Egypt! - Abydos & Dandara

Our fifth day (third day in Luxor) began early with a four hour drive to Abydos.  As we went to several of the temples, we had to drive through the countryside.  Since Egypt is a desert country, nearly everyone lives within a couple miles of the Nile river or one of the canals.  As we drove, we almost always had water next to us.  Following are some pictures we took while driving around the countryside.  These give you a glimpse into the life of the typical rural Egyptian.  Most of these were taken on the drive to or from Abydos.

Fire Station

This was the first day back to school after the holiday.  Our guide said that due to budget problems, half the kids go to school in the morning, and half in the afternoon.  Schooling is required, but some parents don't send their kids to school.  School attendance is not strictly enforced.

This complex  has Christian and Muslim worship centers

One of the things you see all over Egypt are buildings that have an "unfinished" top level.  They do this because they only have to pay taxes on the building once is finished.  Another common practice is for families to build another level up when a child marries and begins their own family.  They build the new level, leaving the top of that level unfinished.

One lonely cow.

Five not so lonely cows.

These are spices drying out

This guy was Jenny's Casanova.  He went to pass us and Jenny took his picture.  Then he decided to stay with us, giving kissy faces, waving, posing, and flirting.  Every time a vehicle would come from the other direction, he would get behind the van we were in.  As soon as he could, he would come right back up to our window and begin to flirt again.  This went on for about 15 minutes, until he had to make a turn.  He made sure to let Jenny know he would miss her before he turned.

Abydos

After a long drive through the country, we arrived at Abydos.  One of the advantages to being that far off the beaten path was that we were literally the only people there.  Our little group of 10 people roamed around the temple for about an hour.

Before we actually got to the temple, we took a break at the restroom.  If you look at the picture below, the restroom is just to the left of the tree.  If you look to the right of the tree, you see a drop off that runs front from the tree to just before the stairs to the temple.  That is a six foot drop-off located right next to the sidewalk leading to the restroom.  I know it is a six foot drop-off because I dropped off it.  I was trying to see if everyone in our group was there when I took a step back for a better view.  My step back was a doozy since I stepped back into thin air.  Thankfully, I landed on my backpack, so nothing was injured.

The only site we saw in Abydos was the Temple of Seti I.  This is a map of the temple.

I am pretty sure the columns you see are at the edge of the 2nd forecourt (#11 above).  Each of the columns had a different pair of figures carved into it.

We saw a couple interesting things in this temple.  First, when you first enter the temple the hieroglyphics are all carved into the stone.

Then it suddenly switched to more of a relief carving.

There were a couple other notable things.  First, Seti I's temple is known for a hallway that is carved with cartouches that have the names of all the pharaohs from the first pharaoh to Pharaoh Seti I.  This is commonly called the "Abydos King List."  It allowed archaeologists and Egyptologists to be able to place which pharaohs ruled in chronological order.

Another fun thing about Seti's temple in a small section of carvings located on an arch in the hypostyle hall.  If you look closely, you can see a helicopter, a tank, and an airplane.  Some people argue that these are simply typos that happened when someone put new hieroglyphics over existing hieroglyphics, but those people shouldn't get in the way of crazy people like me seeing helicopters in hieroglyphics that are thousands of years old.

Here are a few more random pictures from Abydos.

Air and light vents like this made for some cool shots in some areas of the temple.

 

This is the Osireion. I don't remember its significance, and Google didn't help me out much.

Ramses II came back from the dead to pose for this picture!

Dandara

On the way back towards the boat, we stopped by Dandara temple (also spelled Dendera and Tentyra).  This was one of the coolest temples we saw in Egypt.  It has a secret area below the temple, along with rooms and chapels above the main floor of the temple.  This is the temple of Hathor.

The maps below show the temple complex. The first one shows the entire complex, including the second floor of the temple.  The second map shows just the temple, so you can see what all the rooms were for.

This area had temples since around 2250 BC, but all the things we saw weren't built until around 360 BC.  As you can see from the top map, Roman and Coptic buidings are present.  Roman influence can also be seen in Hathor's temple.

When you first approach, you see what remains of a great gateway.

This is the view walking towards the Temple

This is the view from inside, looking out.

If you look to the side after entering the gateway, you see these Roman columns.  I believe this was part of the Roman birth house.

A little farther back, you see what I believe is part of the Coptic Church.  We didn't go into the birth house or the church.

Scattered around the ground just inside the gate are some other interesting pieces.

These are some columns capitals showing Hathor.

A stone wheel.

A statue of Bes, and ancient Egyptian Deity worshiped as the protector of households.

The temple itself is beautiful.  You can see the first hypostyle hall as you approach.  Notice how Hathor's face is on each face in the hall.

Our guide gave us a couple explanation for why the faces and body parts of most of the carvings in this temple had been defaced.  One was that the Coptic Christians did it because they did not believe in the Egyptian gods, or because the did not believe that you should make a carving of a god (graven image).  Another explanation was that the nomads who lived in the temple were superstitious. They thought that the carvings could see and hear them, so they chiseled out the eyes and ears.  Then, fearing that the carvings could still reach out and try to grab them, they chiseled out the arms.  Finally, fearing that the carvings might still try to follow them, they chiseled out the legs and feet.

There used to be tons of smoke residue covering the ceiling and upper parts of the columns of the temple.  Recently, they have been working to remove the smoke damage.  Underneath you see a beautiful ceiling with lots of blue. 

Not much cleaning has been done in the second hypostyle hall.

The coolest part of Hathor's Temple is the secret underground passage.  In one of the back rooms, there is a stairway that leads to a small square hole.  If you climb through this hole, there is a short passage that leads to another passage about the size of a hallway in a home.  This passage extends out either side of the first short passage.  Our guide said they don't know what this passage was built for.

This is looking down into the stariway

This is Jenny at the small landing at the bottom of the stairs after you go through the hole in the wall.

This is me about to go through the hole and up the stairs.

Jenny is about in the middle of the passageway.

Our guide told us to make sure to look for what is known as the "Dendera light."  It is a carving that looks like a light bulb, which some people believe proves the ancient Egyptians had electricity.  Egyptologists say it is actually a lotus flower with a snake coming out, resting on a djed (a pillar like hieroglyphic representing stability), which jives with aspects of Egyptian mythology.

The second cool thing about Dandara is the second floor.  If you notices on the map above, one stairway make a bunch of right angles at is moves to the second floor.  We took this stairway up.  The other stairway is straight.  We took this one on the way down.  I only took pictures of the straight stairway.

On the second floor, there are several small rooms that our guide called chapels.

One chapel has two things of note.  First, one the walls is depicted the Osiris myth.  The story varies, but the following is the account our guide gave us.  This is one of t most elaborate and influential stories in Egyptian mythology.  The story is that the god Osiris is murdered by his brother Set.  His body is dismembered and scattered around Egypt.  Osiris's wife, Isis, gathers up all the pieces.  She has trouble finding the final piece, the piece most important for reproduction.  Once all the pieces are found, Isis temoprarily breathes life into Osiris and copulates with him (she is the falcon in the picture).  She becomes pregnant and gives birth to Horus.  Horus later becomes pharaoh and restores order to Egypt.

The second thing in this chapel is the Dendera Zodiac.  It is a zodiac built into the ceiling.  It was completed around 50 BC.  The original was removed in 1821 and is currently housed in the Louvre.  They built a replica and installed it back in the original place.  This likely would have been painted, but the original was black because it was covered in smoke.  When they built the replica, they painted in to match that one that was taken out.  The first picture is one I took.  I couldn't get a good picture of this due to the low ceiling height, so the second picture is one I found online that shows the whole zodiac.

On the way out of the temple, I found this cat.  I took a picture to make Alise happy.