Of Pharoahs and Faiths

     Our heads are still spinning after returning from a fantastic cruise from Luxor to Aswan last week. What did we learn? What will remain of all the facts and impressions we received?       

Entrance to the grand temple of Karnak where our guide explained, for one, that temples generally progressed from an open space for the public to progressively darker and more mysterious spaces until the "holy of holies" was reached--the place where the temple god was housed. This plan seemed not unlike the physical plan of Solomon's temple, only the God of the Hebrews stood in solitary contrast to the many Egyptian gods (crocodile god, falcon god, goddess of love, sun god, etc).

Where you see a narrowing above, is actually a hall flanked with many columns on either side, making us feel like dwarfs. This Karnak site is a monumental complex of the New Kingdom begun in 1550 B.C. (dedicated to the king of gods, Amun Re-"the unknowable") spanning 2,000 years of political and religious history. Here, each ruler wanted to "make their mark" with some obelisk, expansion, additional court, etc. --think of all the monuments on the Mall in Washington D.C.

Countless hieroglyphics everywhere tell many stories. These hieroglyphics with the double images of the bees  and papyrus plant, plus the double parallel lines, indicate that the ruler (Sethi I or Rameses II,1279-1231 BC) claimed to be the king of both upper and lower Egypt. The central image that looks like an Egyptian cross is called a "life-key" and indicates eternal life. Below these bold figures are double oblong shapes (cartuches) filled with symbols that indicate the name of the creator. We were reminded of the Chinese "chops" found on Chinese calligraphy indicating the name of the artist.

Hieroglyphic writing was no longer used after about 320 AD.

     This long line of sphinxes originally stretched for 3 kilometers from Luxor Temple to the Karnak temples. The process of uncovering them is still underway. This processional route was used as part of a land itinerary for the feast of Opet--a joyful celebration of re-birth, re-coronation of the pharoah, and the meeting of the gods of the two temples.
    Here I was reminded of the long rows of stone animals that line the route to the Ming tombs near Beijing, China. Death and re-birth always seem to be connected in the mythologies of many cultures.

   Tombs in the Valleys of the Kings were situated on the West bank of the Nile behind other mountains where the first king to be buried thought their graves would be protected from robbers. Now nearly all graves have been plundered but a few still have colorful and interesting hieroglyphics on inside walls. We visited three tombs but could not take photos.(sorry about the underlining which won't go away.)Both tombs and temples show their self-centered preoccupation with the cycle of eternal life through re-birth after death. This stands in contrast to the God of the Hebrews who seemed more concerned about how people should live in this life rather than prepare for the afterlife. The concept of eternal life that resurfaces in the New Testament era is given a different definition through the life and teachings of Jesus that encompasses both this life and the one to come. In this definition lies rest and not a tiresome cycle of appeasement.

   This grandiose mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1457 BC) actually has three levels that are not apparent from this photo. What is apparent on close inspection is that her face has been scratched over or broken wherever it appears. Her adversaries, including her nephew Thutmosis III, wanted to ensure that without a face she has no afterlife and will be given no chance to be reborn. Her name was even left out of some lists of rulers.
   I was reminded of the C.S. Lewis book Till we Have Faces (set in ancient Greece--not far from Egypt) where the main character asks, "How can we meet the gods face to face till we have faces?"

Philae temple was rescued and placed on this island before the Aswan Dam covered it, along with Nubian lands.

We reached it by boat and found it lovely.

Philae was an active temple of Isis worship for 1000 years until Emperor Justinian (527-565 AD) declared the closure of pagan temples. Nevertheless, I am glad some temples have been reopened as historical monuments to help us better understand where some cultural and religious ideas came from.

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The photo to the side shows how Copts scraped off symbols of Isis worship and set up their own altar with a Coptic cross in one corner of the temple. In the temple of Luxor, Christians used one room to hide in when they were under persecution by the Romans. Later, a mosque was built on top of that room.

This inner court of Philae shows some other tourists and a man in local garb. Our tour guide informed us that we were lucky to have come during a time when tourism is down so that we had better access to sites. However, this situation is devastating to the local economies. We did not meet another American on our trip. Our U. S. media is evidently doing a good job of scaring people out of enjoying a good trip to Egypt. Not once did we feel hostility towards ourselves, but we did feel the desperation of folks trying to sell their wares or services to tourists, and I was sad for them.

The upper part of the columns of Kom Ombo temple, located between Luxor and Aswan, show stylistic evidence of the Roman period during which they were constructed by the Ptolemies (180-51 BC). Copts and other folks in later periods carted away parts of this and other temples to use for building materials for their own purposes.

On the walls of the inner temple are found a grouping of surgical instruments being presented to Imhotep, the god of medicine, and a complete pictographic calendar of festivals for the year.

This Nilometer at Kom Ombo, which most temples had, let the ruler know the liklihood of floods and droughts by measuring the heigth of the river's water. In a good year, moderate flooding would deposit the rich silt of the river on the farmlands and ensure abundant crops.Taxation of the populace was based on readings of the Nilometer, which were usually performed by the priests. Projection of a good harvest was cause for a good party!


This is only a small glimpse of our temple tours, but it was an amazing trip that I am so glad we took.

For a fun little explanation of hieroglyphics, you should get The Hieroglyphics Handbook by Philip Ardagh.