with cows ears, and Isis. Interestingly, there was a Christian aspect to the temple with what looked like Knights Templar crosses carved into some of the pillars. Afterwards we visited the Aswan high dam and there was military security there given the importance of the structure to Egypt. Not knowing what to expect, I was a little underwhelmed…in my mind, I was thinking Hoover dam type structure and it wasn't like that at all. Interesting to see. A large lotus type structure signifying friendship with Russia was there and photogenic along with some gorgeous bougainvillea (flowering bushes). Fairly short stop. We returned to our ship and later that afternoon had a Felucca cruise - think small, flat sailboat. They served beer and wine and various munchies and we sailed around for 45 min-1 hour. It was amazing to see how the ship captain and crew steered the boats and how maneuverable they were. We had a Nubian crew and their spoken language is really interesting and my understanding is that they have no written language. I can't quite describe it, but it was more sounds than words - grunts, throat clearing, clicks…some things that sounded like they might be words…just interesting to observe.
The next morning we flew to Abu Simbel - again, not super early, bags and breakfast at 6:00, departed for airport at 7:00. We had a fairly short bus ride to the Temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari. They were magnificent. The huge colossi outside each temple and columns and carvings inside. The Ramesses temple had the classic BIG Ramesses and small females which the Nefertari temple had male and females roughly the same size, representing, we were told, the revere with which she was held. It was quite hot and we had what felt like a long history lecture, sitting on hard cement seats, by our Egyptologist before we were set free to go see the temples and then only had 1/2 hour to see both temples. It was good information, but at that point in the tour you kind of check out and stop listening…especially when its so hot and I would have liked more time and felt a bit rushed. I think they could have started some of the lecture on the bus on the way there and finished up once we got there and given us more time. Anyway, I felt like I basically ran thru the temples took pictures that I could look at later and didn't really have the chance to savor the experience. Then, it was still quite hot and we had to walk back to the bus up a somewhat steep paved path and then go thru an extended alleyway of vendors, who pressured you and harassed you all the way back to the bus. This was a detractor to me - I feel very uncomfortable in that situation. We went straight. back to the airport after the temples and flew to Cairo.
We checked into the St Regis hotel in Cairo, which was magnificent! Beautifully appointed rooms, wonderful breakfast buffet…many of the women ran straight to the jeweler and ordered cartouche necklaces with our names in hieroglyphs (yes….me included - its beautiful and a wonderful souvenir of the trip).
