Sightseeing and some much needed downtime

Tuesday: December 7, 2010

Today was a pretty quiet day on the Egypt Mini Term. We started out bright and early and left the cruise ship to visit Edfu Temple.

Edfu Temple is a perfect temple in that most of the stones of the temple are in their original positions. It was buried under sand and there was a village on top of the sand-covered temple. This was important because the sand protected the temple from vandals. It was found at the beginning of the 1800s and a man named Gardner spent more than 40 years writing down all the hieroglyphics on the walls of the temple in order to publish them for everybody to see. 

The temple was called the library (biblioteca) and there are many depictions of Horus the Falcon vs. Uncle Set. The temple was converted into a church after it was found, which further protected the temple from ruin. However, the church often lit fires inside, ruing some of the ceilings due to the black soot from the smoke.

The first sight we saw at the complex was a birth house that had carvings of child feeding and of the mother. This was in front of the open-air area of the temple. Behind this open-aired area was a closed area of the temple.

The temple is for King Tolemay XII, the last Greek king of Egypt. There are many stories chiseled into the stones and many cartushes were left empty to not make any king upset since the temple could have been ruined by the other kings. There were many details in the stories here because it was like a Greek temple. There was a temple here before and Tolemay rebuilt it. There is also a replica of the Holy Arc. They also thought that the Goddess Nuse came everyday and ate the Sun since they didn’t understand what happened to the Sun at night.

The details of this temple were amazing and there were many original colors still painted onto the stones. Some people felt like they were in Greece because of the heavy use of Greek design and architecture in the temple complex.

After visiting Edfu Temple, we took a bus back the cruise ship where we had breakfast. I was very happy that we got back for breakfast because the cruise dining hall has an egg station. Even though I am somewhat picky about my eggs, I was very happy to get a cheese omelet! After a few days of little rest, it was nice to be able to relax on the cruise ship, get some sun, and read on the sundeck. As the ship moved, I was able to watch the landscape of the area change from farm to mountain to farm. We also passed through a lock to lower the ship 7 meters, another form of infrastructure that I have been able to relate to.

That evening we had an early dinner and I ate some chicken. Afterwards, we had a little party of our own on the fourth floor. Zach, our tour guide, organized a bunch of games for us (such as hot potato, spoons, and a dance off). It didn’t feel like a party back at Union, but it was fun nonetheless. The party was called a “Gilabowa Party” because we were encouraged to wear the dresses of the same name. A bunch of people purchased these colorful Egyptian dresses and Professor Ghaly wore his own. By the end of the night, I was pretty tired and started to fall asleep in the party room haha. During this time, our ship had reached its destination: Luxor.

Once again, no rest for the weary! My trip around Egypt continues bright and early tomorrow for a trip to two temples: Abydos and Dandara. Abydos is apparently a little over 2 hours away from Luxor. Talk to you soon!

Quick Question:

How could someone become a priest? Actually, you couldn’t become a priest; it was passed down from generation to generation since they had to protect many secrets.