The cruise boat started moving around 5am this morning.. not that I noticed-I slept right through it all. When we woke up to get ready for the day and have breakfast on board before our first outing, I was impressed with the views out of our big picture window in the room. It was stunning!
We had breakfast while the boat was in motion, and before we were finished, we were already docking. They really have this all down to a science. We met Osama in the lobby at 8am and headed off to Kom Ombo Temple. There’s something about walking up some stairs and then being blindsided by the raw beauty standing in front of you. Pillars and stone built so high, it’s still completely unimaginable that this was created more than 2000 years ago! Just-insane.
The temple was built to honor two gods: the crocodile god, Sobek, and the falcon-headed god, Horus. We learned about Isis, goddess of magic and healing when we went to Philae Temple, Horus is her son. Anywho-since the temple was built for both, it has a double entrance. The scenes carved into the stone were beautiful, and even a little risqué. There is a scene with penises peeing-symbolizing their owners were scared in a battle and wet themselves.. ha. I’m sure I just butchered that story-but either way-they carved a small scene with a couple penises on it and I act like a 12 year old boy and find it funny. Real mature, amiright?
Osama walked us through the crowds and was able to show us so much and explain the scenes laid out in front of us. He pointed out the ways the high priests could sneak through the secret passageways and be the “voice of the gods” by hearing the person’s prayers in one area and sneaking around to be the voice somewhere else entirely, to sometimes deceive people into doing things that benefited the priest. Meh, I’m tired-so I’m not sure if that makes sense. Basically, the priests could be sneaky as hell, even back then.
We saw the scenes including the crocodiles, too. Apparently, someone would pick the “special” crocodile to keep and praise for the crocodile king, feeding it and all that, after sterilizing it. When it died they picked a new one. Crocodiles were mummified and buried with or around important people that passed away, too. Kinda crazy! Imagine walking inside to pray and coming face to face with a croc! Just kidding, they kept them in a special place, and they were all over the Nile River in this area, too.
They would still be all along the river now, too, if they weren’t relocated into Lake Nassar when the high dam was built. Now, it’s thought that more than 80 thousand crocs are in those waters, the lake created from the dam-and you’d never know it by looking at the lake itself-it looked like Lake Tahoe when we saw it yesterday from Abu Simbel. It’s wild out here.
When we left the temple we walked right into the Crocodile Museum. There were tons of mummified crocs on display, along with statues created to honor Sobek, the crocodile king. I really enjoyed this small, one room museum. It was loaded with information and really neat trinkets, carvings, and statues. It also had air conditioning-so a big win there.
We got back to the boat before ten, and hung out in the little bar area watching the river excitement until lunch time. I’m not sure when we started moving again, but it was probably before 11am. We sipped Cokes and waters while watching other boats go by, along the shores of the Nile with their farmlands, cows, and donkeys.
We were all pretty exhausted. It’s been go, go, go this entire trip so far, and very early mornings-which is completely necessary with this heat. We got to talking and decided to ask if we could stay on the boat this afternoon so we could relax and swim at the pool on the top deck-instead of going to see Edfu Temple. It was going to be so hot. Our guides agreed, and so we ended up having the rest of the day free.
We ate lunch and then quickly changed into our bathing suits to lounge around pool. We swam some and laid in the sun-it was a little awkward, because we were docked. One side had the town and the other side had another boat tied to us. We got some stares, from both sides, for sure.
When it got a little too hot and my skin stared getting red, we moseyed inside. We napped and I read some. Just before 5pm I met Terri on the upper deck to watch the sunset. Andrea joined us. Mom kept napping. The rooms are so perfectly cold that it’s hard to get back into the heat after you’re comfortable.
The sunset was phenomenal. The way the orange glow turns to pink and then purple that always makes me smile. It’s hard to be anything but grateful when you’re in that moment. I’m still in awe of everything here. The people, the river, the infrastructure. Old homes right next to even older ancient structures. It’s everything I thought it would be, and then like nothing I could have ever imagined all at the same time.
We had dinner together before heading back to shower and get into bed. I’m really bad about falling asleep the second I lay down these days. With all of the excitement all day long, once my head hits these pillows it’s like the light switch was flipped and I’m comatose before I even realize I closed my eyes. A great sign of another perfect day.
Organized religion even back then 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻