Day Tour to Abydos And Dendara From Luxor

ETERNITY. It is what breathes in #Dendera. Following highways that cut the #Sahara desert with asphalt and no gas station in sight, we arrived at Dendera, the city that celebrates the goddess #Hathor. The Goddess of love, motherhood and spiritual fertility has one of the best preserved temples and a spectacular symbology. Hator, who sometimes appears as a cow with his solar disk, represents sublime delivery, love beyond the cosmos, one that can manifest at all levels and is able to unite all things and keep them. The Hator temple with its 24 columns representing the 12 hours of the day and the 12 hours of the night is a synthesis of the cosmos. This is where several images call us for reflection and three especially enchanted me: * One that brings bouquets of lotus flowers and papyri, each with 7 flowers. They evade, in the lower part, linked to the physical and the pranic, the dominated personality and, after all, this is our pursuit. The upper part of the bouquet, relates to the spirit, the interconnection of everything that exists. * The other image brings the Anubis’ stick; The #Djed column, symbol of stability, and the cross #Ank or Ansata, the life’s key, as if they were holding hands. * Also the columns that support the temple of Hator are especially significant, show a head of the goddess on each side with the symbolism of the 4, the elements, the states of matter, the personality...

We headed out of Qena the short distance towards Dandara temple. Here there were lots more tourist buses and private cars also visiting. This one I remember visiting but a lot has changed over the years. I need to check the photos I took then against the ones I have taken today to confirm the differences. Dedicated to Hathor the carvings and paintings adorning the walls and ceilings still so colourful after all these years. Even the passageways up to the roof and upper temple were intricately decorated and memories came flooding back of my previous visit. Here we observed the zodiac and the signs we still use today. After bravely stating that I would go down into the crypt by the time I got down the steps there was someone else crawling up, that space so small I decided that my best plan of action was to accept the limitations of age and make a hasty retreat!

Located on the west bank of the Nile River on the edge of the desert, this massive complex dates back to the mid-rth century BC. Many examples of Ptolemaic Egyptian art adorning its chambers. We went with a group and a egyptoligist for a guide. That helped us understand what we were seeing.

An amazig temple in upper Egypt only 60 km north of luxor dates back to the Greek and Roman timean times.this temple has a very astonishing and impressive ceiling in the first hypostye with wonderful astronomical themes. 0

This temple is about 1.5hrs from Luxor, but probably my favorite temple. Magnificent drawings. They look original vs the restored ones in Luxor. Multiple floors going up. Don't forget to go down to the crypt too, though there is a slight amount of crawling through a small entrance.

Dendara has the vibe of the quiet off-the-path Luxor locations (Seti 1 Temple...), but is extremely well preserved. The colors are really impressive and the corridors (up and down into the crypt) really kept our kids interested. Definately wrth the hour + trip from our hotel in Luxor. Being able to plan it ourselves had the added bonus of our arriving without any tour buses at all and only a single other family. Avoiding the tour buses has become an obsession of ours! We even enjoyed the ride up from Luxor. It is nice to see the "real" rural Egypt, even if its just a glipmse. We live in Cairo and had come to believe the whole country was covered with trash, but not so. It is sugar cane harvesting, so kinda neat to see the little trains pulling the many cars full or sugar cane. Overall, one of the highlights of our trip to Luxor- probably not far off the beaten track, but certainly felt like it.

For 120 Egyptian pounds you will be amazed how beautiful this temple was made,the painting and drawings on the big columns and ceilings was a sight to behold,each room have their own distinct drawings of sketches in color, the narrow passageway going to the roof was something to see because the walls have curvings on both sides,must see.

Dendera is one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt, dedicated to the goddess Hathor. Since it is usually visited first on the excursion to Luxor, it is somehow is associated with early morning and the rise of civilization (though it has been actually built quite late, mainly in Greco-Roman times). One of the main features of the temple is the Dendera zodiac, the round calendar on the ceiling which is often represented in albums and postcards. Come and see it with your own eyes!

This is a Greco-Roman temple from the time of the Ptolemies. There are some older parts and the site itself is much older, but the main temple is 'only' 2100 years old. There are several good reasons for visiting such a 'modern' temple: 1. The Hypostyle Hall still has a roof, complete with ceiling paintings which have been cleaned/restored to show the brilliant colours. 2. The crypt is still intact and you are allowed down to look at the reliefs. 3. The roof areas are still accessible, except for the highest one. 4. It's a lot less crowded than the temples in Luxor.

Should you make the 3-hour round trip from Luxor to visit Dendera? Yes! The beautifully restored main temple is dedicated to goddess Hathor and is virtually intact, complete with dark chambers, underground crypts, twisting staircases and rooftop access. The ceiling in the magnificent Outer Hypostyle Hall was cleaned in 2011, revealing incredibly colored paintings (the blues are so vivid!). Hathor, goddess of the sky, women, fertility, and love, among others, is frequently depicted as a woman with the ears of a cow or wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk. The Dendera complex also has shrines to numerous other gods as well as the ruins of a Coptic Basilica. Look for the Dendera Zodiac in the rooftop temple (this is a replica; the original is in the Louvre). Also do not miss the famous scene of Cleopatra with Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar, on the rear wall of the main Temple. About the trip from Luxor: While the rural countryside makes for a pretty drive, it’s a long bumpy ride with stops for frequent roadblocks. Our Gate 1 bus was normally just waved thru, but there was a lot of stop and go. If you’re prone to motion sickness, you might want to take something before you leave Luxor.