Day 13. Thu 25th September
Edfu and Kom Ombo
So much for being a relaxing week - this morning we are up at six o'clock
to visit the temple at Edfu, which is much newer than the others we have
seen, having been started by Ptolemy III in about 237 BC and completed
by Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's father, around 57 BC. The temple is dedicated
to Horus, the falcon god, who's statue guards the main entrance. It is
also the place where the god Seth, the bad guy of Egyptian mythology, cut
Osiris up into thirteen pieces, and fed his penis to a crocodile. The building
was entirely buried until the 1860s when it was excavated by August Mariette.
We return to the Doma for breakfast, and continue sailing south, relaxing
and playing scrabble until lunch, after which I reopen my school of backgammon.
About two o'clock we spy a fleet of feluccas approaching from the south
and wave madly on the assumption that it is the rest of the group on their
return journey. We receive very little response, a reaction which is explained
when another group of feluccas is spied beached on the west bank which
is, indeed, our other half. The first flotilla are presumably still wondering
who those mad people on the cruise ship were. We get a wave from Nigel
and the Annes, but they are too far away for any real communication, and
are soon lost astern.
We spend an hour looking round the temple of Kom Ombo, which also dates
to the Ptolomaic period. The temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile
god, and to Horus.
There is a thriving market outside the entrance to the temple, even boasting
a "snake charmer". He allows us to take his photograph for the usual baksheesh,
although we are not totally happy that the snake is being treated humanely.
