While traveling around the Aswan area, we went to the island of Philae containing a Greek Egyptian temple. Everything there had actually been moved from another island a few decades ago because when the dam was put in, it submerged the original island. Therefore, everything was moved to a higher island so we can still enjoy it.
Speaking of the dam, the Aswan High Dam was our next stop. This massive dam on the Nile River provides a large amount of electricity to modern Egypt. It’s an impressive modern engineering feat.
The next day (Tuesday), we hopped on a bus and started back north, following the Nile and the railway. Philae was not the only Greek temple in Egypt. That day we visited two more Greek temples. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC and founded the port city of Alexandria (Can you guess who he named it after?), a new frontier city facing Greece via the Mediterranean Sea. After Alexander died, his kingdom was split among his generals. Ptolemy took over Egypt, founding the Ptolemaic dynasty that would last under Rome took control of Egypt in 30 BC.
Our first stop was Kom Ombo. This temple is rather unique in that it is dedicated to two gods: Horus (the falcon god) and Sobek (the crocodile god).
Our next stop was Edfu, which is another temple to Horus. All of these temples are covered with images and writing both inside and out. The Egyptians preserved their stories for us to read thousands of years later (if you understand hieroglyphics).
At first glance, these temples don’t look very Greek. They look very Egyptian, in fact. The Greeks realized that in order to be accepted by the Egyptian populace, they needed to become Egyptian. They brought in some of their own styles (the capitals on the columns look more Greek), but they also adopted much of the Egyptian culture. When in Egypt…