CC Travel Blog

Finally we rested on River Nile, this peaceful comfortable river cruise, which is the best part of touring Egypt as far as I remembered.

On a cruise, time seemed to slip out of hand and travelled fast. Our schedule became irregular. At 6am, we had a morning call for breakfast, after slushing down a big red pepper omelette and a few kinds of French bakery, our sail stopped at Edfu and it was time for us to check out the Temple of Horus. Horus, means the god of the falcon.

By the time we got off the ship, there were a lot of horse carriages waiting on the pier for customers. We negotiated a rate of 25 EP roundtrip. The temple isn’t far from the docking station, but we wouldn’t know the direction to the temple.

Before arriving at the temple, we passed two ruins with only deserted piles of mud, sand and stones. So it hit me that Egypt is full of temples and ruins, it’s just a matter of which ones were well preserved enough to get tourist attentions and the admission money.

Temple of Horus looked really grand when we arrived.

The temple was very well preserved indeed in most parts, although we did see some birds living on the holes from the walls and roofs that had gone molded in dark. Built in 5200BC, it took 200 years to complete and it replicates the old pharaohs’ time architecture style as well as the Roman’s.

Most of the reliefs had fainted in color, but the carvings and lines were very vivid to tell stories of the god and the temple. The temple also has a lot of small rooms on the side of the inner hall and the outer hall has a lot of huge columns. Every piece of the walls, columns was carved with beautiful figures in almost identical shape.

It took us an hour to walk around it and get ourselves oriented, no wonder this temple is the second largest temple in ancient Egypt. We were at awe most of the time seeing reliefs covering the entire wall or a room, feeling the power and urge of the ancient Egyptians dying to tell their stories.

This is the wooden barque where Horus god statue was carried outside of the temple for festivals in ancient times.

And among various figures on the walls, we found the falcon god, the triumphant warrior who defeated Seth.

Everything in the temple is telling a story, from a long lived brass bell to the quiet walls in which birds inhabited.

On our way back to the ship, we passed a small local market. There wasn’t much to see but I was attracted to the people.

Locals buying food from a small food store.

This should be enough to feed the family of our carriage driver (yup, he stopped on the way to get his bread while he was still doing business with us.)

Even a fire fighter wanted to get into the picture.

Local spices.

This is how men hang out in Egypt, in a cafe and smoke some pipes.

Back onto the ship and we spent the afternoon admiring the beauty of River Nile. With water surrounding us, I was reminded that Egypt was once a fertile land with great agricultural significance.

Lunch was delicious spaghetti dish and tea time served cake and tea. The ship docked again and Kom Ombo was right off the river shore.

Looking from the ship, Kom Ombo was a torn down temple. The walls surrounding the temple were all borken down and a lot of reliefs on the walls were ripped off.

Everything doubles and in symmertircal order, Kom Ombo is the temple for the crocodile god as well as the god of birds.

There are seven rooms at the back and most of the wall carvings were intact.

The crocodile god.

Making offers to the god.

At 5pm, the sun started to set. When the gentle sun light shrone onto Kom Ombo, the structure turned pink. Watching the sun set at River Nile, it was a beautiful moment.

The day was almost perfect except the mediocre oriental dinner buffet which was basically a combination of the past few meals left over. I managed to take up a couple bowls of the lentil soup which tasted like the French fish soup but only less fishy. Despite the food, the tranquility of Nile, the beautiful temples and the friendly people made a deep impression on my travel journal.