Cruise

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Monday morning we visited the Edfu Temple, which was the most intact of all the sites we visited, but it was built by the Greek pharaohs just before the AD changeover. This temple retained its ceiling, although many of the carvings had been defaced by early Christian squatters. The ceiling was blackened from cook fire soot, but the lower levels were protected from layers of silt remaining from years of the Nile floods.

After sailing to Kom Ombo, we walked through the ruins of the Kom Ombo temple. The most interesting part of this site was a huge water well that was connected to the Nile. The level of the water inside the well determined the amount of taxes for a particular time of year: the higher the water, the higher the crop yield, the higher the taxes. In the evening, we donned traditional Egyptian tourist wear (Alex in a headscarf, Jenn in a belly dancing skirt) and went to a Galabia party. There was some confusion on Jenn’s part about when we were supposed to put on the costumes, and we were the only ones to wear them to dinner as well.

The next day in Aswan, we took a small motorboat to an island that housed the Temple of Philae. The entire temple had been relocated (thousands of pieces over several years) half a kilometer from its original location due to the construction of the High Dam. There are two dams in Aswan: the first built by the British and the second High Dam built because the first one was too small. You can drive across the tops of both of them. We stopped at the top of the High Dam to look out across Lake Nasser which extends to the border with Sudan. Finally, we went to a granite quarry to see the unfinished obelisk. Queen Hatshepsut had requested this obelisk to be placed at Karnak, and it would have been the tallest ever, except it cracked due to its own size. That was the end of our cruise.

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Comments

[Heather]

I really enjoyed your post about Edfu and Philae Island Temples, etc. Your cruises sounds like fun! I haven't been to Egypt yet but I hope to go soon. My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at [e-mail]. Continued fun on your travels! Heather

[Rhonda Orth]

egypt
Amazing pictures and adventures... although I noticed no pics of Jennifer in her belly dancing skirt.... ??? :)