Egypt: Day 6
September 21, 2022
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Our cruise ship landed at the city of Edfu overnight, and Day 6 began around 6 a.m. for an after breakfast morning tour of Edfu's Temple of Horus, with special shoutout to his consort
in Egyptian mythology, Hather ... listed as the best preserved temple of ancient Egypt. The temple was started by Ptolemy III, and continued by other Pharaohs during the Greek Ptolemaic
Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC. The hieroglyph inscriptions on its walls provide information on language, myth and religion, but also medical procedure, harvest statistics and details
of its construction. Edfu is not the prettiest city we saw, with buildings that have
seen better days, a lot of them unused, with horse drawn carriages for transportations on dirty, dusty streets backed by hills that resemble scenes from the old American west in the 1800's.
Our tour guide Ahmed was not a fan of the city, saying it was his least favourite location to visit on our tour, but he said it much more colourfully than that.
After the temple, we returned to the cruise ship for breakfast, and enjoyed relaxing for the rest of the day until sunset, with a nice breeze, a pool to soak in, and the first real chance to
slow down for awhile. After sunset, seven of us took a tour of Luxor by horse and carriage, through the city centre, past the Avenue of Sphinxes, ending in the old market.
After that, a stop at the Valley of the Kings café and little shop before heading back to the ship for a late dinner.
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Above: One of the carriage riders, part of the parade of horses and carriages to the Temple of Edfu, and a carriage in the nicer part of Edfu.
1 shows sunrise in Edfu.
2 my favourite breakfast on the trip ... omette and crepe.
3 and 7 show our horse and carriage ride to the temple, the first my carriage, the second with Emina and Joyce.
4, 8 to 10 show buildings in Edfu, many in not particulary good shape.
5 and 6 show local taxis on the dusty streets of Edfu.
11 shows a view from our bus driving the two lane highway through the desert, which they are expanding to four, not a lot of vehicles on it.
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