Quite an experience to get up at 2:30, carry breakfast from cruiseship and out to a checkpoint at 3 am and finally out of Aswan towards Abu Simbel (along with fleet of tourist vehicles + military convoys)! Reached the temples around 7:30 am.
Brief story behind Abu Simbel Temples:
Both temples at this place were built by the great King Ramases II; one for himself and one for his most beautiful wife NeferTari (Nefer means beauty). He had > 50 wives and > 200 kids; but she was indeed special and most dear to his heart. The bigger of the 2 temples is dedicated to the king himself. One interesting thing I commonly observed was that all the Egyptian kings liked to please various Gods and Goddesses by offering them lots of stuff ranging from food/clothes/incense/wine and other drinks etc. all in all to get their blessings. They almost always got blessings from both good(kind) gods(like Osiris/Horus) and evil gods (like Seth) to make sure everyone was pleased with them.
Ramases II was a big narcissist too and had most of the statues self-dedicated. Sometimes posing similar to God Osiris or sometimes acting as one of the Gods himself!
The smaller temple is supposed to be built for Nefertari; but 4/6 statues at its facade belong to Ramases II and only 2 for Nefertari. Inside the temple lots of them featuring her in the form of goddess Hathor(like a cow with horns and sun disk in the middle). Also shown are paintings and carvings of the queen seeking blessings of gods and goddesses inside the temple.
For more details see this wiki.
We zoomed back to the cruise ship (only briefly waiting at a Egyptian cotton store 'Kardish' for some souvenirs) by 1 pm. The ship set sail by 2 pm finally. Met with a couple from Mauritius and one from Germany who shared the table inside restaurant with us. Post lunch enjoyed the sun deck of the cruise, followed by tea+cake around tea time and got ready for the next half of adventure for today: Temples of Kom-Ombo.
Brief story behind Kom Ombo Temples:
Kom Ombo (the hill of gold) is famous for 2 temples (One for Horus, Phoenix god) and one for Sobek(crocodile god). In the past gold was found/mined in Aswan, which came floating via Nile to Kom Ombo and was later used to export via Mediterranean sea to the Red sea and countries beyond. Hence the name. These temples were built by both Greeks (inside construction), and Romans (outside construction). Among the most noteworthy paintings we saw:
- The very first (and the only one evidence of a) calendar and counting system (we are talking of 1200 BC here): It also comprised of 360 days in total to work + 5 holy days (each one for 1 god/goddess including Osiris, Isis, Seth, Neftis, Horus).
- A dedication by roman king Trajan to the famous architect IMHotep (who built the very first 'step' pyramid at Sakkara): This displays various surgical instruments including those for birthing chairs, enema, scalpel, knives etc
- A secret passage for the high priest to go in/out of the temples. The priest used to sit (see the picture) in an enclosed room (where no one but the high priest was allowed access) and make noises (to make common people believe that the 2 gods Horus and Sobek are talking angrily and people would bring in more offerings to appease the gods (ultimately the high priest)). How intelligent!
- Cleopatra XII's bath house
- A 'Key of life' shaped Nilometer
- King Ptolemy and his offerings to both gods and their blessings to the king.
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