Kom Ombo - Aswan -  Unfinished Obelisk - Philae

Early in the morning, before the crowds had filled the temple, we left the boat. The picture of the temple from the late 18 hundreds was taken from exactly where we had entered the temple. It was amazing what man can create, how nature like to reclaim it  and yet determined man can take it back from nature. This was almost the physical image of what the history of Egypt was all about: the man trying to fight with the evil, create the most amazing and as they did create the most "immortal" grandeur, claim the name of the creator!!

The Kom Ombo temples is a complex of two temples fused to make a one huge temple. The left part is dedicated to the Falcon headed God  Horus the Elder, a solar warrior God, the exterminator of the enemies of Osiris, represented by the wing sun disc. With his grand wings, he protects the from the evil spirits and harm and is therefore depicted on all the entrance portals. the right side is consecrated to the crocodile god Sobek. God Sobek was a ancient divinity to whom the creation of the world is attributed. He also represented fertility, exterminator of the enemies of Osiris and  therefore like Horus the Elder, he was a powerful enemy of the evil. Ptolemies had completely reconstructed this temple which was built a thousand years before their time. During the Roman Era, the roman emperors. Domitian and Caracalla had their images depicted on the walls in the very Egyptian style. The temple was found buried in the dessert sand in the late 1800s. The whole temple was completely excavated. This is our last day together. Tonight Linda and Rich will leave for Cairo to catch their early flight to the USA tomorrow morning. we have been traveling together since the 14th of April more than 3 weeks. It will be difficult to say good bye.

Aswan is where Egypt ends and the land of the Nubians begins. Trade and barter went on here as early as the third millennium. Nubia, whose ancient name was written as "nbw" means 'gold' ,has always been a land of conquest and exploitation/ the doorway to black Africa, the only communications route between sea and the heart of the continent, Nubia had provided the Egyptian Kings with the best soldiers, highly prized woods, precious ivory, perfumes and spices as well as gold. the pink granite which was so widely used in the ancient Egyptian temple construction came from its many rich quarries. Aswan was also very important in controlling the river its modern name, Aswan, is derived from  the old Egyptian "swenet" meaning " trade" .transformed to  "Suan" and then Aswan. Now Aswan has a population of close to one million people. the income is still trade and tourism. The Aswan dam is one other site of attraction besides the wonderful ancient temples of the ancient kingdom, the Hellenistic and the roman eras of Egypt.

 The Granite Quarries and the unfinished obelisk
The ancient quarries which furnished Egypt with granite can still be seen behind modern Aswan. the unfinished obelisk lies on its situ giving a good idea of how these huge monolithique pieces were quarried. they carved the rock from the top and the sides. then to detach the obelisk from the bottom they  drilled wholes and placed pieces of wood in the wholes and soaked the wood wet. When the wood expanded, the rock would be detached from the ground. The unfinished obelisk was never detached since they had found  cracks in the rock. If it were detached it would have weighed 1.150 tons.

Visiting the obelisk site was the most difficult visit. for the first time since we arrived in Egypt the temperature was more than 100F and there was no shade, But every bit of effort was absolutely worth it.

In the middle of a fascinating landscape of granite rocks, the sacred island, the domain of the Goddess Isis  raises its columns and pillars towards the cloudless sky. Philae was the largest of the three islands  in the south of Aswan. the temple was originally on one of the smaller islands. When the small island was flooded with the waters of the Nile river, the temple was carried to Philea.
This temple was dedicated to Isis who with the force of her love recomposed the scattered pieces of Osiris . The cult of the goddess on this island dates to the earliest era of  the Egyptian history. In only 535AD under the reighn of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, the priests who were dedicated to the cult were removed.

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