Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Sailing the Nile, 9 October 2018

Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Sailing the Nile, 9 October 2018

We arise around 6:00am, and after breakfast, we disembark at Kom Ombo on the east side of the Nile. As we ascend, we see the water line on the Li prat if they. Temple, and they had the dog out the temple. Here’s the found a New Kingdom temple, and a middle Kingdom temple, and there is still an engineering project and an archaeological Project going on. We can tell that the temple capitals we are see these are Greco-Roman era, with the ornate capitals. Kom in Arabic means mound, Ombo means gold, as  ancient Egyptians lived on mounds. This was the center of collecting gold from all over before distributing. This temple was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Animals were worshipped as gods, either because they were helpful like cows, or they were feared like cobras and crocodiles. This area had a lot of  crocodiles, thus Sobek. Here the Nile is about to make a big turn, and thus an island formed with still  water, an ideal location for crocodiles. Today there are no crocodile or hippos here because of the dam on the upper Nile.

There are two temples here, thus two protection symbols of the wings, solar disks, and cobras. One temple here is for Sobek a form of Seth, and the other for Horus. By having a “good” god Horus he balances out the “evil” god Sobek. The bird above the entry has some green, red, and blue on the wings above. Originally every inch of the temple was painted, and those that are below the lintel are better preserved. In the area it does not rain, but dust in the air covers the art. This temple was from about 200BC, as it was already sacred to other gods before. No mortar is used, nothing to stick the stones together, the stones are fit carefully together including the roof. With the Greek period they started to use joints and dovetail construction, mostly red granite for the double triangle dovetail pieces. Sometimes they used copper which could be melted and was flexible, but this was rare because of cost.

Tuthmosis III used the raised bas relief, Rameses does sunk relief which is quicker and less expensive thus allowing him to make more temples. Everything is doubled on each side of this temple. Discussing the unique style of perspective used in Egyptian art, it takes the front and the side together (Hassan does a cute demonstration of this). This was a way to show a third dimension, rather than showing things overlapping they would usually show up. Males were usually shown with feet farther apart than females, especially with kings. Often they show people with two right hands because it emphasizes the strength of the right arm. The particular way this is done shows the best side of each body part. On this particular bas relief, we see the king with Sobek in a textured kilt, with the goddesses in a diaphanous dress, a textured wig, with the navel showing and only one breast. Ancient Egyptians were all depicted as very slim with identical faces, while the Greeks showed a different more rounded profile (especially the belly) with actual features. Nekmet is the goddess from upper Egypt and Wadjet from lower Egypt, both are shown putting the crowns on the king in this coronation scene.

At another scene on the Horus side, we see something new in the Greco-Roman period. We see the king with the triad of gods, and now the queen is shown, never done before except Nefertari who was worshipped as a goddess. The name of this queen is in the cartouche, which is c-l-e-o-p-a-d-r-a the fourth, the great-grandmother of Cleopatra VII. The queen carries symbols for life and prosperity, and the gods have already given the life symbol offerings, so the god still holds the power and authority symbol. We discuss how to read hieroglyphs, which is that the animals, birds, and people are facing the direction from which the symbols are read, either left to right or right to left, or top down. If a king is talking to a god, their comments are facing each other.

We discuss the idea of a calendar, and how the ancient Egyptians were the first to divide the day into two 12-hour sections. The other thing that is Important is to know when the flood is coming, usually heralded by the appearance of Sirius the Dog Star. They have divided the year into 365 days of 12 months of 30 days each which an extra 5 days to celebrate the first five gods. The week was 10 days, three weeks in a month, and three seasons to the year. One season was the flood season, then the cultivation season, then the dry or harvest season. On the stone calendar each day is marked off as we mark off days on a paper calendar. We learn to decode the strokes of 1-9, with the horseshoe as 10, up to 29, then 30 is shown by the tail of an animal. For a new month it shows the day and the month and the season, this shows first dat of the third moth of the growing season.

We go to another area with a text part of which on the right that goes to the right, and the reverse, with  crocodile and falcon back the back to divide them. This shows the goddess giving birth to the king, then nursing him with eternity, then the cartouche of Ptolemy, and the other Horus side shows authority and life being given to the king. This area is divided exactly between the two gods; measurements show the areas are equal to within a millimeter. There are two sanctuaries, one for each god, with a secret access between the two sections to a crypt. This was also the safe deposit box of the temple, as it could be sealed up. This also held mummies of falcons. In the inner sanctuary the king could talk to the god as an oracle with the priest in the crypt below sounding like the god, in stereo, in a way the king would not have ever heard before.

At our last stop, we see ancient Egyptian medical instruments, with the high priest and doctor. The instruments are being offered today first go to someone to wash the instruments. On the table are scalpels, needles for stitching, a sponge, a swab, and the papyrus of the patient history, the medical record, and two cups for brain surgery. There is also a scale, tweezers, forceps, teeth cleaning instruments, clamps to hold aside tissues during surgery, and forceps for birthing.

We go to the a corridor behind the sanctuary where commoners were allowed, the area behind the sanctuary is indicated by the niche and two ears for the god to listen their their prayers, for wishes and confessions. From this we have the expression “even they walls have ears.”

We go by the dig area, which is excavating the spiral steps which go down to the bottom of the shaft, and thus to the Nile, unique to the temple of Sobek the crocodile. The shaft measured the level of the Nile and also allowed people access to the measuring marks. The higher the water level would usually meant higher tax because of a good harvest, unless it was too high and the crops were ruined. This gave the high priests the ability to levy taxes for their province.

At the end we go into the small museum and see a large number of mummified crocodiles, statues of Sobek and crocodiles, and crocodiles eggs which ere often used as offerings. The crocodile was linked to the pharaoh as a symbol of strength, as Sobek carried the body of Osiris after he was killed by Seth.

We return to the ship for cruising this morning to Edfu. We open the window in our room and the air outside is quite nice. We pass by scenes of palms and vegetation and birds along the shore that must look as it did thousands of years ago, with no buildings in sight. I’m catching up on the blog, lots of typos and phrases to correct. We see what is either a quarry or another archaeological dig along the shore, and even one camel resting by the water.

In the afternoon we head to the temple of Edfu. First we have a somewhat hair-raising ride to the temple in a two-person buggy. They go along at quite a clip through what seem like dozens of three-wheeled taxis, and the streets have no lines for lanes. Apparently after the Arab Spring, the horse and buggy drivers unionized to prevent taxis and busses from taking people to the temple. We go through was must be a rather low-income commercial area, filled with shops, cafes, stores, and apartments up above, and signs everywhere. Men outnumber women on the street about 50:1. We arrive to a rather elaborate parking area for the carriages where there must be 50 horses parked under shady canopies.

Edfu is a Greco-Roman temple, very well preserved, as it was covered by a mound. Once people converted to Christianity, this area was covered and a village was built here, perhaps 50 feet higher. Only the two towers stuck up, and in the 1860s the French architect Marietta came here to dig. This meant kicking people out of their homes, which was an odd concept for people here. They had to have a garrison from Cairo to protect the archaeologists.

This temple was dedicated to Horus, and the struggle of good and evil. Before 3,000 BC, a couple were appointed to the throne, a god called Osiris and the goddess Isis. Everyone liked them, Osiris taught agriculture and industry, how to make beer and wine, and everyone was happy. Everyone also loved Isis, goddess of love and beauty. Seth was jealous of his brother Osiris, who had married the prettier sister, Seth was married to Nepthys, and they had a rocky relationship. Seth decided to trick Osiris, announced he wanted peace, invited everyone to the party. At one point, Seth comes out with a coffin made of pure gold, which he offered to anyone who would fit into it exactly (like Cinderella and the shoe). Osiris tries it and it fits him perfectly, Seth shuts the coffin and carries it to the Nile. It floated to Syria and lodged inside a sycamore tree. Isis had not gone to the party because she did not believe Seth was really wanting peace, she had an intuition. When she gets the news, she follows the route of the coffin until she got to Syria, looking for the sycamore tree under which the coffin was lodged, but the tree had already been used for the roof of the new royal palace. Isis disguises herself as a maid, she saw a sick baby, the child of the king, she cures it, he king promises to reward her with anything. She asks for the tree, takes it back to Egypt, opens it, and takes out the body of her husband. She wanted him back to life for one time so she could have a son. She tries every spell she knows, but no success. Another goddess tells her that she is doing it the wrong way, instead of trying to bring him back to have sex, have sex to bring him back. Isis is trying with the dead body, no reaction, she continues to try but still no reaction. Then another goddess said, she was not doing it right, she should not be in human form but become a pigeon. She becomes a pigeon, he reacts and feels her and they have sex. Then he died again. Isis is pregnant, and carries the coffin with her everywhere, hiding from Seth. She gives birth to Horus in the marshes of the delta, always moving to hide. One night a messenger comes through ands tells her Seth is coming, she quickly takes Horus and leaves the mummy of Osiris behind. Then she had to leave the baby to go find her husband. This is when a cow, the goddess Hathor, comes to help, and nurses the baby. Isis did not get back to Horus for many years, during which time Hathor raised him. Horus thus had two mothers. Seth finds the body of Osiris, cuts him into 14 pieces which he buried all over Egypt, and piece number 14, the penis, was thrown in the Nile. A catfish swallows it. Isis goes on a long journey to collect the 13 pieces. The catfish did not want to give the piece back, they fight many times, at Esna where we go through the locks tonight Isis decided to bury him without the last piece, she crossed his arms and wrapped him in bandages to keep his pieces together. He is buried and become the god fo cultivation and of the underworld, thus his skin is black like the dirt or green like plants.

Horus grows up and is encouraged to get revenge for his father. This temple became the main site of worship of Horus. Finally Horus defeats Seth and becomes king of Egypt, and passes authority to human beings, thus the king represents Horus on the the earth, and when he dies he will become Osiris. In ancient Egyptian, there is no word for death, it is just a move from this world to the afterlife.
The towers here are massive. The king Ptolomy is holding vast numbers of people he is smiting. Next to this he is shown wearing the two crowns, the crowns are inherited, they are never buried with a king but were passed on. We see some windows up top, but there are also some windows randomly cut through these walls. Some people used the temples as a place to live, and made the windows for air. The tall grooves in the wall were for the flags of the triad of gods, and the fourth is for a visiting god, just like the two flagpoles on the White House. Flanking the entrance were a basalt sculpture of Horus with the two crowns, and a second one with the Emperor Trajan underneath. To the left of the entrance is part of the prehistoric dwelling here, prior to building, which has yielded some interesting discoveries.

Inside we can see how massive the wooden doors would have been perhaps 15 meters high. We pause at the start of the large courtyard, looking at the columns with some blank cartouches so they could be carved once they would know which king would be coming. These are still blank because no king came during this period. This 18-column hypostyle hall still retains some colors, and it is huge. Hassan tells us Karnak will have 134 such columns. A layer of soot remains on the ceiling from when persecuted Christians were living here. The higher level figures were defaced, as the lower figures were already covered by the mound. The hypostyle hall was called the hall of appearance by the Egyptians, where the god would appear once a year, carried on a special bar which carried the shrine inside. Once the doors opened up the priest would lean the statue forward as if it were leaning, people would kneel, and then the statue would disappear again. The statue was made of wood covered with gold so it could be moved. We enter the second hypostyle hall with 12 columns and a very dark, lower ceiling. We then enter the vestibule with the side chapels, and then the inner sanctuary with the pedestal, the shrine, the offering table, and the sacred boat. The shrine is only about 3 feet high, and the boat about 8’ long. The beautifully hand polished red granite shrine looks like metal rather than stone. They priest would enter burning incense to chase away bad spirits, break the seal on the double door, place it on the table, take off the god’s robe, anoints it with oils, then add a new robe, puts the offering on the table, goes away a while, takes the offerings to storage, returns the god to the shrine and locks and seals it, walking backwards as he exits, wiping his footsteps behind him for security. This was repeated it the evening but without changing the robe.

The Greco-Roman temples had only one main shrine with a corridor for offerings behind, rather than the triad of sanctuaries typical if Egyptian temples. Mariette had take the original boat, had a replica made, and replaced the real one which probably saved it from being stolen, although he kept the real one n his home until he died and it was discovered.

We go hit a side chapel for a talk with Hassan about Atun. In the beginning the Egyptians believed there was watery chaos, and the god Atun created himself, was bored, and created two couples earth Geb and sky Nut as one couple, and couple, She for air and Tefnout the lion goddess. Nut holds the earth with her feet and fingers even as Sho was trying to push her away from from GED. At dawn Nut gives birth to the sun disk, which appears east toward the sky, sunset is when she swallows the solar disk ,  it stays in he body, visibly passing through until is born again. They were part of the Nineth, the four first gods plus Osiris, Isis, Seth, And Nepthys and Horus.

We exit into the corridor which is quite large, enclosing the whole temple. We see both the scenes and the text, like theater, script and acting. The walls depict the titanic struggle of Horus and Seth, the endless struggle in different forms and shapes. These two gods could also change their forms; if Seth becomes a snake, Horus becomes a cat. If Seth flips up and becomes a crocodile, then Horus must become human and go on a boat, etc. when the struggle is over, the boat gains a sail, and Seth is the tiny hippo chained underneath to the boat. The symbol that looks like the Maltese cross is actually the determinative for the word town or city. We also see Horus standing on the bull Seth. Good is always up and human, evil is lower and an animal, like St. George and the dragon. Then we see the final scene of judgement, the high Priest reading their case, with the final decision to kill the pig (Seth) to be torn apart.

Together we trek back to the entry, find our horse and carriage for anther hair-raising trip back to the ship, and give the driver the pre-selected tip. We board and settle in, while the boat cruises to Luxor. Near the locks, almost everyone goes up on the top deck to see the locks in action, which seem similar to other river locks we’ve been through. The ship does indeed squeeze through very slowly with only a few inches to spare. In the night sky we can see Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as Venus has already set.