Denderah

We had a morning excursion to Denderah yesterday. It was such a busy day, that I haven't had time to write about it or transfer my photos to my computer, yet. Also, the internet connection where we're docked hasn't been great. I keep getting knocked off line. I will try to post more about yesterday sometime soon.

As promised, I'll fill in this gap now that I'm home.

I woke up early this morning as we were cruising to Esna for a visit to Denderah. It was quite chilly up on deck so I wrapped myself in a pool towel and enjoyed the rural landscape as we floated by. It was peaceful and no one was on deck except for me and Jerry. He was wrapped in a towel, too!

The sun rises early in Egypt in September. I was waking up at 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. and never saw a sunrise! Needless to say, the work day begins early for Egyptians and as we cruised by they were already working along the banks, in the fields and casting their nets.






Here's a short video of this morning's cruise.



Denderah is a temple dedicated to the cow goddess, Hathor. She's the goddess of music, dance, fertility, etc. The main temple is surrounded by a mud-brick enclosure and a few Hellenistic temples. Once inside, there's no Hippo-style Hall or Grecco-Roman influences--the main temple is all Hathor! They're doing a marvelous job of removing the soot and dirt from the temple and the colors underneath as absolutely amazing--like they were painted yesterday!





As we were leaving, I wanted to take a photo of Hathor with Matt's necklace he gave us to bring to Egypt for him. Hathor is one of his favorite Deities. In the photo you can also see the result of henna on my palm (which we did the day before--I think).



Thanks and love,
Stuart