We drove for three hours to reach Abydos, which is a temple dedicated to many gods, as opposed to just one god. The temple was built by Seti I and Ramses II, and dates back 3,200 years. Even though it’s not dedicated to specifically one god it does feature a lot of relief work dedicated to the god Osiris. Behind the temple is the sacred site called the Osireion, which is where Egyptian speculated Osiris was buried for his eternal life.
The color preservation at this site was incredible. So many reliefs had their original colors.
After there we went to the temp of Dendera.
This Temple was built by the Greeks during the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt. It was built to honor the goddess Hathor. We were in shock at how well preserved the temple was. We got to go down inside a tomb which Cleopatra had gifted a necklace to the goddess. The tomb was very narrow and dark, yet the reliefs were beautifully preserved. The temple actually is home to the only know relief of Cleopatra, the last queen of ancient Egypt. It also is kown for it’s depiction of the zodiac. There is a split zodiac on the roof of the hypostyle hall, and another in the small temple on the roof. The depiction of the zodiac on the roof is now located in Paris and the zodiac is a replica. The color and preservation of the split zodiac on the first floor is breathe taking. It also shows the goddess Nut swallowing the sun and giving birth to the sun and shinning rays into Hathor.
Today we spent over 6 hours in a car driving from Luxor to Aswan. We took a stop off at Edfu Temple. That will be my next post.
Miss Slayton in Egypt 
That is a lot of driving! How have the reliefs stayed so well preserved? Looking forward to reading about the Edfu Temple.
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A lot of the temples get covered in sand. The sand acts as protection against the elements until people discover them hidden underneath. That’s the whole other mind blowing part of this. Also this ones so far out that not a lot of people actually live near it, so no one really caused any damage to it.
So much driving. Driving in Egypt is quite the experience. They don’t do driving in lanes and honk the entire time.
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The zodiac roof is beautiful!
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That was my favorite part! It’s so amazing and all the signs we still use are present on it. I could not get over how blue the color was.
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