Tuesday, August 10, 2010

They Had to Have Magical Powers!-No.They Were Just African

Today was another day with a very calm environment despite Re possibly giving us the biggest kiss he has given us to date. It seems that the majority of us of were sleep on the bus ride to and from both temples.



Today, we visited Kom Ombo famous for its double Holy of Holies and where there are engravings of the first representation of medical instruments for performing surgery, including scalpels, curettes, forceps, dilators, scissors and medicine bottles. It seems crazy to me that things we still use today were created or discovered and used for the same purposes thousands of years ago. Kom Ombo later became a Greek settlement during the Greco-Roman period. The Greeks did not try to impose but tried to synthesize Egyptian culture.









Edfu is the temple of Horus and is the second largest single most preserved temple in the world. It tells the story of Horus’ triumph over Set (disorder, conflict, seek of power) -never deleted but defeated in order to maintain order in the universe. The engravings were so immaculate, so incredulous, and so intricate. It was so unfathomable. Also, everything in every temple is so perfectly aligned and carved. The Egyptians oriented this temple as they did the others in line with the solar cycle. I do not know why we are still amazed by all of these things after a week of seeing all these extraordinary works. One of my peers is still so amazed that she posed the explanation to this greatness as the Egyptians having magical powers. I said, “No. They were just African.” That in itself should have you expecting greatness beyond measure.

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