Dendarah (Egypt) Temple Visitor and Holiday Guide - Luxor to Qena on an Egyptian Nile Cruise boat and our visit to the Temple at Dendarah.

A Guide to our Trip to Dendarah whilst on holiday in Egypt: - Dendarah is located near the River Nile and is around 65km north of Luxor. There are several ways to get there from Luxor namely by coach excursion, private taxi (we were offered this for 250LE) or by Egypt Nile Cruise boat. We chose the Nil cruise ship mainly for the experience of travelling and seeing part of The Nile - the trip cost 360LE each but did include hotel pick-up and drop-off, the boat trip, a coach to the temple and back plus guided tour and finally a very good on-board meal and later tea and cakes.

Travelling along the Nile on a cruise boat was a real eye-opener for us since you see clearly the conditions in which many people are living - mud huts, washing clothes at the river bank and suffering in one particular stretch of the river enormous pollution from a disgusting riverside factory. Actually the smoke from the chimney affected maybe 10 kms of the trip as it masked the sun to make it almost like early evening.
You leave the river boat at Qena and then are taken to Dendorah in a coach convoy which was escorted by armed police to the Temple - all the side roads were closed off by more armed police and military in order to let us through unimpeded. From the limited amount we could see from the coach Qena seemed a quite modern and pleasant town with trees and nice looking buildings - quite different from scruffy Luxor.
Sadly there was no question of being able to get off the coach and have a better look round. Qena has two bridges, one a road bridge and the other for the railway - this is the first crossing opportunity for vehicles since Luxor' road bridge.

The Nile in Egypt birds seen on the mud banks near Luxor, River Nile Egypt Nile views Egypt-Luxor/The_Nile River Nile Egypt

Our first set of pictures were taken as we went down the Nile from Luxor to Qena at a steady 19km per hour on our river boat. The trip took around 4 hours and was really interesting - seeing the enormous and really varied amount of wildlife sometimes really close up as we passed mud banks, as well as seeing the way people were living with and using the river itself. The river water looked really mucky and all sorts of things were floating around, from driftwood to dead animals - not the place to take a swim. As we passed riverside fields and small villages the children all rushed to the edge of the river bank and shouted and waved.

Nile - Egypt

small Nile side villageRiver Nile towards Qenasmall cargo boat on the Nile near Dendarah
Quite often you could see the slightly older children jumping into their small boats and getting out into the river so that they could surf the wake created by our boat.

The river is really wide in places but appeared to be quite silted at times, apparently the level was particularly low whilst we were there - so that our boat sometimes had to slow right down and zig-zag back and forth to keep a decent channel.

 

Hathor Temple is said to be the best preserved site in Egypt and is dedicated to the Cow God Hathor. It still retains it's roof which is held up by massive carved columns. Most of the walls and parts of the ceiling are decorated, carved or painted. You can get into the underground chamber - this involved going down steep steps with very little headroom but very worth while doing.

Hathor Temple at Dendarah Dendarah Roman Birth House Coptic Church - Dendarah Egypt Hathor in her human form with cow's ears Egypt Dendarah - Hathor temple Columns Dendarah Temple Walls
Hathor Temple Roman Birth House Coptic Church Hathor in her human form with cow's ears Hathor temple Columns Temple Walls

 

Hathor Temple - Carved columns - the roof is still intact Dendarah Hathor - The walls are covered with drawings Egypt Dendarah Hathor Temple Vestibule Dendarah - Wall Releifs Hathor - headed shrine Dendarah Egypt Hathor Temple - Ceiling zodiac
The walls are covered with drawings Wall Releifs Temple Vestibule Hathor - headed shrine Ceiling Zodiac Roof Zodiac

 

Underground Chamber - Hathor You have to bend double to get into these Hathor chambers Egypt - Dendarah - Hathor Temple Dendarah - Cleopatra and her son Caesarion Sacred Lake - Hathor Dendarah Egypt - Roman Birth House
Hathor Underground Chambers Hathor Underground Chambers Outside Hathor Temple Cleopatra and her son Caesarion. Hathor Sacred Lake Roman Birth House

 

The following are some more photos of life and activity on the Nile taken as we returned to Luxor from our Dendarah trip.
River Nile small cargo boat evening on The Nile The River Nile outside of Qena colourful small cargo boat on the Nile Egypt Dusk on the Nile - Egypt
The river is used for transporting everything - we saw barges laden with sugar cane, some with several tractors and trailers and others being used as the local dust-car - and of course lots of small boats ferrying people back and forth across the river too. The return trip took much longer since the cruise-boat was now going against the current - around six hours back.

surfing on the Nile? Egypt Hotel Boat - The Nile Egypt stinky factory next to the Nile Egypt Nile Barges Quiet times on the Nile - Egypt

 

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