Your professional Egyptologist guide will meet you at your hotel in Aswan in the early morning to start your amazing tour today. You will be smoothly transferred in a private and air-conditioned vehicle along the Nile Valley northward toward two important and famous religious centers of ancient Upper Egypt. Unlike the other monumental temples of central Luxor, Kom Ombo and Edfu preserve a fascinating and important chapter of Egypt's later temple-building tradition, when the powerful Ptolemaic rulers continued presenting themselves as pharaohs and deliberately maintained ancient Egyptian religious customs.
You will start your adventure by visiting Kom Ombo because its twin design is a direct and clear reflection of local geography and politics. Kom Ombo sat on the ancient border between two great rival cult territories: the domain of the famous Sobek, the crocodile god downstream toward Edfu, and the domain of Haroeris, which is known as Horus the Elder, upstream toward Aswan, and the Ptolemaic rulers deliberately fused both cults under one roof to bind the two regions together and reinforce their own legitimacy as powerful pharaohs over Upper Egypt. We will take you to enjoy a hearty lunch and take some rest.
Then we will continue north through the beautiful Nile Valley toward Edfu to visit the enchanting temple of Edfu. This temple's religious identity revolves around the famous god Horus. One of the central and well-known myths connected with the temple concerns the great battle between Horus and Seth. Construction of this unique and surviving temple began under the famous Ptolemy III Euergetes I in 237 BCE and continued for many generations before its completion under Ptolemy XII. This lengthy construction period is very important because the temple was not the product of a single ruler's ambition.
After finishing this amazing and informative tour, we will take you back to your hotel in Aswan.