November 15 - Catching Up..

I wasn't able to send anything from Aswan.  The guest house I was staying in did have internet, but it flckered in and out constantly, and I couldn't get it to hold long enough to send a post.  I am in Abu Simbel now, and the internet here seems to be quite good, so far. 

I went to Aswan from Luxor by road, something that can only be done by hired car - it needs permits and all sorts of military nonsense.  The government claims it is because of the Muslin Brotherhood, which is rubbish.  Actually, if the Muslin Brotherhood didn't exist the government would have had to invent it.

But it is an interesting drive.  There are several very interesting temples on the way down.  El Kab is quite obscure, and seldom visited.  It has several very old tombs cut into a hillside, but the light is too poor to get decent pictures, and flash is out, so I have no useful pictures of that.

We stopped at Kom Ombo.  This Temple was dedicated to the Crocodile god Sobek, and Horus.  It was a centre of healing and medicine in its day.

One of the newer temples, these massive columns show the Ptolemaic Macedonian influence - the tops of the pillars are more Greek than Egyptian.

These two pictures might interest Anne.. This illustrates a childbirth stool.

These are medical implements.  The round balls on the bottom left are cupping vessels, the spoon-like gadgets on the  right are curettage scrapers (ouch).  The bits and pieces above are various surgical tools - sorry the picture isn't better, the image was very high up on the wall.

On to Edfu.  This is supposed to be one of the best preserved Temples in the country, built by one of the Ptolemies , I'm not sure which one, the builders wen't sure either.  The place is full of blank cartouches - the Ptolemies bumped each other off so regulary, the sculptors left cartouches blank to fill the name of the current specimen when the work was finished.

Again Greek influence in the pillars.  The Ptolemies were very clever, they didn't try to supplant the ancient  Egyptian religion.  Rather, they insinuated themselves into, using the approval of the Egyptian Gods to validate their reign.  

My guide took me round the back of the sanctuary where there is a long, narrow corridor, and an odd tunnel arrangement that seems to go nowhere.  Well, guess what.  Speak into that tunnel, and your magnified voice booms eerily down the corridor, into the outer part of the Temple.  Very handy.

This is the Sanctaury - the solar boat is a replica, the French pinched the original.  Imagine standing there and hearing the booming voice of Horus or whoever was the god du jour.

Love this Horus - he has a wonderful sneer, and is possibly the only Horus in all of Egypt who still has his beak and crown and other bits intact.