Kom Ombo and Edfu

Kom Ombo and Edfu - such unique names are definitely worth titling a post after. What are they, you ask? They are two small villages on the Nile, both with ancient temples named for the towns that are home to them. After seeing the sites in Aswan, we arranged for an air-conditioned mini-van to take us to Luxor, but along the way we stopped at these two temples. We took turns braving the fierce heat to see them, while one of us stayed with the kids in the cool air.

First, we entered the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was much more complete than the ruins on Elephantine Island, and more like the Temple of Philae (and in fact was built around the same time period as Philae). It was built during the reign of several Ptolemies, from about 180 BCE onward.


For some perspective, there is little me in front of the temple.


Josh can barely contain his excitement.


According to Wikipedia, the temple was dedicated to Horus the Elder (the falcon god) and Sobek (the crocodile god), pictured on the wall of the temple. Living on the Nile placed the Egyptians in a special relationship with the crocodile. Several mummified crocodiles have been found in catacombs near the temple here.


Sobek the crocodile god, god of fertility and co-creator of the world, is pictured again.


One of the most exciting parts of viewing the temples is that everything is available to all of your senses - including touch.


From wall to wall and column to ceiling, the surfaces are filled with hieroglyphs!


Josh and Bud in Kom Ombo.


Bud and Ashley


Ashley surrounded by messages from the past.


Our next stop was Edfu, a humongous temple second in size only to the Temple of Karnak in Luxor (which we will come to later!) and one of the best preserved in Egypt. It was built between 237 abnd 57 BCE. The inscriptions on the temple walls give information regarding its construction, creation myths, and the conflicts of Horus and Seth.

The most important myth for the ancient Egyptians of the New Kingdom (generally referred to as 1550 to 1069 BCE, its most prosperous time) is the myth of Isis and Osiris, also involving Horus and Seth. Images and text from this myth are everywhere in ancient Egypt. As expected, there are many variations of this myth, but one of them goes as follows: Osiris was a ruler of Egypt married to Isis, goddess of motherhood, fertility and magic. However, Osiris' older brother Seth was so jealous of him that he plotted his death, creating a human-shaped coffin fitted perfectly to Osiris. At a party, Seth had everyone "try on" the coffin, and when his brother's turn came, he slammed the lid shut and threw the coffin in the Nile. Isis searched for her beloved husband, and, finally finding it, she left it by a tree. Seth appeared once more and dismembered Osiris' body into 14 parts, scattering them throughout Egypt. Isis again searched long and far for her husband's body parts. She found 13 of the pieces, missing only the crucial one. So, she simply fashioned a phallus out of gold, revived her husband, and conceived a son. Osiris, now dead-but-alive, became the Lord of the Dead, and their son Horus became Seth's perpetual enemy.

This myth became part of the cycle of death and rebirth, central to an agriculture-based society. Interestingly, the same idea was expressed in Greece with the cycle of death and rebirth of Demeter at about the same time. Also fascinating is the many striking similarities between Isis and her magically-conceived son and the Virgin Mary and her immaculately conceived son. Isis was often depicted in art nursing her son.

Josh and I at the first entrance to Edfu.

Bud and Misha at the first entrance.


Josh and I before the main gate to Edfu. To appreciate the enormous size of the human forms depicted on the wall, take a look at Misha below:


Tiny Misha looking up at a great figure.



Josh, Bud, and Misha stand below the gods. To the right, notice the bird statue. Now compare it with Misha below:

The inner courtyard.



I love the pillars.


Misha wandering through doorways. The temple was huge and fantastic for exploring. The doorways and narrow hallways went on and on, leading to small rooms, big rooms, or even more stairs and corridors. Better than Hogwarts! Misha loved investigating.


Endless hieroglyphs.




Off to explore inside! As you can see, we got to enjoy the temple without the crowds.


Josh and Bud enjoy their vacation.


Josh in an engraved hallway. The stairs wind around and around and up and up, where you can peek out of a gated doorway way up high.


Admiring the artwork.


Maybe he's decoding? This looks like a scene from one of the Mummy movies, when their young son is deciphering the hieroglyphs. (By the way, we just showed the first Mummy movie to Misha, and he loved it. He was excited to see the pyramids in the opening of the movie and he can't wait to watch the remaining Mummy installments!)


Josh in front of a beautifully engraved scene.

Down to Upper Egypt

When we stepped off the sleeper train in Aswan, even though it was 9 in the morning, we experienced the relentless dry heat of Upper Egypt - reminiscent of Saudi Arabia. (Even though we were in southern Egypt, it is called Upper Egypt because it is actually higher ground than the North.) Summer is off-season for tourists in Egypt, and we could see why. However, there are significant perks to touring in the summer. First, you don't have to share the sites with crowds of people. Often, we were the only people wandering around inside a temple, as if we were the first explorers to come across it. Second, summer rates are far cheaper. We were told that hotels, taxis, and entrance fees all triple during the cooler months for tourist season.

While the Cairo area is famed for its pyramids, it is the South that is home to the ancient Egyptian temples, with their regal columns, towering statues, and walls covered from corner to corner with enigmatic hieroglyphs. History class in school is not fondly remembered by most people, due to boring textbooks that boil down history to a flat, featureless canvas of names and dates. However, almost everyone has positive memories of learning about the ancient Egyptians - the mummy-making process, the huge pyramids, the mysterious symbols of their writing system. Not even the most boring history class can succeed in making the ancient Egyptians just another page in a textbook.

Due to the extreme heat, we took it slow and alternated seeing sites to spare the kids having to be out in the sun. For our first day in Aswan, Josh, Bud, Ashley, and Misha went to the Temple of Philae, while I stayed in the hotel with Sebby. They reported back to me with stories and photos. The heat was almost too much for Misha, so I was glad I didn't attempt it with Sebby.

The Temple of Philae:

Approaching the temple, which is on an island in the Nile, by boat.

The temple's walls are inscribed with the story of Isis over and over. Above, Horus sits by rows of hieroglyphic text.


Misha in the "window" of the temple, surrounded by ancient script.


Misha up close.


Columns surrounding the doorway, overlooking the Nile.

The Coptic Christians later took offense at the multiple gods depicted on the ancient temple, and they actually had the nerve to scratch them out.


The Coptic cross superimposed on hieroglyphs.


Bud and Ashley at Philae.


More images and hieroglyphs.


A corridor of columns. One of the guys from our small tour sweetly carried Misha through the temple.

Botanical and Elephantine Islands:

The next day, Josh stayed in the hotel with both kids and the AC while Bud, Ashley, and I hit two more islands in the Nile.


We walked to the Nile from our hotel and boarded a small motor boat, which took us to


Botanical Island, a tropical paradise. It was amazingly green and full of species from different countries. We walked along in the humidity admiring baobab trees, exotic birds, and spices including lemon grass and cinnamon.

Then the boat transported us to Elephantine Island, which features a small museum and ruins from three temples. Though the crumbling, reconstructed walls of Elephantine's temples were not as impressive as Philae, for me they were fantastic. We were the only people there, traipsing through broken walls and statues missing all but their feet, the sun beating down oppressively. (Thank goodness for our water bottles, sun hats, and sunglasses.) It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, or perhaps in the computer game Myst that had come to life and it was our job to discover what civilization had created these structures and symbols and why they imparted them so much significance.


Bud and I stand in a huge, ancient doorway.


Indiana Kula and the Temple of Doom.


More hieroglyphs, including the key of life, known as "ank."


A bit of color remains in this scene.


More hieroglyphs.

That evening, we swapped again and Josh took Misha, Bud and Ashley to the Nubian village tour arranged for us.

On the boat once more.


A quick pause for a dip in the Nile!


A somewhat-traditional-slash-touristy experience of eating a Nubian meal in a Nubian home. The Nubians are an ethnic group originally from Northern Sudan.


The family had some baby alligators, and they offered Misha a stick to demonstrate the speed of a baby alligator's attack! (He was indeed fast.)

And Mummies, Oh My!

Our time in Cairo went quickly, but we managed to squeeze in the essentials, such as the Egyptian Museum. It was full of sarcophagi, ancient crumbling statues, and thousands of other bits and pieces, but the best part (even though it cost extra) was of course the royal mummy exhibit. Unfortunately, the entire museum was off-limits for photography. Go figure. However, I managed to sneak this photo of a mummified baboon.

The royal mummies were fascinating - amazingly preserved down to the eyelashes, hair, teeth, and fingernails. Misha was excited to see them. He even noticed a very old, very wrinkled, very bony tourist also admiring the display, and to our embarrassment, he called out, "He looks like a REAL mummy!" We can hope that the poor tourist didn't speak English.

The baboon was part of the animal mummy display - also extremely interesting. We saw mummified dogs, cats, horses, and even alligators. Sebastian, whose love of cats has been fostered greatly in Egypt, started making meowing sounds upon seeing the mummy felines. The display featured mummified food products as well, which had been placed in the tombs for afterlife sustenance.

Before leaving Cairo, Josh took Bud and Ashley to the not-to-be-missed market Khan al Khalili. There, Bud and Ashley had so much fun haggling over souvenirs that Josh couldn't pull them away until the wee hours of the morning!

Bud and Ashley taste the thrill of bargaining.

Khan al Khalili on a Ramadan night. Packed to the brim!

Back in our hostel, Misha gets a lot of use out of his hieroglyphic stencil as he busily writes the names of everyone he knows with ancient symbols. Thus, his love of secret codes is born - just like his mommy. :)

The next day we headed on our journey south. Misha looked great in his tourist get-up:

We opted for taking the overnight sleeper train for the 11-hour journey to Aswan. Here we are at the station:

We fell in love with our sleeper train. We had two tiny, cozy, adjoining rooms, each with fold-out bunk-bed-style beds.

The train's soothing motion soon lulled the kids to sleep, leaving the four of us some time to chat and play cards before falling asleep ourselves and waking up the next morning in Aswan.