Nile Cruise Part 2 (Kom Ombo and Edfu)

The whole first day after we boarded, we just sat on the cruise waiting for other tour groups. We were supposed to leave after breakfast, but we didn’t end up leaving Aswan until after 2 pm! This means that we arrived at Kom Ombo temple at 5pm so we were a bit rushed to see the temple before it closed at sunset.

Kom Ombo

This temple is dedicated to two gods: Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the falcon. The temple had inner and outer courtyards and had some interesting hieroglyphs on it. Including various surgical instruments and some penis images showing that circumcised penises have more sperm (and therefore fertility). It also had an intricate calendar showing exactly what you should offer to the gods on each day of the month (depending on the high priests’ likes I presume).

As part of the temple was dedicated to Sobek, they found a number of mummified crocodiles near the temple. They have moved these into their own museum next to the temple.

Edfu Temple

We met our guide at 5 am to visit this temple! This was one of my favourite temples (along with Abu Simbel and Karnak). Unfortunately, we were rushed for time and only had 1 hour to visit it. And it was very crowded – there were several cruises all stopping at the same time. I think next time I come to Egypt, I will visit this temple without a cruise so that I can have more time to explore and enjoy it.

Locks

To get to Luxor, we had to go through two locks to lower down to the river level. This is why all Nile cruises are the same size. The length and width must be the same for them to fit into to locks – 2 ships at a time in each one.