Nile Cruise Day 3 – Temple of Horus at Edfu, Temple of Kom Ombo

We sailed overnight on the Nile River and arrived at Edfu the next morning. We were given the option of taking a horse-drawn carriage or a van to the Temple of Edfu, so of course we picked the horse-drawn carriage. 

In the morning of our third day on the Nile Cruise, we were picked up in two horse-drawn carriages and taken from the cruise ship through dusty roads to the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Horus, depicted as a falcon or a falcon-headed man, is the god of war and the sky and, the legitimizer of kingship and the power of the pharaohs.

The Temple of Horus is nearly a thousand years newer than the main temples in Luxor. It was built during the Ptolemaic era between 237 and 57 BC but the architecture imitates the building style of earlier pharaohs. It is surprisingly well-persevered because it was buried under the desert for hundreds of years. The discovery of the temple in such good condition helped archaeologists to gain insight into certain architectural elements and building details of earlier temples in Luxor, like Temple of Karnak and Luxor Temple, that had already been lost to time.

The temple was the largest temple dedicated to Horus and would have been used for many festivals and celebrations in his honor until 391 AD, when paganism was outlawed by the Romans. Christians made efforts to deface and damage the reliefs of the temples and it appears they even attempted to burn it to the ground. Throughout the temple, we saw reliefs where the faces of gods and goddesses were scratched out.

The first pylon of the temple depicts Ptolemy XII as he smites his enemies under Horus’ watchful, perhaps approving, gaze. There are two statues of Horus at the entrance to the temple. The first pylon of this temple reminded me of the first pylon of Medinet Habu in Luxor as both have massive reliefs of the pharoah smiting his enemies. Obviously Medinet Habu is a mortuary temple (for Rameses III) and Temple of Horus is a cult temple built to worship the god Horus, but both served to glorify the pharaoh and his accomplishments. It is interesting to note that even though the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt were Macedonians, they depicted themselves on monuments exactly as traditional Egyptian pharaohs with the same dress, posture and appearance and juxtaposed beside Egyptian gods.

Past the first pylon and the great courtyard, there is a hypostyle hall. We have seen even more impressive columns in the hypostyle hall at Karnak but what was exciting to see at this temple was the ceilings here were still intact. It made the large hall darker and the atmosphere more private, almost sanctuary like. Around the periphery of the temple walls are amazing reliefs where the faces of the pharaoh and Horus were visibly scratched out by early Christians after paganism was outlawed by the Roman Empire.

Toward the back of the hall, we climbed a flight of stairs spiraling upward and climbed another flight going straight down. The Ancient Egyptians believed that Horus, a falcon, flies in a spiral pattern up into the sky and dives straight down back to Earth.