Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Esna Temples, Egypt
/These three temples are situated along the Nile to the north of Aswan. We still had Mena with us, and we made stops at each on our way to Luxor. The our first stop was at Kom Ombo temple. This one is unique as far as Egyptian temples go in that it pays homage to two gods, instead of the typical one. Unfortunately my memory isn't what it used to be, and I don't remember which two gods specifically they were. I do, however, remember that the priests here prayed to one "good" god, and one "evil" god. The evil one had the head of a crocodile, which also coincided with a now-submerged island where the Nile crocodiles used to gather to sun themselves.
Our next stop was at Edfu temple. This was one of my favorite temples that we saw, as it was the most complete. It lay buried in sand for centuries which not only protected it from treasure hunters and scavengers, but also the ravages of time. There was still quite a bit of pigment on the walls and ceilings which was incredible. Its really hard to imagine some of these temples anything but sandstone-colored, but they must have been amazing.
The last temple we saw on our drive was Esna temple. Only the first hall has been excavated, so it was considerably smaller than some of the other ones we visited. The remainder of the temple is underneath current day Esna, and the excavation process would mean relocating much of the city. The colors here are also quite bright, considering they were painted thousands of years ago.
We are currently relaxing in an amazing resort in Sharm el Sheikh, spending our mornings scuba diving and our afternoons relaxing. Stay tuned for an update from Luxor, some really great photos!
