egypt
Lateen-sailed feluccas skim around lush islands on the wide yawn of the Nile while a backdrop of tangerine-hued dunes loom over the fertile riverbank thread
Edfu
Cruising the Nile Valley between Luxor and Aswan offers up scenic vistas of sun-dappled countryside . Sugarcane fields and tiny villages slide past while egrets perch like baubles in the feather-fronds of date palms . Upriver ( south ) from Luxor , the fortress-like pylon ( gateway ) of the Temple of Horus at Edfu is one of the Nile ’ s major attractions . Edfu was a cultcentre for the worship of falcon-headed Horus throughout pharaonic history . The Ancient Egyptians believed this was the site of the final battle between Horus ( son of Osiris and Isis ) and his uncle Seth ( god of violence and disorder ).
The temple was built relatively late , during the Ptolemaic period , which explains its remarkable state of preservation . Construction began in 237 BCE under Ptolemy III , and was completed in the reign of Ptolemy XII ( father of Cleopatra ). Carved into the entrance pylon are two mammoth wall reliefs of Ptolemy XII , posed mid-stride while presenting defeated enemies to Horus . Within the temple , the two sights not to be missed are the Passage of Victory reliefs , depicting scenes from Horus and Seth ’ s battle , and the inner-temple laboratory , where the walls are covered in scent-blend recipes to aid the priests who once created incense here .
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