Ancient Egypt: Edfu and Dendera Temples, Cleopatra, Coptic Cairo, and HOME

Life sure has a way of zipping along, doesn’t it? Blink and you’ll miss it.

We’re about to embark on “The Cruise to Nowhere” (next post) so I’m going to quickly ‘finish’ Egypt, just for now, so I can say to myself it’s finished – love that sense of accomplishment! (There’s so much more, of course, as usual).

EDFU AND THE CONFOUNDING HIPPOS: EVIL MUST BE DEFEATED – AGAIN!

Our last two temple visits make for the end of our Nile River journey, as well as the end of over 3000 years of ancient Egyptian civilization. These temples were built by the Ptolemies, the last great dynasty to rule Egypt, from 305 to 30 BC. 

We clip-clopped our way through downtown Edfu, perched behind our caleche-driver and our security guard. The guard hopped aboard to join us on our ride to Edfu Temple, and his automatic weapon bulged under his coat. Yikes. I averted my eyes from that gun so I didn’t miss the sights of the candy-colored chaotic downtown.

WHY DO FALCONS AND EAGLES SYMBOLIZE COURAGE? THANK HORUS 

Edfu Temple honors the falcon-god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. Horus avenged his father by defeating Seti, the embodiment of evil often represented by a hippo. Inside on Edfu’s temple walls we found grand hunting scenes, where Horus battled large hippos, then larger hippos, then even LARGER hippos.

Can’t miss the Horus message: The evils of the world must be continually defeated, or they gain power over us. It’s a constant struggle between our spirit, represented by Horus, and the evils around us that grow only if we let them. 

A perfect analogy for life’s struggles, especially psychological ones such as anxiety, addiction, or power-mad authoritarians who invade independent countries (just had to add that last one). So it makes sense that falcons and their close cousins, the eagles, represent the concept of courage even today. 

KEEP THE KNIVES LOCKED UP BUT GIVE CLEOPATRA HER DUE

On to our last temple, the Temple of Dendera. On its pillars, walls, and ceiling, we viewed almost-intact ancient interior paintings, considered to be some of the finest in all Egypt. 

Our pictures don’t do justice to how beautiful they are, especially the ceiling in the Hypostyle Hall. Don’t miss this temple if you can possibly help it, if you get to Egypt any time soon. Simply mesmerizing.

We circled the perimeter of the temple, stopping below Cleopatra’s contribution to the temple for Neveen’s history lesson. Cleopatra VII was the last Ptolemy, who carved her son Ceasarion’s image next to her own on Dendera’s outside walls. 

This mural was part of her plan to cement their legacy so Ceasarion, son of Julius Ceasar, could be pharaoh someday. All for naught, alas, as she became the last Egyptian pharaoh ever to hold power and Ceasarion disappeared after her death, leaving no trace except for wall carvings such as this one here or there.

Cleopatra lives on in moviedom’s distortions of Egyptian history, however. While the script of Anthony and Cleopatra, the cheezy 1963 Taylor/Burton version, remained relatively accurate historically, its portrayal of Cleopatra the woman widely missed the mark, according to Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life, who wrote:

Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history: that of women and power…..and clever women, Euripides warned hundreds of years earlier, were dangerous.”

Yay clever women! Romans controlled the narrative after her suicide by snake, though, so Italians and others trashed her memory to ensure a Ptolemy pharaoh never returned to power. The old adage ‘History is written by the winners’ proved true in Cleopatra’s case. Over several centuries, artists (and Hollywood producers) went all in on the sexualized distortions.

In reality Cleopatra proved to be wicked smart, and not particularly pretty, based on the few images of her that survive. She spoke a dozen languages and used her expertise in mathematics, philosophy, oratory, and astronomy to plot her moves. No wonder she ran circles around other power players of the time, until she didn’t. Powerful women seldom reach the heights of power that the real Cleopatra did, so she’s one for the ages, despite her penchant for murder. 

It’s true she murdered with ease (her own sister!), but that was a Ptolemy ‘thing’ so she might have learned that brutal behavior at home, from the fam. Still not a good excuse, but maybe it’s time for a better movie version of her? This time maybe the movie folks will focus on Cleopatra’s genius power moves, rather than all that sex, which she used for, what, you say? For power?  

Of course. I’d still keep the knives locked up around Cleopatra and watch my back, but you’ve got to give it to her. She was something else.

At Dendera Temple’s exit, we shuffled through the obligatory tout-and-shopping gauntlet for our final time. We brushed off the touts’ entreaties with ease, a far cry from our first day in Egypt. What a stressful way to feed a family, I remember thinking more than once, to hope a rich tourist buys a shirt. We didn’t buy much (except the gold thing…thanks, Padre) but others did, so I’m confident our little group did our part to help the Egyptian economy and the multitude of touts we met during our trip. 

AND FINALLY, THE END: COPTIC CAIRO AND HOME

After Dendera we packed up for our early morning flight to Cairo, followed by an afternoon tour of Coptic Cairo’s churches: 

One last important piece of information: Our group took Covid tests before we left the Queen of Hansa, and at lunch the next day Neveen pulled one of our group aside: Oh no. A positive Covid test. 

A taxi immediately whisked our unlucky tour member away to hotel quarantine, at her expense (yay travel insurance – get it). Neveen helped make sure she was retested the same evening, and voila – negative. So it was a false positive, and she was able to join our flight home the next day. 

So all 18 of us tested negative, as well as everyone in two other tour groups – no Covid anywhere. I did see last week on another blog that five members of a Gate 1 trip tested positive, so Omicron must have made its way to Egypt since we left. 

Here in Florida, the virus seems to be receding. Masks are off and I haven’t heard of someone testing positive for a couple weeks. So maybe, finally, the horrid Covid is struggling to find new folks to infect? (Yay vaccines and natural immunity – take that, Covid).

Cross our fingers, since tomorrow morning we complete our Covid tests for the Cruise to Nowhere. Hope we don’t test positive – wouldn’t that be a hoot? Not. As usual, though, I have a backup plan (always – planning’s my thing, even disasters).

By the time we flopped into our Egyptair seats for the long flight back to New York, our heads were beyond full, and new insights keep popping into my brain at unexpected moments. For now, though, for what it’s worth…..this was our amazing Egypt trip. The biggest WOW yet, and we both feel beyond blessed to have had the opportunity to finally visit EGYPT.