Jewel of the Nile: Edfu and Kom Ombo

We arrived in Edfu early in the morning and took a horse-drawn carriage to the temple.

This temple is dedicated to Horus, the falcon god.  Before he was born, his mom Isis and his dad Osiris were madly in love.  Osiris's brother Seth was evil and plotted to kill Osiris to have Isis for himself.  He cut Osiris into 42 pieces and scattered him all over the world.  Isis searched for 500 years and only found 41 pieces of her husband; she was missing the critical "man part."  Ra, the sun goddess, turned Isis into a sparrow so she could fly up the Nile continuing her search for the missing piece.  After another 500 years when she still hadn't located it, Ra brought Osiris back to life.  Together, Isis and Osiris conceived Horus.

Horus

This temple is only about half as old as the other temples we saw, so the carvings were very vivid.  Keep in mind, half as old is still more than 2,300 years old!

Back of Edfu Temple

We got back on the boat for a lunch break while we sailed to Kom Ombo--the crocodile goddess's temple.

"Lunch Break"

The most amazing thing about Kom Ombo was seeing the carving describing a caesarean section.  

Oh yeah, did I mention our tour guide Sal is fluent in hieroglyphics?  Because he is.  Awesome.

Dan and Jon got up-close and personal with some baby cobras before we took a shisha break.

Dan also briefly became part of the band.

We made it an early night since we had to be up at 3 a.m. (!!) the next day.

Sunset over the Nile

Read about our other stops along the Nile:
Abu Simbal
Luxor I
Luxor II
Giza
Cairo