The Temple of Edfu

The boat continued downstream during the night and we woke up the next morning at Edfu. Again it was an early start at 6:30 as we were to take a horse and carriage ride to the local temple.

We were all allocated to a certain carriage and off we set.

I got to sit up with the driver and even held the reins for a while.

Two members of our group who live in Durham NC. Probably three-quarters of the group live in the USA.

Your hero. It was a bit chilly in the early morning air.

The horse obviously knew where to go and trotted along quite happily.

Our horse, carriage and driver.

One of the Indian families in the group who live in New Jersey.

The temple which is dedicated to the god Horus.

One of the couples from South Africa, Bevan and Angie. It was Valentines day and they were celebrating their wedding anniversary. later that evening at dinner, they were presented with a heart shaped cake.

The walls surrounding the temple are made of mud brick. Some of them date from when the temple was built. This is another of the temples that survived by being buried by sand for centuries.

This temple was built for Horus.

At the time of being built it would have been painted and remains of the paint can be seen occasionally.

So here is Horus with a head like a falcon.

Michael points out some feature on a column.

Horus sports a snappy hat.

Painted ceiling.

This depicts the pouring of some sort of fertilizer.

The boat scene which can be seen in most temples.

A boat that can be carried on poles.

Painted feet on a ceiling.

The Kiwi and the Aussie who live in Darwin. The one on the right drives large trucks.

A beautiful blue sky, quite a change from the prior day's sandstorm.

You may have realized that all faces are shown in profile except for free-standing statues.

There were quite a few people. Imaging what it would have looked like back before the troubles when there were three times that number.

Mud brick.

Probably the quarry for the material to build the temple.

Two of Aussie girls from Melbourne who are teaching in London for a couple of years.

The main industry of the town appears to be the horse and carriage. There were hundreds of them.

Of course, you had to walk the gauntlet of touts.

Our journey back to the boat was much faster than the trip out to the temple. The driver wanted to get his next fare.