Temples II – The Cult of Isis
So the second day of our two days outside of Luxor took us to Abydos and Dendera temples. Since we were not headed towards Aswan, the convoy is considerably smaller and therefore the visits are a lot nicer. Both temples are in exceptional condition. Abydos has seven temples dedicated to the seven main gods including Osiris, Isis and Horus. Because its ceiling remained in place, its hieroglyphs are in top condition. Dendera is mostly known for its zodiac which may be the oldest astrological artifact in the world. It was taken by the French and resides in Paris (of course!), but a replica is in place.
During the visit to Abydos, a Frenchman in a large group was smoking a cigarette. He was asked to put it out, but he complained. It is unbelievable all the stupid things that the large groups do such as using flashes, smoking and yelling as if the place they are visiting does not matter and certainly not the other visitors. We witness people doing these things and acting like they own the sites while there each day. If a rule needs to be broken, they actually offer the “guards” baksheesh to ignore it or help them.
All was going well since we had a good amount of time here and we were able to maneuver around the groups. I was moving fairly quickly after our guided tour so that I could photo the best sections and especially the reliefs. I moved from the Osiris sanctuary into the Isis sanctuary with only ten minutes before we all had to leave when I found a group of women in the room. They were obviously meditating, but there was strangeness in all of it. First, they sat on the floor with legs out forward and they were scattered around making it very difficult to not step on one. They also had two children with them making all kinds of noise which was quite audible even over the racket that the large groups were making down the hall. The temple is large, but it also echoes all kinds of noise throughout. I took four photos in five minutes and the a woman told me that I was very disturbing to them and I needed to leave. I should have just ignored her or maybe stuck my tongue out at her, but instead I opened my big mouth and told her that it was a public area that I had paid to be in. She was pissed and all of the women hissed at me (in my mind at least). I could feel the evil eye now from tourists. I almost think it is going to catch up to me this time. I took two more photos (she did not say anything to me until I was almost out of the room) and left. I noted the booming of the groups did not seem to bother them and the couple of men with this group remained outside of the room.
The day before our first guide related an episode where a woman in a group he was leading was crying at a statue of a ram. I think this was Karnak. She placed her hands on the feet of the statue and then she started to smile and laugh and she told him that she was now pregnant. He said “but her husband was not with her”. Apparently, the statue is some kind of fertility icon and she believed in some powers it might have. Well, when I played back the episode with the mad meditationists I realized that they were in Isis’ sanctuary and she has fertility and magic powers. The children were allowed to be in there making a racket. The whole place was loud. The men were barred from entering. And then me, a male, was in there making four very low click noises over a five minute period. Now I get it, they did not like my masculine intrusion on their fertility voodoo session. Now I understand their apparent seething. I was screwing it all up for them. Nothing to do with my “noise” it had to do with my presense. It was very personal to them. I decided they belonged to a cult and had actually heard of Cult of Isis so that’s what I labeled them. Since then I have looked it up, but I find no references for a modern following. I don’t know what their deal was, but I did tell Peggy to stay clear of me for the rest of the day because these women might attack. We stayed clear of them as best as possible at Dendera. Excuuuuuse meeee for believing my right to be there was just as equal as theirs. Sorry they felt they owned the place because they had something special to do. I hate to imagine one of them becoming half pregnant or whatever else may have gone wrong on this breakdown between them and the gods.
Tags: Africa, egypt, Travel
vagabondrick
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