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Halfway between Luxor and Aswan, Edfu is an upper Egyptian town that lies on the banks of the Nile which owns the second biggest temple after Karnak's temple. It is usually a splendid tour taken after Luxor which has to be included on every Nile cruise itinerary in Egypt.
Horse Carriages were our means of transportation from our boat to Edfu Temple, you'll find them all waiting for passengers coming out of Nile Cruises and Dahabiya Sailing boats to greet you and offer their services. It was such a very sweet ride of twos that took us about 10 minutes.
The Temple of Edfu or rather be called Horus Temple, the falcon-headed god or the sky god whose eyes were the sun and the moon. Despite it's majestic intact huge structure, it was one of those forgotten temples for ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity considered the temple as paganism and was left out as ruins. But it had survived the test of time buried under sand, eventually it ended up well preserved.
Horus temple is the first complete second biggest temple after Karnak's in Egypt that was built in the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Ptolemies were Greeks whom lived as the native Egyptians following the Pharaonic traditions and ways, even reflected in their architecture and designs. The temple was built on top of the old Horus temple prior to the Ptolemaic existence, in another form and dimension.
It's a huge spacious temple, and you'll enjoy looking around. Let the flow of your curious questions take you to the deep corners of the temple. Your tour guide will list the amazing facts of the place. But so far, don't miss out those partitions of the temple...
A Birth House was added which was a ceremonial place to celebrate the birth and crowning of the king’s son on the left hand side on your way in, which wasn’t a Pharaonic thing but was a Greco-Roman festival hall of coronation.
Edfu Temple owns one of the largest pylons in Egypt, 37 meters high, a huge wall stands depicting power and authority in symbolic patterns of battle. Magnificent! The Pylon is a huge monumental gateway that encloses a path entrance to an ancient Egyptian temple, at least that’s what the Greeks named it. It is actually one of the latest ptolemaic features that was added to that temple.
After you come out of the Pylon, you’ll find yourself in one big spacious court surrounded by open door walls and columns from three sides till you reach the temple’s interior. That area is called “ Courts of Offering” where people used to present their offerings to god Horus.
The falcon headed tall statue of Horus is made of black granite. For some reason there’s another shorter statue across from Horus statue at the entrance of the inner part of the temple, where I found it was funny!
Inside, there’s so many rooms to explore where it's a great tour around endless inscriptions and drawings on the walls and columns telling stories about everything that once took place. Your tour guide will certainly have so much to talk to you about and finally take you to the holy of holies, sacred part of the temple.
If you keep going inside, there’s Horus sanctuary, a holy place that contains his shrine and there you’ll find his ceremonial barque in which Horus was to be carried on in festivals to carry out rituals. Go to the Gallery...
An eagle pen, she is a writer and editor who is crazy for photography and seeing the world in a new lense for what she reveals in her life are the pieces of herself, she is madly in love with travelling to places and owns the heart of adventure. "I was born in Egypt to find Egypt's long lost treasure" she says, while she now runs Egyptolution’s creative travel content.
Travel is not enjoyable unless you get to really taste and feel the traditional oriental local experiences of people and...
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1 Comments on Edfu Temple, Where the god Horus Dwelled
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