Kom Ombo

After sailing down the Nile for a few more hours, we docked at Kom Ombo.  Unfortunately, we could only stay here for a few hours as we had to sail to Aswan that evening.  We made the most of our time by walking to the temple, which was very close to the river.  Although it was late afternoon, it was still very toasty outside.  We did our best to hide out in the shade while learning about the temple.  I guess we caught the tail end of the tourist season, just a few weeks after we left, tourism takes a huge drop, due to the temperature...and we thought 120F was bad!

The temple at Kom Ombo is unique because it was built to two gods.  The first is Horus, the god of protection, and the second is Sobek, who is a crocodile god.

  So, the temple wasn't built symmetrically, as was the trend with temples.  Each side had unique offerings and features.  On Sobek's side, for instance, there were mummified crocodiles.  There were also heiroglyphs showing the egyptian calendar, with days of the month, number of months, and parts of the day.

After visiting Kom Ombo temple, we got back on the boat and had dinner.  I didn't really realize it at the time, but I was eating a lot of greens in a third world country where the water is not the best...so my stomach began to feel the effects of eating that food.  It would hurt for a while after meals, and it took me a good day to figure out why.  Perhaps I am just a little slow.  Anyway, this evening on the boat as we sailed for Aswan, there was a big party egyptian style with games.  Only on a cruise ship!