Wednesday, March 20th, 2019
We are at the city of Edfu which is located on the west side of the Nile. This morning we took a horse and carriage ride to visit the Temple of Horus. The pictures below show a small view of the city on our way to the temple.
The Temple of Horus is one of the best preserved ancient monuments that we visited because when pagan cult was banned it was filled by desert sand which protected much of the temple. This temple is dedicated to Horus who was the son of Isis and Osiris.
As we traveled along the Nile we saw factories and a lot of air pollution and we also worried about what was being spilled into the river.
We are sailing on the Nile and passed through the Esna Lock system.
The Edna Lock system.
As we sailed along, these rowboats would come up to the riverboats and try to sell their wares, clothing, etc… They would toss it up to the top deck where passengers would be standing and hope that the passengers would toss down money in the bags. It was something to see!
This evening we visited the Luxor Temple. The traffic in the town of Luxor, was really heavy and of course there was a roundabout.
Luxor Temple was beautiful as we explored it this evening. In front of the temple is the beginning of the Avenue of Sphinxes which were difficult to see because of darkness. The Avenue of Sphinxes once ran all the way from Luxor to the temples at Karnak, a little under two miles.
Luxor Temple
Below are different areas of the temple, from the Great Court of Ramses II, the Colonnade of Amenhotep III, the Sun Court of Amenhotep III, the Hypostyle Hall, Chamber of Amun, and the Barque Shrine of Amun.
After our tour of the Luxor Temple we stopped at a Papyrus store where they gave us a demonstration on how papyrus paper is made.
After our visit to the papyrus store we went back to our riverboat for the evening.
