Edfu and Kom Ombu, December 8

We sailed all night and went through the locks north of Edfu and by morning we were safely docked on the West side of the Nile at Edfu.  We went by Calishe (horse drawn carriage) to the site at Edfu of the Temple dedicated to Horus.

This is the western docking facility.

 These are the capitals of the temple remains

 Affectionately known as Big Bird, this is the statue of Horus at the entrance to the temple.

 This is the center of the temple, the holiest of Holmes, the solar barque that is to transport souls to the other side.

 The center figure is the king, and to his left and right are guiding Hori!

This is a partial view of the mud brick wall that surrounds the Temple.  One of the reasons it survived is that the sand covered almost 2/3 of it and thus preserved it very well.

Back into the carriages and return to the boat.  We set sail again this time for Kom Ombu which we should reach by nightfall.

We were able to visit the engine room during the afternoon sail.  The engine dates back to 1882, London.  It was fascinating to see these engines in action.  They seemed to be such small pistons, it was hard to imagine that they produced enough power to the dual paddle wheels.

 These pistons had to be oiled every half hour.  There were drip trays that channeled the engine oil into a large vat.  I don't know if they reused the oil.  The guy in charge of the engine room had very little English and I think that he indicated that they go through a 50 gal drum every couple of trips.

 You can see the housing for the paddle wheel under the name "Sudan"

This temple is dedicated to the crocodile deity. In fact, there were 2 entrances, one for a good God, and one for an Evil God.

 If you notice here, the renderings of people are less linear, they have butts and bellies.  This is the Greek influence and that they scaling that was used to incise the figures had to be altered because of height limitations.

 The figure on the left is the crocodile God of the underworld.

 We know that the center figure is the pharaoh because of the cartouche that is above his head.

 This was an interesting piece because there are 2 women attending pharaoh before one of the Horus Gods.

These are recurring figures in this temple.

We went to the mummified Crocodile Museum after this.  What an interesting place.  Because the temple was dedicated to Sekmet, the crocodile God, they were required to keep a Nile crocodile on the premises.  After the croc died, it was mummified.

 The above photos are self-evident

This one needs some explaining.  Every guard wants some baksheesh (tip) for doing a little or a lit.  In this case, he posed us around the museum and this was the only shot in which you could see us!
Baksheesh does not guarantee quality.