Our departure was delayed today due to weather. The heat wave broke, finally! However, it also triggered a sandstorm that interfered with sailing times. But, by the time breakfast was done, we were underway. I spent some time watching life on the river before we docked and left for Kom Omba.

Kom Ombo is a temple that was built in the 2nd century BC to honour the crocodile god Sobec and the falcon god Horus. This is the only temple in Egypt to be dedicated to two different gods. Crocodile mummies were found on site here.

Some of the symbols in the temples are starting to make sense to us. For example, the ankh and sceptre in the image below refers to temple priests who carry the secrets of divine creation (ankh) and the secrets of divine ruling and dominance (sceptre).

After lunch we set out for Edfu, another temple dedicated to Horace. This one was huge and well preserved. We have learned a great deal of Egyptian history by thinking about the eras in which the monuments we see were built. For example Edfu was built by Ptolemy dynasty, a group of Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from 305-30 BC. Cleopatra was the last ruler of this period. We arrived at the Edfu temple in style in a horse drawn buggy. The horse alternated trotting, running and dodging other vehicles/people in the streets. It was fun. Of course we took the same buggy back to our boat.

Like most temples, the decoration focused largely on the king’s victories in battle and mixed that in with tributes to the gods.

The God Horace is typically depicted in falcon form. We all agreed that Horace and Dale share the same frowny eyebrows.

Like all temples, there were large segments where only the priests were allowed. One of these spaces was the temple library where papyrus scrolls were kept. Jane found the library too tempting to miss.

The inner sanctums housed sacred items such as Barques. These ceremonial boats were used to celebrate the sun god in ceremonies and were paraded through the streets and sailed on the Nile during festival days.

We noticed the temple dogs at Edfu keeping watch as we departed. We returned to our boat for a relaxing evening. The food continues to be great.