Qena: Dendera Temple (10/19/2023)

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Today's daily egg special was poached on a wee avocado toast

We sailed downstream from Luxor to Qena, a distance of at least 69 km/43 miles. Essentially we were going backwards toward Cairo (which is about 671 km/419 miles from Luxor). Because the Nile River runs south to north, downstream is north. Also Upper Egypt is south, and Lower Egypt is north!

Unfinished buildings with rebar sticking out in
preparation for adding another floor; apparently you don't
have to pay taxes until the building is completed!

The walls by the river indicate the expected 3 m/10 ' change in water depth throughout the year.

A mosque in every town

It is green only along the Nile River in Egypt (KSS)

A police escort as we approached Qena?

Lunch of shawarma/a tasty beef mixture in pocket bread

We took off in motor coaches once again.

Bananas are grown in Qena

Egyptian scaffolding

Crossing the wide Nile River

Welcome to Qena on the left side (KSS)

Welcome to Qena on the right side

A supermarket and a bakery

Our included afternoon excursion was to the Temple of Hathor at Dendera (c 2250 BCE with additions,

particularly when under Roman provincial rule).

Ruins outside the gate with columns that have
Roman Corinthian capitals

Gateway relief of Roman Emperor Domitian
making an offering to the gods Hathor and
Horus with the smaller figure of their son Ihy;
both Ihy and Domitian wear the double
crown of Upper and Lower Egypt

Relief of perhaps Roman Emperor Trajan making
an offering to the gods Hathor and Horus;
Trajan is wearing a unique composite crown

Monumental Gateway of Domitian and Trajan,
where the architrave/beam across the tops
of the columns still retains some color

Roman mammisi/birth house

Temple of Hathor (c 350 BCE)

Temple cat

Columns of the Temple of Hathor with
Hathoric columns, topped by four faces of
Hathor, the sky goddess who was the
mother/consort of Horus/sky god and
Ra/sun god; the faces show some blue color

The temple is especially well preserved because it still has a roof to protect it from the elements. Many of the faces, indoors and out, appear to be defaced, but could it not just be erosion?

Because of the roof, many itinerants lived
in the abandoned temple, leaving dark soot
from their fires; when money is available
for the expensive cleansing agent, more
of the temple interior gets cleaned

Outer Hypostyle Hall with Hathoric columns;
note hieroglyphs on every surface

Hathor wings on the ceiling

Various kings make offerings to Hathor and
Horus, and between king and gods is the
child Ihy playing with a rattle and necklace

The bottom of the column shows
the effects of flooding

The Inner Hypostyle Hall

Going up the stairs are scenes from the
New Year's Day procession

On on the other side the procession is going down

Up on the roof, the Kiosk of Hathor, where statues of the
gods would wait on New Year's Day for the first rays of the sun

Over the door is a sun disk and wings of Hathor

Ba of Osiris depicts a pair human-headed birds
with perfume cones on their heads and three rays of the sun
between them; these birds represent ba/human spirit
and personality that leaves the body to return to the sky

Being outside in the courtyard of the Chapel of Osiris, it is assumed these are the ba of Osiris.

A plaster cast of the Dendera Zodiac, which had been
removed in 1821 and taken to Paris, where it now is
housed in the Louvre; this zodiac is centered on the north
pole star and depicts five planets and 72 constellations

A sketch of the constellations on the Dendera Zodiac

The Chapel of Osiris has reliefs telling the story of Osiris
(associated with natural order) being killed by his
brother Set (associated with chaos) in order to rule Egypt

The tradition is that Set cut up the body of Osiris and spread the pieces around the country. The sister-wife of Osiris, Isis (associated with magical power and healing) gave herself wings and flew in search of the parts of the body in order to reassemble them. In the relief above, he has been put back together, but his arm dangles as if still dead.

There are varying versions of the myth, one being that Isis developed the methods for mummification to insure Osiris would endure in the underworld. Instead, our guide told us that one part was still missing, the penis, for which Isis made a replacement from the mud of the Nile to make Osiris whole. Either way, Osiris was able to impregnate Isis, resulting in the birth of Horus who would go on to avenge his father's death.

Perhaps this is Osiris, perked up enough to father a child

The uraeus/rearing cobra is a symbol of
divine authority and royalty

We had some free time to continue to explore the Dendera complex.

The Sanctuary of Hathor that would
have held a statue of the goddess

A relief in the Sanctuary depicts the sacred barque that
would carry Hathor (as a statue) on her annual trip to Edfu

Temple of Hathor exterior with lion-headed gargoyles

Reliefs of kings paying homage to the gods

It seems that someone took a section of a column (that 
was just lying around) and made a mill stone; and who
knows, maybe the carved depression was used for grining

Sacred Lake with no water

On the rear exterior wall of the Temple of Hathor was
this relief of Cleopatra VII and her son allegedly by
 Julius Caesar, Ptolomey XV Caesarion, making offerings
to the child-god Ihy, Hathor, Horus, Osiris, and Ra;
a reverse of this scene is on the right half of this wall

Oh, boy! A local plant: Alhagi maurorum/Camelthorn

Hapi/Nile River god, a female, and a male bearing offerings

Relief border of lotus blossoms and buds

Tamiko & Kent with Bes, a protector of households
(i.e., mothers and children)

Sugar canes fields after harvest; supposedly it is
against the law to burn in sugar cane fields ...

... but it is tolerated if done discreetly ...

Online articles indicate Brazil has figured how to deal with sugar cane harvest debris, but Florida still does burning ...

Police escort

Sunset

Welcome Toast hors d'oeuvres

Lesan El Asfour is actually the name for Egyptian
Bird's Tongue Soup, because orzo resembles a bird's tongue;
however, this soup was made with vermicelli noodles
(and minced lamb in chicken broth)

Kent had Spiced Chickpeas with tomatoes, pepper,
and eggplant, drizzled with almond sauce

Lahma Bil Basal has braised beef, onion, sweet potato
mousseline, and grilled vegetables

Mahalabya/milk pudding flavored with rose water
and cardamom

Next: Valley of the Kings.