This is part of my series on Egypt:
East Bank of Luxor: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/east-bank-luxor-egypt
West Bank of Luxor: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/west-bank-luxor-egypt
Dendera and Abydos - Day Trip from Luxor: This page.
Edfu and Kom Ombo Day Trip - Between Luxor and Aswan: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/edfu-and-kom-ombo-day-trip
Philae and Abu Simbel - Aswan: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/philae-and-abu-simbel
Egyptian Pyramids: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/egyptian-pyramids
Tips for Visiting Egypt: https://jimmy1photo.wixsite.com/blog/post/tips-for-visiting-egypt
Dendera and Abydos can be visited on a day trip from Luxor. Both temples are massive and well preserved. The unique features of these temples are the interior. They are definitely worth visiting if you have time in your itinerary.
Using hired car, it took us 2.5 hours (1-way) from Luxor to Dendara. Then it took another 1.5 hours from Dendara to Abydos. And the return from Abydos to Luxor took 2.5 hours. So just the drive took 6-7 hours. Again, this is with privately hired car. If you are with group tour, it can take longer, as there are bathroom stops, lunch stop, souvenir shop stops.
Although the distance is not that far, the road was extremely poor condition. Luxor to Dendara is 75 km or 46 miles, but that drive (1-way) took 2.5 hours. Many places had dirt road. And there were multiple spots where construction was ongoing. The car could only travel around 25 mph in many sections. And in the worse road conditions, can only go 5-10 mph.
There were less visitors and tour groups at both of these sights, compared to Luxor. At Dendera, there were some tour groups, but probably < 10% of the tourists compared to Luxor. At Adydos, there were no tour buses at all. All the visitors were traveling with small private or hired cars and minivans. So it was definitely a lot less hectic and relaxing in comparison to Luxor sights.
Dendara
This temple complex contains the Temple of Hathor and Temple of the birth of Isis. This is the front view of Temple of Hathor:
Temple walls on the outside are fully covered with drawing and hieroglyphs:
Once we enter Temple of Hathor, we were awed with the massive columns holding up entire roof that is still intact. It is well lit by the large entry way. We can even see the colors on the columns and the roof. I can imagine this is how Karnak Temple at Luxor looked if the roof was still intact.
Inside, there are multiple rooms and shrines. All surfaces are fully covered with drawings and hieroglyphs:
Typical Egyptian temples have staircase on the right to go up to the roof; this loops around in rectangular shape. And there is staircase that descends on the left; typically a long, straight staircase. And Dendera has a great example of these staircases, and these are open to visitors.
On the roof, there is a room dedicated to Osiris with the Dendera Zodiac. Unfortunately it was taken by European colonists and now sits in Louvre. There is a replica that sits there now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_zodiac.
This is the staircase that goes up:
This is the staircase that goes down:
Abydos
After visiting Dendera, we thought there was no way Abydos can compete. Wow, we were in for a treat. Obviously, there is no way to compare if one is better than another. They are different. Both are well worth the visit.
Adydos has the Temple of Seti I. This is another massive temple. It is only single level, unlike Dendera. But is is massive, even bigger than Dendera. However, it is not as well preserved as Dendera, as it is older.
Entrance path toward Temple of Seti I:
On the exterior the temple, many sections are repaired:
Main entrance hall didn't look so great. First of all, it was very dark. We could see better in person, but extremely difficult to take handheld photographs. Some parts of the roof were damaged and repaired. Other parts were black, likely due to soot from fire.
There were couple areas where light rays entered the temple thru small windows. This allowed allowed some light for photography, and also created interesting light rays:
The drawings here are older. Some used negative relief patterns. This means the background is chiseled away, so the pattern forming the image is raised. This required a lot more work. In comparison, later drawings have the pattern chiseled into the surface.
There are many rooms and shrines. This room has well preserved ceiling:
At the rear of the temple, there are halls and rooms that extend almost the entire width of the temple.
This is Abydos King List, which is a complete list of the 76 kings of ancient Egypt. This provided complete names and dates of the Egyptian kings. Some pharaohs were excluded from the list, because they were considered illegitimate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abydos_King_List
In terms of interior preservation, Dendera was the best that we saw. Abydos, while not as well preserved, still provided unique drawings (negative relief). And both had much less crowds. So I could easily shoot photos without tourists in the scene.
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