December 23 -- Temples at Abydos and Dendera (by Lou)

Built by Seti I and his son, Rameses II over 3000 yrs ago, the Temple of Seti I at Abydos was built over a much earlier temple from predynastic times.  Concerned with re-establishing the traditional gods after Akhenaten established monotheism, Seti I built an exquisite Temple housing chapels for the major gods.  Osiris himself was believed buried here and as a result, Abydos became the center of the major cult that grew up around him.  Egyptians would try to visit here at least once in their lifetime.  The severe exterior is akin to the Memorial Temple of Hatshepsut in the valley of the kings but inside, the dramatic interior columns and wall relief carvings are among the best and richest the ancients produced.  Their detail and color are astounding and rather than attempting to read the mythology, I found myself focused on details of the art, as you'll see in the following photos.

 

The round trip drive alone to Abydos and Dendara from Luxor took over 6 hours and it was an opportunity to see a bit of Egypt bypassed by our various flights.  Stark desert dominated our morning drive and, lush farm fields and trees in groves along the canals, framed the way back.  Farm fields are small, divided among families, short berm walls allow each section to be watered independently.  We saw one man in traditional garb working his rototiller, while another hauled his produce on a donkey cart.  Donkeys, cows, and shepherded goats shared the roads with scooters and motorcycles, putt-putts and cars, vans and busses.  Asking our driver to stop for a coke, he said he'd find a supermarket and by gum he did, at a store that measured all of 300 sq ft called 'super market.'  There are many such stores so named but unaffiliated.  We saw little towns with narrow winding dirt streets, and one urban area with elevated highways.  In between, we saw one large line of connected irrigation pipes on wheels suggesting possible industrial farming but Egypt is ancient and complicated.  Land rights are especially complicated and every now and then the government uses a heavy hand to enforce new decrees, such as when we saw new housing construction bulldozed because it was illegally built on once cultivated farm land.  The colonial era brought its version of foreign land rights to complicate things further.  Meanwhile, dams have stopped the flooding that for eons fertilized the arable land.  Ethiopia is now building a dam that could restrict the Niles flow into Egypt altogether.  Unfortunately, the government seems not to be in a position to be assertive internationally focusing instead on internal issues of the last few troubled years.  Meanwhile the population keeps growing and can only feed itself through imports as arable land is so limited.  The country produces very little for export and relies heavily on tourism.  Safety and security are attended to very well but tourism is down at this time.  But the monuments are eternal and compelling, as we found once again in Dendara.

The outer hypostyle hall of the Temple of Hathor at Dendara, built by the Roman emperor Tiberius, demonstrates how even under Roman rule, Egyptian traditions were kept intact.  This same technique was employed by Alexander the Great to rule after conquest.  The Roman outer hall utilized 24 enormous columns adorned with Hathors head.  The Ptolemaic or Greek inner hypostyle court also features columns with Hathors image.  These more public spaces lead toward a hall of offerings behind which is the sanctuary, reserved for priests, and usually of much more simple design but here, the detail is refined and exquisite throughout.  Particularly exciting is that much of the original color remains as do many more rooms often in ruin elsewhere.  This temple is remarkable for being the most intact including stairways and the roof,  East and west processional staircases to and from the roof are highly decorated and on the roof itself is a chamber with a ceiling zodiac.  The Dendara complex is much more than the Temple of Hathor.  It's extensive outer walls protected other temples, a sacred lake, a sanatorium, a later basilica and other ruins.  The Temple of Hathor however, so complete and intact, allowed a fuller image of all the previously visited Temples we've encountered.