During the afternoon the ship sailed through Esna Locks and towards our next stop at Kom Ombo.

We were kept amused by local tradesmen in small boats who lassoed themselves along side, balancing precariously in the wash, and throwing up their wares to the sundeck and later to our balcony for us to buy.

They had to be accurate as it must have been more than five metres above them as you can see from the photos.

Unfortunately they were not so good at bartering and the prices were too high compared to the shops on board.

The next day the landscape had begun to change from desert sand to fertile green land.

Kom Ombo

This temple stands on a small hill overlooking the Nile, it is the unification of two adjacent temples, one dedicated to the crocodile headed Sobek, God of fertility and creator of the world and the other dedicated to Horus, the falcon headed, solar war God.

Despite packing independently Derry and I were always very well coordinated !

The hieroglyphics and reliefs were carved much deeper in this temple and therefore they were very clear to interpret.

Below the reliefs around the outside walls show rows of enemies captured and tied up and the next picture shows the two Gods, one with the crocodile head and one with the Falcon head, they are both holding the key of life in one hand and the sceptre of the Gods in the other.

The first picture below is an Egyptian calendar, a dating system established several thousand years before the Christian era, the first calendar known to use a year of 12 months and 365 days,

The second picture depicts a birthing chair and adjacent a whole series of surgeons instruments, scalpels, forceps etc., confirming the high degree of skill achieved by Egyptians in the field of medicine.

Of course all these carvings would have been painted in bright colours which have now faded.

It is amazing that these monuments had been buried in sand for thousands of years before being uncovered again from the late 1700’s, and, in fact, archaeologists are still uncovering artefacts from Ancient Egyptian civilisation today.