Early to Rise...

Well, Dwayne and I stayed up late last night blogging. As you know we were docked in Edfu and at 430 this morning we were awakened by islamic prayer that was being broadcast through the loudspeaker onto the streets!! I wish I could have understood what they were saying...it went on for about an hour. I forgot to say that each day we have traveled with an Egyptologist. They are required to have a bachelor's degree in history and be licensed by the Department of Antiquities here in Egypt. Our first stop today was at the Temple of Horus. Horus is an Egyptian God, son of Isis and Osiris...he is often depicted as a man with a falcon head or as a falcon. He always wears two crowns to signify lower and upper Egypt.




Sadly in this temple some of the depictions have been ruined, allegedly this was done by Coptic Christians many years ago.

We cruised down the Nile for a few more hours

...then stopped at Kom Ombo.

The temple here is different because it is dedicated to two Gods, Horus and Sobek. It was used as a hospital at one point and there are even pictures of one of the Gods holding a stethoscope.
There was also a mummified crocodile here (Sobek is the crocodile God). I'll save that picture for another day! I've also included a picture of a woman giving birth.

This evening was our Galabeya party here on the ship. We had an Egyptian style buffet - I ate a dish called koshari with macaroni, onions and tomato sauce. It's pretty tasty. There was ghulash - a pastry stuffed with cheese and lots of other stuff that I can't remember the name of. There dishes are heavy on tomatoes, potatoes and beef! I had to request vegetarian options! Anyway, the idea was to buy Egyptian style garb (only in the hotel gift shop of course). I wore a little headpiece. Tomorrow we are scheduled for a felucca (a small sailboat) ride along the Nile and a tour of Philae island which has temples dedicated to Isis. Thanks for reading everyone!! We really appreciate all the comments!!