Another new day, another early start! Before boarding our Nile river cruise ship this afternoon, we were driven out to the temple of Dendera. I’ve seen the name of this temple spelled multiple ways: Dandara, Denderra, and Dendera to name a few. The drive was through the desert. Interspersed between long stretches of desert were a few “new” cities. The old cities are getting overcrowded and expensive, so the government is building new ones. New Cairo has 8 million residents. These new cities are quite far away, so apparently, one would need a car to get to work since there is no reliable mass transit system.

This particular temple if of the Greco Roman style, built in 2000 BC. The columns are of the corinthian style. An enclosure wall surrounds the complex to protect it from Nile flooding.

The first building we entered had a Coptic cross near the entrance. During Roman times, Christians hid inside ancient Egyptian temples. They moved south from Cairo for safety.

The temple is for the cow goddess, Hathor. She can be seen on the wall suckling the child Horus. There is graffiti from the age of Napoleon.

Before entering the main temple, Walid pointed out a depiction of the God Bes, who helps during childbirth. Every Egyptian woman had a statue of Bes in her home. Bes is also the god of wine and pleasure.

We entered the main temple, dedicated to the goddess Hothar, goddess of love, joy, and music. The interior was black when it was discovered but has since been cleaned up. The faces of the gods depicted were destroyed by Christians.

As we looked up, we saw the goddess of heaven spread across roof depicting sunrise to sunset with 18 boats between. There is much symbolism related to the Egyptian calendar shown on the roof. The blue color visible symbolizes the sky; the scarab, resurrection (though not in the Christian sense).

Unlike other cartouches we had seen, there were many empty cartouches here. During the era that the temple was built, there were many different kings. By the time the builders were informed of a new king, he had been overthrown. So, they gave up and left the cartouches empty.

This temple was built on older temple as shown in the picture below. It was constructed of sandstone, which is harder than limestone. Like Karnak Temple, there is a holy of holies at the end.

We went up a set of stone steps to the chapel on the roof. The high priest would enter this  yearly to renew spirit of the temple God. Notice the black ceiling? This is a replica of the original depicting the Egyptian zodiac. The original resides at the Louvre. The French came and removed it and now refuse to give it back.

A little bit of spicy hieroglyphics is depicted in the Chapel of Osiris. Osiris is “getting ready” for his wife. The tail depicted shows that the king is a “strong bull”.

There is an additional area on the roof that can be entered for an additional fee that you must purchase when you enter the site.

We exited the building and walked around to the back. The main temple to Hothar has gargoyles on the exterior to drain rain (not that there is much here!).

The last image on the back wall is of Queen Cleopatra VII.

Behind the temple is the hospital building. There are deep scratches on the exterior of the temple. These were placed on the temples in order to minimize its “magic”, similar to removing the faces of the gods depicted there.

There is a lake outside for ablution – preparation for worship.

To leave the complex, one must pass through the “valley of the vultures” – aka a shopping area where one can buy souvenirs. One of the shop sellers was ten years old. He told one of our tour members that she must buy from him because he has two children at home to support. Definite points for creativity!

When we returned to Luxor, we boarded our boat (ship?), though we would be docked overnight in Luxor. We were treated to an amazing lunch. The ship, the Hansa Spirit, is owned by Gate 1 and we would be joined by another Gate 1 group for the cruise portion of the tour. We had a bit of free time after lunch before leaving for our next tour, the Temple of Luxor.