Miss Slayton in Egypt

Yesterday we left Luxor and started to head to Aswan. It took six hours with a stop off in Edfu.

The temple of Edfu is another Greek built temple during the Ptolemaic kingdom of ancient Egypt. The temple was dedicated to the god Horus, who just happens to be the goddess Hathor’s husband (temple of Dendera).

The temple is know throughout Egypt as being the most intact temple. The structure, including the facade walls were covered in sand, hidden from the world. The sand actually helped the preservation of the reliefs and outer walls of the temple. The reliefs inside didn’t hold their colors as well as at Dendera, but the actual reliefs were better preserved. At most of the temples throughout Egypt some of the gods and pharaohs faces would be smashed off by the Christians and Muslim people because these gods were seen as false.

Outside on a wall is a wonderfully preserved battle relief of Horus battling his uncle, the god Set. Horus is the son of Osiris and Isis, Set is the brother of Osiris. Osiris and Set had a very interesting brother relationship, which resulted in Set trying to kill Osiris twice and being brought back to life by his Isis. This battle scene shows Osiris’ son, Horus defeating the god Set in his evil hippopotamus form. The hippo is defeated, but not before taking one of Horus’ eyes, which becomes know as the Egyptian wadjat eye, which is a symbol of protection.

After we left the temple we drove for a couple more hours then reached our new destination of Aswan.

This morning we had a 4 AM wake up time to drive to Abu Simbel. That post will come later tonight.

Tomorrow we visit the temple to Isis on the island Philae. It’s also our last day in Aswan. We have a flight tomorrow evening that will take us to the opposite end of Egypt, back to lower Egypt, with our last stop in Alexandria.