Egypt: Day 9 (Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Relaxation and a Movie)

The ship set sail for Qena (Luxor to Qena) at 5:30 AM to visit the Temple of Hathor. This was the first time the ship moved so we realized early in the morning that the ship is loud! Hathor was the goddess of fertility and wet nurse and wife of the god Horus.

Entering the Temple of Hathor. It's one of the best preserved temples because it's one of the "newer" ones.

Temple of Hathor. When Christians took over the temple, they defaced her statues because they wanted to use it as a place of worshiping God (and not a bunch of gods).

Temple of Isis, right outside the Temple of Hathor. Isis is the mother of Horus.

I love taking artsy pictures of the hubby.

What it looks like when you walk in.

Interior wall inside of the temple (this was pretty typical).

Columns inside of the temple.

Even though it's a well preserved temple, restoration is in process. The left side was caused by smoke stains and the right side shows a cleaned ceiling. When early Christians took over the temple, they used oil lamps that coated the ceilings with soot.

We descended into a crypt (you were on your hands and knees just for a little bit) to see a carving of a falcon. This falcon is a representation of the god Horus.

Taking pictures of the falcon.

Movin' on up.

On the roof of the Temple of Hathor. This temple is unique because you can go on the roof.

View from on the roof. The mud brick walls protect the temple from flooding of the River Nile. The start of the Sahara Desert is in the background. FYI - Sahara actually means desert so it's like Desert Desert.

Note: My husband has an AMAZING memory of all of this and he provided the history on this section. I'm pretty much a work-a-bee in this entry. He's starting to call himself an Egyptologist.

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We then set sail back to Luxor. We enjoyed the scenery on the River Nile. Here's a few pictures from the top level of the ship (notice the swimmers in some of the pictures, a lot of people swam in the River Nile to cool off. By the way, you can get a deadly bug swimming in it).

Also, I napped and Dave went to a lecture on Hieroglyphs and Arabic.

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At night, we watched a movie in the lounge, "Death on the Nile". The movie was made in 1978 with an all-star lineup (that's what the other passengers told us). It was a good, cheesy, old movie. We pigged out on the popcorn!

This is the lounge on the ship. River cruise ships are much smaller than ocean cruise ships - this ship held about 180 people total including staff workers.