Today we visited two temples. The first was Edfu Temple, we disembarked and either caught a horse and carriage or walked the 200 yards to the coach. Having pity for the poor horses, the guides did not condone the carriage idea. The drive to the temple was fraught by the large numbers of horses and carriages returning from the temple. Some visitors had beaten us and had been there very much earlier than us. At least they had left. This temple is in good condition, with near perfect pylons and interior and exterior walls. There was still defacing of faces by the Roman/Christians, this was higher up because of the sand which had buried the base. The carvings into the sandstone are exquisite, you can see the muscles in the limbs, and the way the knee cap has been shaped.

Back to the boat, and we immediately left for Kom Ombo. Lunch and tea before we disembarked to see the temple and mummified crocodile museum. We docked, and then there was a short walk from the boat to the Temple. An ominous number of shops were on the river bank. Two gods seemed to be represented here, Sobek and Horus. Sobek has the crocodile head and could have been here because of the grand island on which huge numbers of crocodiles once lived. Perhaps worship of Sobeck was to appease their appetites. Another carved item on the wall was a set of surgical instruments, were they for surgery or used for mummification procedures? Much debate ensued.

After the temple, we walked to the small crocodile museum and viewed the mummified crocodiles, plus crocodile related items. A nice museum. A short walk back to the boat and we managed to escape the clutching hands of the many vendors.

As soon as we were on board we departed for Aswan.

Cocktails and then dinner.