The temple of the god of evil things

We docked at Edfu on Wednesday and met our guide, Mahmood in the lobby of our ship, which, since I haven’t mentioned it before, is called the Nile Jewel, and, although it seems a little smaller and older than the other ships whose lobbies we have to cross to disembark every day, is cozy and pleasantly quiet since we are basically the only ones here. Edfu is a city of about sixty thousand, much smaller than Cairo’s twenty million, and, like most of Upper Egypt we’ve seen thus far, it is very agricultural. It is not uncommon to see donkeys pulling carts, or children riding donkeys down the town streets. The Nile countryside of Upper Egypt is home to the banana and sugar cane plantations that supply the rest of the country, and many fruits and vegetables, in addition to sacks of rice and flour, are carried by horse or donkey carts and sold in the town market by men in galabeyas (the long shirt-like Arab robes) and kuffiyas (checkered scarves piled and loosely wrapped on their heads) common to country areas but rarely seen in Cairo.

Mahmood’s English pronunciation is terrible, with added syllables (sp-hin-kses for sphinxes, and kiningses for kings, for example) and the emphasis on the wrong syllable many times, but he was very knowledgeable about Ancient Egyptian mythology (or else able to make up convincing facts on the spot really well), and the details of the temple at Edfu. He also helped us bargain for better prices on the exorbitantly marked- up water and soda we bought before getting back on board the ship where the beverages are even more expensive.

We spent the day on the ship sailing up the river again, covering the same distance in seven or eight hours that took Mahmood only an hour to cover by car, then disembarked again and met him in his home town of Kom Ombo. The temple at Kom Ombo, which we saw at night, is dedicated to Horus and the crocodile god whose name I can’t remember. The crocodile god is the god of evil things. Crocodile mummies had been found in coffins in the temple, but had been moved to the museum, which we didn’t go see. The temple also contains text from the Egyptian calendar, based on three seasons, and a hieroglyph of a woman giving birth, which the Ancient Egyptians did in a special chair that elevated the feet up on blocks. Comfy!