Yet another early morning. This morning we had a 5AM pickup because we had a 3 hour drive to Abydos. Luckily Rick is feeling much better after his marathon sleep.
The drive to Abydos was crazy. Our driver is pretty aggressive (although not as bad as some places we have been). There are lines in the road which they seem to just consider recommendations. Our driver often moved into the oncoming traffic lane in order to pass someone. Everyone is constantly honking to let other drivers know where they are. Luckily we arrived in Abydos in one piece.
Abydos is home to the mortuary temple of Seti I. Abydos has a special place in the sacred landscape of ancient Egypt, as it was believed to be the place where Osiris was buried. The temple is dedicated to Osiris, Isis (Osiris’ wife), and Horace (Osiris’ son). It still has some of the original color. Here are some pictures.
Dendera was our next stop, about half way back to Luxor. It contains the Dendera Temple complex, one of the best-preserved temple sites from ancient Upper Egypt.
We were escorted by police part of the way to Dendera. I guess they do this to provide protection for the tourists, although no one would say it seemed unsafe for us. At one point there was police truck in front of us with to police officersoldiers sitting in the back with guns. The supervisor must have told them to put their helmets on. One of the soldiers put his helmet on backwards. We were all looking at him laughing and I spun my finger around to tell him to turn it around. Eventually he figured out the problem and rotated the helmet 180 degrees but he did not fasten the strip under his chin. He looked like a bobble head doll. After a few minutes of wearing it like that he tried to fasten the strip behind his head. Eventually he realized that wasn’t going to work and got it fastened under his chin. He was smiling the whole time and watching us laugh at him. Rick said he hoped he didn’t needto shot his gun. 🤪
Dendera temple complex was built around 350 BC in the Greco style. It honors Hathor, goddess of beauty, love, joy and motherhood. Hathor was often depicted as a cow, symbolizing her maternal and celestial aspects, although her most common form was a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk. In the pictures below she is depicted with “cow ears” on the top of the columns. Most of the figures in reliefs were faced by people who later lived in the temple. (It seems that people lived in temples during the Coptic and Islamic periods.)
We returned to Luxor arriving back around 3. We ate a late lunch at the same restaurant that we ate in on the first day in Luxor. Then we said goodbye to Ahmed.
We relaxed for the rest of the day by the pool.