Pole to Pole
Day 59: Luxor to Aswan

After breakfast we put in at Kom Ombo, twenty-five miles from Aswan, to visit the Temple of Sobek, the sacred crocodile. Pat is persuaded to come along despite claiming she has 'temple fatigue', and despite a brisk wind which is continually blowing her straw hat off.
'This hat's a mixed blessing,' I hear her muttering, as she chases it across the Hypostyle Hall.
Abdul, his hairless skull protected by a knitted white cap, is a proficient but intimidating guide. He reels off facts, figures, details and explanations with unassailable authority and then fixes us with a piercing gaze,
'Any questions?'
Having learnt in the last thirty seconds that the frog is a symbol of life, that this temple is dedicated to a sparrowhawk as well as a crocodile, that women in ancient Egypt delivered babies in a sitting position and that in the mummification process the brain was pulled out through the nostrils, no one really knows where to begin.
Choose another day from Pole to Pole
PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Pole to Pole
- Day: 59
- Country/sea: Egypt
- Place: The Nile
- Book page no: 128
Bookmarks will keep your place in one or more series. But you'll need to register and/or log in.
RELATED LINKS
- Egypt
- Day 7
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Day 8
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Day 9
- Around the World in 80 Days