The Edfu chitra katha

The previous post in this series is here..

Our entire group was ready at 4:30 AM and outside on the street adjoining the dock. The original plan was to have a van ready to take us to Edfu Temple before Sunrise! Given every ship was sending its people there, we were to go early to clear the security check and ticket counter and get in. 

There was a snag. The van never showed. We tried to change plans to go in two horse carts (originally abandoned by our guide Walid as too risky) but others kept getting the horses and we were just waiting for 30 mintues. Walid had to feel the fury of 3 women and two girls who burnt him with their eyes just like those sages in the Amar Chitra Katha cartoons.  He apologized profusely and we finally got our van after 25 minutes of waiting. When we went to the temple entrance, the line was a few hundred meters long and I counted ~ 600 people in the line in front of us!

We made it to the temple after security checks and were amazed by what we saw! This temple reminded me of Uttarakosamangai. Same layout.. a long hallway that takes you to the main sanctum with a lot of pillars and chambers on the way!

A must see highlight video of Edfu temple.. it took me a long time to edit this to under 10 minutes from 56 video clips!

It is one of the most well preserved temples in Egypt. The murals on the large temple walls tell a story just like a cartoon in panels. The fight between a hippo god and a crocodile god and the crocodile emerging victorious is amazing. 

Inside the temple the walls still retain some of the color. If the plain murals look this awesome, imagine how they would have been 2300 years go when every bit of it was painted!! It would have been spellbinding!

this one reminded me of Ravana.. 

the unifier being confered the crowns of the north and south with different crests ! this theme is repeated across a lot of temples. The kings support the gods, the gods support the kings. eventually the kings take over for the gods.. 

the detail on the boat including the little chains was amazing!  Probably why it took a 100 years to finish this temple!

No wonder people came there and donated to the temples and they were the big social and economic centers.

These pictures do not do justice to this temple. It happened to be preserved only because it was buried in the sand and folks used to tunnel into some of these chambers and used it as hideouts.  

tried a pano but again, this is at a scale where pano's don't work..

This one doubled up as a hospital and maternity ward as well apparently. When we first went to the main sanctum, there was a 100 strong crowd and given my height, simply couldn't see or capture photos or videos. Was disappointed with that and walked out to the entrance with the group. Then I asked Walid how much time we had? He said 10 minutes. So I ran 1/2 a mile back and forth to the sanctum. Given all boats were leaving at more or less the same time, the crowd was gone. There were 4 people in the sanctum. 

Ran there, took pictures and videos and captured my running back to the entrance.

The golden idols all gone! 

Then there was more drama. The van driver locked the van with the keys inside! We waited another 15 minutes for a backup van. The ladies burnt him with their eyes again like the sages of folklore! Before they started painting some new murals in Edfu temple on the vanquishing of Walid at Edfu in Etchachrome colors, we got into the new van and drove back to the ship in time for breakfast. 

we were in for a surprise at the breakfast area as three large tables were empty. The entire Chinese and Korean gang was gone! Walid told us that they took a bus to save time and were going to see everything in our next stop ahead of time and fly out. We had more time, so we were going to spend it on the ship the rest of the afternoon! 

More on that in the next post..

If you do the river cruise or not, do not miss Edfu temple! It is just fantastic! 

Sobek-Horus, Shiva-Vishnu.. same same but different

The previous post in this series is here..

Our cruise docked at its first stop, Kom Ombo!

Every ship had docked at around the same time to catch the sunset and it was like a zoo. We could hardly hear our guide in that crowd. To top things off, many guides had powerful laser pointers that should have been banned for public use given their power. They were blinding and for some reason the tourguides were all trying to one up each other in pointing.. that made for bad photos! 

Our guide Walid told us that this was a very special temple that survived intact inspite of all the changes in Egypt over time. 

Special because there was the faction from the North that predominantly believed in the Falcon god Horus. The southern folks were all with the crocodile god Sobek. 

This was cause for a lot of concern. So a great unifier built a temple that had two entrances, similar murals on either side , two side by side shrines and the back wall with a description that split everything including the festivals, offerings, etc. right down the middle. 

As a kid raised in India, could understand some of this. There is always Shiva temples and Vishnu temples and followers of one don't necessarily go to the other even though they acknowledge them both as gods. This wasn't any different. (We actually have a temple in Livermore called the Shiva Vishnu temple, so everyone goes.. it has two shrines but only one entrance. that is progress over the years for you!)

 

There is also some other intersesting stuff at this temple. A scribe on the wall that shows the 12 months and the season during the months. Apparently the Romans moved from 10 months to 12 months after coming to Egypt and realizing that 12 months made sense with the solar and lunar cycles. They inserted July and August as months to commemorate Julius Ceasar and Augustus. (November was the original 9th month). We knew this from history but didn't know this connection with Egyptian temple!

Then there is an inscription of all the surgical instruments used during birthing. There was a Royal birthing room at this temple where surgeons used to practice their craft! It was fascinating. 

We got some photos of this temple that keeps going on and on length wise, with the two parallel tracks for the two gods. 

Finally we came down to yet another interesting area. The crocodile museum. They had so many mummified crocodiles.. some of them more than 20 feet long ! We learned more about Sobek here! 

Then we were late! The boat was going to depart at 7:30 PM latest at dinner time. There was still a crowd trying to get to the docks. I delayed the group trying to find a fridge magnet.

The boat stack up one behind the other, from the dock and you go through multiple boats before you get to yours! 

We all raced to the boat and were almost the last group to get in before they started moving! 

Did have time to set everyone up for this masterpiece(and I say that loosely) in front of the mirror. They had started putting Christmas decorations in the dining area! Group photos are challenging.. makign everyone look at themselves in the mirror instead of my camera in the mirror was intersting.. then I looked down and messed up a few shots.. 

A video highlight of Kom Ombo..

We were going to travel and dock sometime late in the night at our second stop for the cruise. 

Walid gave us that look again after dinner. Slightly better but a 5 AM start from the reception area the following morning! We had already gotten used to this. A 3:30 AM wake up to fly, 4AM start to drive to Abu Simbel the next day and now, a 5AM start.

The trend was going in the right direction...

Civil Engineering masterclass - Abu Simbel

The previous post on this series is here..

We slept on the boat overnight and woke up at 3:30 AM. The group including kids were all assembled at 4 in the van and the drive started to Abu Simbel from Aswan docks.

Most of us dozed off in the first hour of the drive as it was still dark outside. A little past 6AM the van slowed down for a tea and restroom stop in the middle of the desert! It was good we had some local currency. Restrooms also need local currency for the two sheets of toilet paper they hand you. The restrooms themselves were well maintained but the cigarette smoke was difficult to deal with. Wanted to come home and check what percent of the population smoked and what lung cancer rates were in Egypt. A healthy population is a good idea for any country. With kids (who looked 10 or under) smoking everywhere, it cannot be a good thing!

Enough with the vent. We came out of the shack, ate a packed breakfast that was given to us at the boat, took pictures of a glorious sunrise and kept driving. 

lens flares on iPhones are tricky. was trying to teach a class to the group on how to avoid them.. this is as good as it got. More lessons are required! 

We went past a small city which was mostly engineers supporting local agriculture in the desert. It was a massive project covering acres growing everything from basic vegetables to maize. 

Eventually after 4 hours we made it to Abu Simbel. We got an explanation of how the temple was going to go underwater with the new dam and it took 10 years to literally cut the original temple block by block and reassemble it above the same hill. 

The original temple was perfectly oriented to have the sun come through and shine on the main shrine on two days of the year. The new moved temple up the hill still had that going for it. The original temple was a marvel. Moving something like that in the 70's within a 10 year span with global support was impressive!

The minute you walk around the hill and come across the gigantic statues, it just takes your breath away!

There was still color in the murals on the walls and ceiling. Given we were close to Dec 21st, the sun was angling in and lighting up the entire temple in a golden glow inside! 

A few pictures of the insides of two temples here..

A video highlight of the Abu Simbel visit.. the video captures both the sunrise and the beauty and scale of the temples! 

We had spent a litle over two hours at the temple including a restroom stop and some time at the gift shop buying magnets. Then it was time to start the 4 hour drive back.

It was a race and there were no stops on the way. We had to be back at the boat before 2. Lunch was at 1:30 but the boat was finally going to start moving at 2PM. 

We made it at 1:30! I had enough time to run to the market across the docks with Walid and grab some more large water bottles before we started sailing.. 

We were surprisingly refreshed and were not as tired as we thought we would be! We were all looking forward to moving in the boat on the Nile!