Egypt Day 12

Today we got off the boat and went to see one of the places where they used to make the obelisks. There was one that they just left there because it was cracked, so it was like part way done. It was really cool to see it. Then we went to see the Aswan dam and found out that this one dam supplies like 11% of the electricity for all of Egypt. Then we took a motor boat out to this Island where they moved Philea temple. It was amazing how much writing was on the walls and the pictures that were carved into everything. It took them 8 years to move it because when the Nile flooded, it was underwater. There are stories in all the hieroglyphics and I am going to have to learn more about them. It is amazing how similarly people in different places looked for God and discovered very similar things. There was this one place where the face of one of the people was scratched off by the Christians, during the Crusades I think. We go to place after place where Christians have defaced things at different times. It makes me sad!

Later on, we sailed north down the Nile to the Kom Ombu temple. Our guide explained a lot of the meanings of the pictures that were carved into all the walls. There were medical devices on one of the walls, like scalpels and those things you listen to people's hearts with (I can't think of the name). There are pictures of how they used to have pregnancy tests too. 6 months before a baby was born, the woman would go to the bathroom on two plants. Because of the proteins, one of the plants would bloom first if it was a girl and the other one if it was a boy. It was really cool to learn that. They said the same thing happened with the mother's milk. They could tell the gender based on the proteins and other things in the milk. It was really interesting. We got back on the boat and sailed longer. Tomorrow we are going to see some more temples, like the Temple of Horus and either check out Luxor tomorrow night or Monday. It is amazing to see the things that are this old so well preserved. Everything is carved up in the temples and it is so detailed. This has been a truly amazing experience! On another note, it seems that the ladies in my group think that this girl on the boat that has been going on the tours with us and her mother is the girl from the Twilight movies. I haven't seen them so I have no idea, but I have been talking to her and she will talk about a lot of stuff, but not anything about her life. Her mother is the same way, they will talk about all sorts of stuff, but then get really quiet and secretive when anything personal comes up. Maybe it's true, I will launch a full-on investigation starting tomorrow :-)