Egypt: Temples

While in Egypt we explored many temples and even though they all had a similar feel, I never got over the awe at how elaborate these sites were. Luckily since this is low season for Egyptian tourism, we got to see many of these sites without a huge crowd.



Kom Ombo

The temple in Kom Ombo was built during the Ptolemaic dynasty and construction began around 180 BC. This temple was unique because it was built to honour two different gods: Sobek (the crocodile) and Horus (the falcon). They actually had a pit for crocodiles to live beside the temple (although for safety reasons this is no longer in use). This was one of the more recent Egyptian temples and was a place where Cleopatra worshiped.

This is of Cleopatra's kartush!

Edfu

This was a temple which was built to worship Horus (exclusively this time) and was also built during the Ptolemaic period. The walls have carvings depicting the scenes that inspired the Egyptian themed opera called Horus where the falcon god is trying to kill his uncle (the crocodile) to avenge the death of his father.











Karnak

Karnak Temple, which is located in Luxor, was constructed by Ramses II beginning in 1391–1351 BC. This was the largest temple we visited. Outside of the temple is the avenue of the Sphinxes which was 2 km long and used to connect Karnak temple to Luxor temple. Unfortunately the people of Luxor built their homes over the Sphinxes that ran through the middle of the city and there is a big relocation effort now underway to allow the city to dig under the houses and uncover the Sphinxes.









Luxor

This temple was also mainly built by Ramses II. This temple had a great atmosphere, maybe because we visited at dusk and had the call to prayer from a nearby mosque as a background soundtrack.

Here is the other segment of the Avenue of the Sphinxes

The matching obelisk (which used to sit beside the female on the right) was given to France as a gift for helping to build the Suez Canal.