Tues, 6th Sep.: Dendera Temple

The boat set sail for Denderah at 5am, with a new addition at the rear, a mounted machine gun and four men with an extra rifle. We heard several explanations as to why they were necessary later in the day:

1. It was a response to a shooting a couple of years ago at the Valley of the Kings, the gunman being a fanatic from the Denderah region. 
2. The area was politically more active.

Discretely tucked away behind a tent at the back of the boat, they hardly impinged at all, in fact, the little group welcomed the curious visitors in the course of the day.

Although we were promised a late wake-up call at 8:30, I was up and finished with breakfast by 7:30am as I wanted to enjoy the morning's cruise down the Nile. The fishermen were already out in their rowing boats and the village women were gathered on the shore with their daily washing.

We arrived without incident at Dendera by 9:30 and took a coach to the temple, a 20 minute drive away. Denderah temple was dedicated to the goddess of love, Hathor, and the original foundations were laid down two thousand years BC but not completed. Work resumed under Ptolomies, again without reaching completion, and then restarted in the Roman period.

The main feature of the temple is that it is the only one with an intact roof. The temple had been discovered by early Christians whilst buried in sand and they had used it as a shelter. The smoke from their fires had blackened the painted ceilings and they had also removed the faces of any figures at the visible levels. Fortunately, the sand had protected the buried walls which we could enjoy now they had been revealed.

Recently a safe method of cleaning the soot, tar and smoke residue had been found and applied to half the ceiling, allowing us to see the blue sky and stars, with Horus wings.

Within the temple, there were store rooms/crypts along either side, where offerings and valuables could be kept. However, the priests could not cross from one side of the temple to the other in front of the altar! They had to turn away to one side of the building, climb up stairs to the roof, make an offering to the goddess to appease he for walking over the altar, walk across and come down stairs on the other side to then be able to access the store rooms.

We were still able to clamber up the stairs, following in their footsteps. The stairs to the right took a square spiral route through the temple wall, intricately decorated with hieroglyphics whilst the left hand stair well went down in a straight long incline of steps. On the roof was a chamber with the Egyptian and more modern horoscope (name derived from the god Horus). Unfortunately a replica of the original which was in a European museum after being removed.

The Temple was also dedicated to the god of childbirth and children, being the only god shown with their face directed out towards the viewer. He was a dumpy puck of a figure with his tongue stuck out.

The ship steamed back to Luxor in the afternoon, arriving just before dinner. Our armed guard left discretely.

The evening's entertainment was a mediocre belly dancer and a brilliant dancing Dervish.