Hatshepsut Temple and the Colossi of Memnon

On July 12, 2018 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Egypt10 Comments

There are so many fascinating sights to see when visiting Luxor, Egypt that you could easily spend a week or more in the area. Although the Valley of the Kings and Karnak Temple are absolute must-see’s, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon should also be on your list. They are both located on the west bank of the Nile outside of Luxor and we visited them after spending several hours in the Valley of the Kings. As with a lot of the things that you will find in Egypt, these are both amazing partially due to their sheer size.

Statues Outside of the Hatshepsut Temple’s Main Building

The Hatshepsut Temple is dedicated to both the god Amun as well as Hatshepsut, who was the greatest female pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Her reign begin in 1507 BCE and lasted for about 50 years. Her influence can be found throughout the temples of Egypt and she was responsible for the creation of the largest obelisks in Karnak Temple. The temple itself is considered one of the greatest architectural achievements of ancient Egypt with a style that resembles the classic Greek architecture that would follow about a thousand years later. It took 15 years to complete the construction of the temple and it is quite impressive, especially with the backdrop of the mountains behind it. Djeser Djeseru (holy of holiest) is the name of the main building and is also sometimes used to refer to the entire temple.

The Colossi of Memnon are two enormous statues representing Amenhotep III who reigned in the 13th century BCE. Both statues, which are about 60 feet high (18 meters), face the Nile River. Although the Mortuary of Amenhotep III, which was located behind the statues, no longer exists do to floods and the common practice of taking stones from older monuments to create new ones, the statues themselves are quite impressive. You don’t need to spend a lot of time to see the statues, but they are definitely worth putting on your itinerary. By the time that we made it to them, we were exhausted from walking through the tombs and temples in the extreme heat.

Egypt is such an amazing country with a history that stretches back over 5000 years. Our time in Luxor was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, if not our favorite place. We spent two days in the area and wish that we could have spend more time.

Temple of Horus in Edfu, Egypt

On June 11, 2018 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Egypt4 Comments

On the second day of our cruise down the Nile River, we stopped in Edfu to visit the Temple of Horus (also known as the Temple of Edfu). It is one of the best preserved ancient temples in Egypt as it was buried by sand, which allowed most of the features to remain intact. The temple was built during the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC and was dedicated to Horus who was the son of Isis and Osiris. He is typically depicted as a man with the head of a falcon, or just as a falcon, and is considered to be an avenging god.

Getting to the temple from the dock was as fascinating as visiting the temple itself. After leaving the ship, we jumped into a horse-drawn carriage and made our way through the sandy streets of Edfu. The streets are lined with shops that contain everything from clothes to freshly baked bread. There is a constant stream of carriages as travelers are hustled from the many ships that arrive throughout the day to the temple on the other side of the town. It is a wonderful glimpse into the daily lives of the locals who live in this busy tourist destination.

The temple itself is quite spectacular, from its typical twin towers with hieroglyphs to the lotus flower columns that line the inside of the temple. Two of the more interesting features of the temple is the statue of Horus that looks as if it could have just been carved yesterday and the temple room with the ritualistic ship inside. The details as you walk through the temple complex are truly amazing and our guide made sure to stop and share important information about the stories that were told on the various walls, rooms, and stairways. We spent about two hours exploring the temple in the desert heat and were exhausted by the time we returned to our ship.

Although Edfu is not as easy as some other locations to get to from Cairo, it is certainly worth going there. We went to several temples during our trip to Egypt, but seeing the Temple of Horus was definitely one of the most memorable. Only the Temple of Karnak, due to its size, was more impressive to visit.

Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai, India

On September 5, 2017 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn India12 Comments

Visiting the Kapaleeshwarar Temple was one of the very first things that we did during our trip to Chennai, India. Seeing all of the details and colors throughout the temple grounds was absolutely fascinating. When you visit the temples, you have to remove your shoes and there was actually a little stand where you left your shoes, kind of like checking your coat. To be honest, since no one spoke English, it was a little bit of a confusing process and we weren’t sure that we would actually get our shoes back, but our concerns were unwarranted.

IMGP2779 — Kapaleeshwarar Temple entrance in Chennai, India

The grounds of the temple were extremely crowded during the time that we visited, but considering the population of Chennai, that certainly wasn’t surprising. Kapaleeshwarar Temple is a temple to worship Shiva, who is a Hindu Deity. From our understanding, at Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Shiva is worshiped as a peacock and you will even notice a peacock centrally located on the ornate roof of the main temple entrance. There are two entrances to the temple, each with ornately decorated buildings called a gopuram.

Visiting the temple was extremely fascinating and was a wonderful initiation into our understanding of the Hindu religion, which is so important to the people of Chennai. There is an annual festival that takes place at the temple in mid-March to mid-April that lasts for nine days and apparently is almost carnival-like, but we were there in February, so we weren’t able to see the festival. Seeing how busy and bustling the temple was during a normal day, we can only imagine what it would be like during a festival.

There is so much detail that we couldn’t even absorb any of it during our visit to the temple. Thank goodness that we have several photos to capture the images as that is the only way that we can even begin to understand the images. We would love to learn more about the various gods and deities that are depicted and hopefully we’ll have the chance to visit it once again in the future.