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Heiroglyphics of Isis giving birth. I find the way Egyptian women gave birth fascinating.

Sobek, the crocodile god, to whom the temple is dedicated.

After setting sail early this morning for Kom Ombo, we disembarked right at the foot of this ancient temple. The temple of Kom Ombo is the only one of its kind, in that it was built for two divinities-- Haroeris (Horis the Elder- the falcon headed sky god) and Sobek the Crocodile god. Everything in this temple is duplicated down the axis. There are two entrances, two courts, two colonades, two hypostyle halls and two sanctuaries. There were probably even two sets of priests. Kom Ombo was seen as a healing temple. Ancient Egyptians would come and camp out here for days, in hopes of being able to enter the inner sanctuary of the priests and be healed. You can see evidence of these ancient sleep overs in carvings on the floors of the temple-- a way for the people to pass the time as they waited. There were brilliant heiroglyphs of women giving birth on birthing chairs (very interesting!). One of my favorite carvings was of the goddess Seshet, the goddess of writing, learning, mathematics, etc. She is depicted in a panther dress with a brilliant star or flowered headdress that is also her signature heiroglyph. I thought the panther dress was just so cool!! Its amazing to me how these temples all tell such a story.

Heiroglyphics of Sashet, in her panther gown. You can see the feet and tail by her legs!

Horus, the elder, to whom this temple is dually dedicated.

Just leaving the temple of Kom Ombo...and to give you an idea of how enormous this place is! Its BIG!

After that, we headed back to the ship for lunch while we sailed to Edfu! In Edfu we saw the Temple of Horus. This one turned out to be my favorite Temple of the all. It was dedicated (obviously) to Horus (the falcon headed go), and is by far the most well preserved temple in all of Ancient Egypt. It is also the second largest temple, after the Temple of Karnak (which we'll see tomorrow)! The pylons of this temple are 118 feet high! It includes a Hypostyle Hall, where each inner room of the sanctuary gradually gets higher and higher, leading up to the holy of holies, where the priest of Horus was. The sanctuary is surrounded by rooms and chapels that each held a specific purpose, including one chapel that was just for housing the priest's ceremonial robes. The part that made this my favorite temple was one of the inner rooms... it must have been some kind of healing or medicinal room. It has heiroglyphics of the very first medical instruments known to man, and every single inch of the walls in this mile-high room is covered with recipes and cures for any and all ailments known to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians were so far ahead of their time and incredibly advanced in their knowledge of the human body and medicine. I stood in absolute awe of this room... not only the knowledge it contained, but also the artistry and preciseness with which it was depicted. It was insane. You really just have to see it to believe it. I may try to put up a video of this room if I can. We explored every inch of that temple... and even got a behind the scenes look at a 'secret' area up the stairs. Everything in this temple was so meticuolously built, including windows strategically placed so that the setting sun would shine on heiroglyphics of the temple's god, Horus. There were even some real life temple kittens. :-)

One of the paintings of Horus that was strategically placed so the light would shine directly on him.

Heiroglyphics showing some kind of medicinal treatment, surrounded by the rows and rows of heiroglyphics with cures for ailments.

The hypostyle hall leading to the inner sanctum at the temple of Horus.

This was the only temple we saw that still had its roof intact. As you can see, even the heiroglyphcs on the ceiling were in color. What a magnificent sight to behold this must have been, back in its day! There's even heirpoglyphics on the beams in ceiling!

The writings in the healing room... every inch of wall was covered with medical cures and treatments... all the way up to the ceiling!

Close up of what is in the inner sanctum of the temple.

After an incredible day that left my mind blown and completely speechless, we went back to the ship for tea time and some swimming. We had a yummy BBQ dinner on the sun deck and then... a Gallabeya party! We all got decked out in our traditional Egyptian dress and partied in the lounge! Mom and I had a guy on the boat do our make up so we really looked the part! He thought we looked great, and even jokingly asked my mom, "How many camels (for your daugher)?" He was shocked and apologetic when mom told him I was married! It was pretty funny. All in all, a great day!

Getting my make up done...

Me & Mamma

All of us in our Egyptian clothes! Sean gots TONS of compliments on his!