Our last days in Upper Egypt

December 2, we docked in Edfu and took horse drawn carriages to the Temple of Horus. This is probably one of the best preserved temples in all of Egypt due to the fact that it was buried under sand for almost 2000 years! This temple was gorgeous and was my favorite temple by far. It was built here because it was in Edfu that Horus killed his uncle Set in revenge because Set killed Horus’ father, Osiris (it’s a complicated story…). The reliefs are still very visible and the roof is still intact over most of the temple.

After being taking back to our ship by the horse carriages, we headed to Kom Ombo. Here we went to the temple of the falcon god Horus the Elder (Horus’ uncle) and Sobek (the crocodile god). This temple was unique because everything was doubled: two entrances, two holy of holies, etc. During ancient times they kept a crocodile in the temple and fed it so it wouldn’t be hungry. When the crocodile died they mummified it and kept it in the temple (and it is still there). 

It was our last night on the ship so, of course, we had another party which consisted of Nubian dancers and singers performing for us. My mom and I kept getting volunteered to dance. Even though I have no rhythm, I still danced and had a great time.

December 2, we woke up early in Aswan and flew to Abu Simbel where saw the temple of Ramses II and the temple of Hathor that Ramses built for his wife, Nefertari. Again, we couldn’t take pictures inside…. Sorry! We were also only 100 km from Sudan. The Nile flows into Sudan and Lake Nasser boarders both countries. This is the closest I may ever get to the heart of Africa so I had to savor the moment and take a picture.

After touring around Abu Simbel we flew back to Aswan where we were taken on a quick tour of the city. We saw the High Dam and Unfinished Obelisk and then headed back to the airport to fly up north to Cairo.

We didn’t get to go back to the Mena House (which is too bad, I would have loved to see the pyramids again), but we stayed at the Nile Hilton instead which had our rooms overlooking the Nile.