By evening, the cruise boat had reached the town of Kom Ombo. Once the boat docked, it was time to visit the Temple of Kom Ombo in the evening. It was already dark. So it was going to be enjoying the temple with it being lit up.

Our local guide picked us up from our boat once the boat had docked. We just walked over to the temple given that it was located quite close to the river. This temple is actually a double temple; meaning it is dedicated to two gods. The southern half is dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek and the northern part is dedicated to the falcon god, Haroeris (aka Horus).

Here is the entrance to the temple.

Here are some of the other pictures that I took as we explored the temple along with our guide.

We finally visited the Crocodile Museum which houses many of the crocodile mummies discovered in the vicinity.

We finally said goodbye to our local guide and headed to the boat, in time to catch dinner.

The boat sailed during the night and reached Edfu, further up the Nile. The early morning would be spent visiting the Temple of Edfu. The Temple of Edfu is the largest one dedicated to the falcon god Horus and goddess Hathor. And what a good experience we had that morning.

As usual our local guide picked us up from the cruise boat, before dawn break. Out on the dock, we were not to walk to the temple, unlike the previous evening. Instead we were to take a horse drawn carriage to the temple, given the longish distance.

The carriage driver dropped us off at the designated parking area near the entrance of the temple. Since we had pre-purchased tickets, we did not need to stand in the serpentine queue. Once scanned we were in. Here are some views of the main entrance as we approached it.

And finally, here is the entrance.

The rising sun gave interesting hues to the sky, don’t you think? Now here is one more closeup picture of the entrance.

Now it was time to explore the insides of the grand structure. We did two rounds of it. And why two? Well, the first was with guide as he took us around explaining the various structures and history. During this round, many other visitors were also present. It was difficult to see all the parts undisturbed. Taking photos without others in them was also challenging. As we came closer to the top of the hour, most other tourists headed back to the parking area. That gave us a chance to go around once more to the key spots and take some pictures. Here are some of the pictures from the inside:

And here are some from around the structure:

And finally from near the entrance again.

Eventually we caught our horse carriages back to the cruise boat.

Summary

The Temple of Edfu is one of the most intact structures. And having a local guide who was able to immerse us into some of the history and customs followed at that time, elevated our experience. This temple is definitely worth the visit. So make sure it is in your list of temple to visit when on the Nile cruise.