temple of Ramses III, Dendara & countryside

These first ones are of the temple of Ramses the III. This temple is not as much of a tourist "hot spot" so it was nice and quiet. We were 4 of the 7 people viewing this a-maz-ing compound.

Anytime there's a bit of color left on the temple walls it reminds me that at one time, nearly every inch of these buildings were brightly painted. Our tour guide told us that it was a type of fresco process, so the color was actually fused into the wall. They used ground up semi-precious and precious stones for their pigments. How gorgeous it must have been!











Our tour guide was excellent. He took us to several specific carvings and explained their meaning.

This one documents the spoils of war. From what I could gather, and from what I remember, sometimes slaves were taken from conquered lands. Other times, when soldiers were killed in battle the egyptians "gathered" a hand from the slain men and took them back to the pharoe to be counted and recorded. I guesss that's one way of documenting a battle.























These second set of photos are from the temple complex of Dendara. We got up early our second morning in Luxor and drove for about an hour to see this one. It was well worth the drive, and getting there was great because we were able to see the countryside which is made up of small farming communities. I'll include some of those at the end of this entry.





















The quality of this photo isn't so great, but I've included it just to give you an idea of scale.

It's one of the "newer" temples, influenced by greco-roman temples in that it was an enclosed structure, so the lighting made picture taking difficult.
















































































And finally, photos of the small towns and farms in Upper Egypt (which is actually south of Luxor). They have rotating crops. This year sugar cane seems to be the main crop. It was everywhere!