Egypt, Ever a Wonder! (Part 8): And Then, There Was Dendera!

- April 5, 2026, Sunday, Easter.

- Ancient Egypt is home to a civilization that reveals more mysteries the more humans understand it. One temple that embodies just that is none other than Dendera Temple in Qena, around an hour north of Luxor. (We booked this day tour at GetYourGuide.)

- Dendera Temple was built in the 4th century BCE and is one of the largest ancient temples in Egypt. It was built during the time of Ptolemy XII until the time of Cleopatra VII (the Cleopatra the whole world knows of). It is dedicated mostly to Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of fertility. 

Dendera.

My tour guide's idea.

Zodiac signs in the sky.

Pillars with the face of Hathor.

Pharaohs giving offerings to gods.

- But more than this, the temple is also known to be a source of great energy. The temple, for instance, shows what people call the "Dendera Light", carvings which appear to depict light bulbs millennia before the year most people knew they were invented. Hence, enthusiasts of the supernatural and aliens have taken an interest in the temple. There are also some people who come to the temple to meditate (which I found out was supposedly not allowed). 

Dendera Light.

Inner shrine for Hathor.

More ceiling carvings.

Hathor's head.

The only temple where I was able to go to the rooftop!

Large pillars with Hathor.

There was an Isis temple at the back.

Inside the Isis temple.

Cleopatra VII and her son Caesarion. They were also the last Ptolemaic pharaohs.

I'm a sphinx!

- Our tour was supposedly a Dendera-Abydos Temple tour. However, our tour guide gave us the option to go to a closer temple, since Abydos was around 2 hours away from Dendera (then 3 hours back to Luxor). While Abydos is an important temple, fortunately, the alternative was one of the other temples that I had wanted to visit as well. Now, we had more time to go around Dendera, and go on a more relaxed pace from there on. (My dad and I were still recovering from our long trip to Abu Simbel the day before, after all.)

- The Medinet Habu was built in 12th century BCE during the time of Ramesses III. It is located near the Valley of the Kings at the West Bank of Luxor. It was a mortuary temple dedicated to himself, as well as to Amun-Ra. What makes this temple more interesting is that the archaeological site that surrounds the temple shows human settlement through different historical periods. This is also one of the temples that also acted as the pharaoh's palace. Speaking of pharaohs' palaces, most of these palaces didn't survive because they were built to last for as far as the pharaoh was alive. However, mortuary temples and burial chambers were built to last forever as death is eternal.

Medinet Habu entrance.


Main temple.

Hieroglyphs.

Bas relief details.

Hypostyle Hall at the back of the temple. This area is in ruins.

Statues of Ramesses III.

 

If you look closely at the bas relief, you'll see Ramesses III on a horse.

I'm standing on there Ramesses III's throne would have been.

The royal toilet. And yes, I'm not joking.

Ruins of various settlements.

Hey there little buddy.

- We had lunch right after our temple visits, and were driven back to our hotel. The drive was quick since we were just at the opposite side of the Nile from our hotel. I spent the early afternoon doing some last minute shopping in El Souk, but had to rush back to the hotel (Hilton Luxor) to hop on a felucca for a one-hour cruise along the Nile (I booked the one we had at the hotel; it was slightly more expensive but at least I didn't have to haggle anymore). The felucca is a traditional boat used in Egypt and nearby countries. I was really really glad I got to do this because there was only one slot left, and all slots left for the rest of the day were already full. Even better, I had the felucca all to myself!!

On a felucca. My boatman, Sharif, is there at the back making sure our boat moves.

My first time to see a wild kingfisher! Sharif pointed it out to me.

This is a tiny island called "Bird Island", and it looks like it's floating along the Nile. Not sure if this is the official name, but that's what Sharif told me. He said it's because there are many kinds of birds on that small island. That's the same kingfisher in the photo above.

It's so hard to take a photo of them. They fly fast!

Pretending to be in charge of the felucca.

View of downtown Luxor (and a bit of the Karnak Temple at the right side.)

Fixing the sails.

I never expected him to go all the way up!!

With another felucca at the back.

Inside the felucca.

- My last day in Luxor was well spent, and over all, Luxor was such an amazing gateway to Upper Egypt. I'm also thankful that there are so many day trip options too, since driving on my own would not have been practical. I learned and immersed myself so much in ancient Egypt during my 5 days in Luxor. At the same time, rural Luxor did make me miss the hustle of urban Cairo!

Egypt, Ever a Wonder! (Part 7): A-Bunch of Temples at Abu Simbel

- April 4, 2026, Saturday.

- Abu Simbel is one of the final frontiers of southern Egypt as it is close to the country's border with Sudan. Abu Simbel is actually still part of the Aswan governorate, which starts from right below Luxor until the border, but it really is so far from most other major tourist sites. Since my dad and I were staying in Luxor, the only thing most Egyptians told us after telling them of our day trip (booked via GetYourGuide) to Abu Simbel from Luxor was "good luck." It was a 6- to 7-hour drive from Luxor, better if from Aswan (around 3 hours). If I only planned our journey trip, I might actually have considered Aswan as a "homebase" in the south rather than Luxor as it appears to be in the middle of everything. Anyway, the only thing we had to do was to start our day at 4:30AM, and with a good driver (which we thankfully had), we reached Abu Simbel in no time. (There was a stopover too for toilet and snacks, but at some point my dad and I really had to pee, so we both were told to pee in the desert - a first experience for us, I guess.)

- Upon arrival at the Abu Simbel temples and meeting our guide, we took no time and immediately went around them. The original temples were built in 13th century BCE. However, due to the construction of the Aswan Dam in the 1960s, the temples had to be relocated to higher ground (similar case to Philae Temple, which we visited the day prior, as well as many other temples in the region). The relocation had to be done with mathematical precision because factors such as when and how the sunlight would illuminate the temple interior had to be considered. Apart from this, an artificial hill had to be created from the same stones and soil from the original location to recreate the look of the original temples.

- The bigger of the two temples was built by and dedicated to Ramesses II. It has four gigantic statues of him at the gate. His family members can be seen standing by his lower legs. Inside the temple's main hall are four statues: Ptah (god of the dead), Amun-Ra (king of gods), Ramesses II (at par with the gods), and Ra-Horakhty (fusion of Ra and Horus).

Spot the not.

The temple was cut up into hundreds of blocks during relocation.

Closer up of Ramesses II's statues.

Inside, see the Osiride Ramesses II statues.

Ramesses II on a chariot.

Left to right: Ptah, Amun-Ra, Ramesses II, and Ra-Horakhty. 

Another spot where one can take photos as one of the Ramesses II statues.

- The smaller temple at the other side of the mountain was dedicated to Hathor, the cow-headed fertility goddess, and Ramesses II's consoert, Nefertari. Unusually, Nefertari's statues at the temple's gate are the same size as Ramesses II's statues; pharaohs often had the largest statues with everyone else's being smaller (as in the bigger temple). The design of the whole temple was meant to be a simpler version of the bigger temple.

At the smaller temple. Notice how Ramesses II and Nefertari are standing alternately.

Pillars bearing images of Hathor (she looks like a human here, but with cow ears.)

From the sanctuary.

Inside the sanctuary.

Ramesses II giving offerings to Ra-Horakhty.

With a view of both temples.

First time seeing a wild falcon. At least, I was tlod it was a falcon.

-These two temples were the only ones we saw the whole day; we went back to Luxor after lunch. While ideally we'd spend some more time in Abu Simbel, these two temples were the main things to see. Other people opt to fly in and out within the day, but the flights from Abu Simbel only go to/from Cairo and Aswan, not Luxor (and I think they should consider flights to/from Luxor too, if possible.) Well, I used the rest of the time in the car to rest and edit photos; we arrived in Luxor just in time for dinner - around 2 hours ahead of our scheduled arrival! 

- I initially had hesitations about going to Abu Simbel because of its distance from Luxor (or anywhere else, really). However, seeing it personally and knowing about its story of relocation made me realize that I was right in trusting my gut to not let these two temples pass. They are remarkable works of ancient Egypt and I am also happy that they were able to restore them as accurately as possible after relocation!