Day off! So we took a trip to Edfu and Kom Ombo. Here is the first pylon of beautiful Edfu Temple, built in the Ptolemaic period (begun ca. 237 B.C.), with a huge court before it. |
In the first court of the temple, Betsy explains the rather famous reliefs showing the boats of Hathor of Dendera and Horus of Edfu as they travel together for a ritual visit in the west. |
A great group picture with the god of the temple – Horus Behdet. From left to right: Yasmin, Max, Fatma, Betsy, Peter, Scott, Adam, and Heather. |
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Heather taking digital pictures with her very impressive camera almost stepped on Betsy as she emerged form the Edfu temple library – or Per-medja. |
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In the second hypostyle hall are beautifully preserved reliefs showing the foundation ceremony for the temple, as Betsy and Peter observe. |
In the ambulatory, Adam and Peter take their photographs of the mythological reliefs showing Horus Behdet defeating the enemies of the sun god (Seth) in the form of a hippo. |
Instead of reading the overwhelming texts on the walls of the temple, Scott, Fatma, Heather, and Yasmin read the names of Herve and Olivier (recently in the temple it would seem) written in glyphs. |
Later in the day we arrive at Kom Ombo, a Ptolemaic and Roman period temple, south of Edfu. Dedicated to two gods, Sobek (the crocodile) and Horus the elder, the temple has an unusual architectural form that offers two processional axes – one for each deity. |
Inside the temple, Scott and Fatma look at the reliefs together. |
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A lovely setting for enjoying the lunch Ahmed Suleiman (our long-time friend you remember from other years) purchased for us Edfu, is provided next to the Kom Ombo temple. As usual, however, Peter cannot keep himself from silly faces and chomping teeth. For Heather, we include here one of the cute kittens she spent most of the lunch break photographing. A super day altogether. |