Dinner last night at Panorama was truly exceptional! Our wonderful waiter, Mamoud, had our table waiting for us at 6:30 pm when the restaurant opened. This time, while I had the wild mushroom soup again, R had the Scottish salmon with caviar for starters. Then, he had a tenderloin of beef steak with potatoes and vegetables while I had their beef brisket, that came with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Well … wow! R’s steak was perfectly cooked – really rare, and my brisket was absolutely delicious! The portion sizes were bigger than normal, but everything was so good … and again, neither of us had any room for dessert. Oh well! Maybe another time! Then, back to the hotel about 8-ish, and I was in bed by 8:30 pm. 5 am wake up call.
R's salmon and caviar 
R's beef tenderloin 
My brisket
Up before 5 (naturally). I think I was up every hour on the hour from about 2 am – not wanting to miss the alarm going off. Showered and reassembled by 6 am, and then down to reception to check out and have breakfast. That was really a bit rushed, but then we had the shuttle take us and our luggage down and put it on the boat, and we were across the Nile and waiting for our tour guide, Aladdin, by 6:45 am. Aladdin and our driver, Ahmed very prompt at 7 am. Loaded up and headed out of town in the direction of Kom Ombo for our first stop of the day.
Got to the Temple of Kom Ombo about 8 am, and there were only a few people there before us. It is one of the Nile Valley’s most beautifully sited temples, and it is unique in Egypt, as it is dedicated to two gods: the local crocodile god Sobek, and Horus the Elder. The temple itself is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis of the temple, with twin entrances, two linked hypostyle halls with matching carvings of the two gods, one on each side, and twin sanctuaries.
It was originally built in the Middle Kingdom period, but rebuilt by Ptolemy VI Philometor and completed by Ptolemy XII (Cleopatra VII’s father). They also had their own Nilometer for measuring the rise of the Nile during the annual inundation.
Kom Ombo temple 
M with our guide, Aladdin
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| Offering to the God; reminded me of a Big Mac |
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| Nilometer to measure the inundation |
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| Loved the vulture doorway ceiling |
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| They certainly did like cobra! |
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| They did like tall temples! |
Interestingly enough, here we found the Crocodile Museum … and while I don’t really have a problem with Egyptian mummies, per se, we both found the array of mummified crocodiles a little daunting. (Ever since visiting Botswana, R has had a real “thing” about crocodiles.). In this case, however, temples to Sobek, the crocodile god, would raise their own collection of live crocodiles, and take very good care of them, mummifying them after they died. Well, obviously, with the number of crocodiles on display, this obviously went on for a very long time! The museum was well presented and labeled, but it wasn’t where we would choose to linger for any length of time.
Back into the car then, and on our way to Edfu for the Temple of Horus. Aladdin was a very good guide, and actually gave us free time to wander as we wished after he completed his presentation, of which we were very appreciative. We reached Edfu about 11 am. We noticed quite a few Nile cruise boats tied up there, and as we were driving toward the temple, there were horse-drawn carriages one after the other taking tourists back to their boats. It seemed truly that we timed this perfectly, as we basically had the place almost completely to ourselves.
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| Our goofy guide Aladdin at Edfu |
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| Some paintings still have color! |
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| Outer pylon |
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| Inner courtyard |
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| Again, great ceilings; lots of vultures |
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| Copy of the sacred bark (boat) of the God Horus |
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| Horus battling the hippo (his uncle) |
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| Pharaoh helping God destroy the hippo |
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| Side Temple |
The Temple of Horus was Ptolemaic, and built between 237 and 57 BC. It is one of the best preserved ancient monuments in Egypt, basically because desert sand filled the place after the pagan cult was banned. The temple is dedicated to Horus, the avenging son of Isis and Osiris. With its roof intact, it made for great atmosphere inside. The only problem is that after the pagan cult was banned, people moved inside and attempted to live there. Their source of heat and cooking, fires, basically left the beautiful ceilings inside looking like Edinburgh’s Robert Burns Memorial – totally black and in desperate need of cleaning. However, even in that state, the lovely carvings were still very visible.
The Temple of Horus walls basically tell the story of Horus seeking revenge against his Uncle, for the death and dismemberment of his father, Osiris. The walls show the God, Horus, being assisted by the Pharaoh, finally catching up with and then eventually killing his Uncle, who could take the form of a hippopotamus, a donkey or a snake. It was really quite impressive. An interesting feature, though, is that the cartouche symbol, inside of which a Pharaoh would write his name in hieroglyphs, are basically empty in this temple. According to Aladdin, the Egyptian people would NOT accept the Ptolomies as Egyptians, despite what was on temple walls, and as their capital was in Alexandria (remember, the Ptolomy line of kings started after Alexander the Great died, leaving his empire to be carved up between his three generals – one of them being Ptolomy.) they apparently figured the kings would never show up in Edfu to see the temple, so why bother! Have to say, I do like the attitude!
The only problem in Edfu, though, is that the parking lot is filled with a long-line of shops tenanted by very aggressive shopkeepers. Truly, the worst we have yet experienced! The best part about our time was, that after running the gauntlet on the way in, and then have some wonderful, quiet time inside, just about all the shopkeepers were having lunch on our way out!! I guess they figured that as all the tourists had returned to their boats, they might as well eat – definitely made it easier for us to get out unscathed, even though some of those folks almost refused to take NO for an answer!
So, back into the car and heading to Luxor. Well … let me only say that I thought we had had topes (speed bumps) in Mexico – and we did, and that things could hardly get any worse. WRONG! There were literally hundreds of speed bumps between Luxor and Aswan – and if they weren’t humps, they were breaks in the pavement, or holes, or ditches to drive across. The drive took about 2 hours, but most of the speed bumps were so big that the car quite literally had to almost come to a complete stop in order for us to get over them! We did scrape the underside of the car on more than several occasions. So, while the drive wasn’t really that long in terms of actual miles covered, the time was incredible! But, finally, we arrived in Luxor, and in no time at all, we were at our lovely Hilton Luxor Resort. Just walking in – it was SO soothing and calm and smelled so good. Our room 363 is on the top floor, and overlooks the infinity pool and the Nile. Decent size hotel room, and fitted out really nicely! We’ve been so spoiled with our accommodation that it feels odd to be in a normal-sized hotel room again, but we’ll be able to manage for the next three nights. Then we move downtown a bit, and into the Winter Palace Hotel.
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| R's dinner from the buffet |
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| My desserts from the buffet |
In the lobby downstairs, when we went to inquire about the internet (fixed now, thankfully!) there was a couple that I had recognized from earlier in the day at Kom Ombo. Said “hello” and inquired how they had enjoyed the speed bumps, and we quickly fell into conversation. Lovely couple, Bob and Colleen from Boise, Idaho. Great travelers, and we met later for drinks and dinner. Talked and laughed through all, and hope to see them for dinner tomorrow night. We had dinner tonight at the Hilton’s breakfast/lunch/dinner restaurant, as a buffet. Interesting selection of choices, and it was fine; nothing special, although the Hilton’s red velvet cake was definitely a keeper!!
Much love,
m
xxx
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