December 30, 2009 Edfu, Cruising the Nile, Kom Ombo
           
We were awakened at 8:00, mercifully; we all needed the sleep. After an excellent breakfast aboard our boat we disembarked at Edfu. During the night we passed through the lock at Esne after a long wait in line behind about 30 other boats. A bus met us and whisked us to the nearby Temple of Horus, the Falcon god, and Sobek, the Crocodile god. The high walls were decorated intensely with hieroglyphs and historical/religious art cut into Nubian sandstone. All of it was exquisitely preserved. Hala guided us around through the highlights. It was extremely crowded. I waited at least 10 minutes before I could look in to see the ceremonial boat at the back of the temple. After an hour, we started to head back to the bus and boat.
           
The entrance to the temple is lined by a gauntlet of aggressive vendors. After Hala warned us about them, on the way in, one of them tied a scarf around me and asked my name, I told him it was Mark. I took the scarf off as soon as I was out of sight and took off my hat while putting on sunglasses, but did not enhance my disguise enough and he recognized me on the way out. He kept yelling “Mark” but I told him my name was Jim and walked away. I ignored his plea to return the scarf and disappeared into the crowd. A laid back vendor invited me into his shop. I entered and eventually bought a nice alabaster vase from him and helped a couple of students buy things from him. Brian Watson bought a small sword.
           
We returned to the boat for lunch and were soon underway heading upriver to the south. It was a beautiful, relaxed afternoon sitting and watching the riverbank go by, talking geology, archeology, and many other topics. Brian Burgess was pretty funny in his commentary on the soundtrack.
           
We passed Gebel Silsila, the Nubian sandstone quarry for the Karnak temple, on the east bank. Tombs of the workers were dug into the cliffs of the west bank.
           
After the sun went down, a Nile sunset dinner was served in the dining room. We docked at Kom Ombo and disembarked to visit the beautifully illuminated Crocodile Temple with Hala once again in the lead. It was a great temple with lots of inscriptions and a hypostyle colonnade. After the official tour ended, we roamed around, finding a deep well and a lot of small sarcophagi.

A quick walk back to the boat was all we needed before shoving off for the overnight cruise to Aswan. Not surprisingly most of us ended up on the upper deck with a beer in hand. The Brevard students once again migrated to the hot tub. I stayed up talking with Lynne until about 11:00 when I went below and turned in.