day 3 Abydos & Dendara

Day 3 Abydos & Dendara It was up for a really early 7am start to travel about 120kms north out of Luxor to visit temples at Abydos and Dendara. That far to travel needs a lot of petrol(gas) and finding some was an adventure before we even set out for our Temples.

Now Egypt is self sufficient in oil but little of it is reaching the petrol stations and then only sporadically. There’s either huge queues outside the few stations who have petrol or the forecourt is closed. Our driver, the resourceful chap, got out by one such station and had a cup of tea with some other local chappies. Making allowances and not getting a little tetchy we waited whilst he chatted. He got back into the car, drove down a narrow alley barely wider than the car and stopped by a doorway. The door opened and a woman stepped out with a 50 litre container a hose and a stick! The stick was to push the safety cap in so that the hose could be inserted and the petrol poured into the tank. With the fuel on board we set off north.

ABYDOS-TEMPLE of SETI I Set I is the father of Rameses II and he is seen here in carved reliefs all around the walls with Horus the falcon headed god and Osiris the Corn god the fertile plain. Speaking of fertile plain we travelled north along the edge of the Nile plain with desert on one side and green fields of clover wheat, tomatoes and sugar cane on the other. One thing I did not expect to see was fields of rape seed, it grows in fields less than a mile from our house in Sussex England. I digress.

The Temple was huge and the quality of the detail of the carvings was extraordinary. It has seven separate procession routes doorways and inner colonnades to seven sanctuaries, each one dedicated to a different god. The internal columns each represented an hour of darkness 12 in all and it is the journey of the sun god at night before he pops up again in the east. A lot of the faces, hands and feet had been deliberately damaged or destroyed by the Romans or early Christians which is a shame but there is more than enough detail and the sheer size of the carvings to leave you slack jawed. Each region of Egypt had their own local god that they worshiped and today each have their own Governance, which explains why we had to go through the local rubbish tip to get to this temple, whereas at Dendara the temple is surrounded by greenery and has a well kept atmosphere.

DENDARA- TEMPLE OF HATHOR The temple to Hathor the goddess of joy, she is usually depicted as having the face of a beautiful woman but with the eyes and ears of a cow, she is everywhere here but again mostly faces are destroyed. The temple was built in Roman era just before AD60 and has many Roman Emperors making offerings to the gods. Cleopatra VII is here (Elizabeth Taylor version) one of the only two reliefs of her in the whole of Egypt. This temple has two unique features in that it has stairs to go up to the top of the temple and a crypt, down very steep narrow steps with a guard who allows you entrance with the usual bit of grease!

ROMANTIC CANDLELIT DINNER. This being Valentine’s day we went into town to find a nice restaurant and had a candle lit dinner. I mean really candle lit! The power on the whole city block blacked out for about 40 minutes! An enjoyable experience all told and I’m being kind when I say that it typifies the nature of the people who just shrug and get on deal with things as best they can with a smile.