| After reviewing the Egypt trip
on this web site, one of the guides e-mailed us and suggested we add
some of the other interesting sights we are going to see on the
trip. His recommendations were to add both the Hanging Church and the
Kon-Ombo Temple. |
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The Hanging Church (El
Muallaqa, Sitt Mariam, St Mary) derives its name from its location on
top of the southern tower gate of the old Babylon fortress with its nave suspended above the
passage. (Muallaqa translates to 'suspended') The church was first built, in Basilcan style, in the
3rd or 4th century. However, at that time it is unlikely that the church would have been
constructed in this location. They covered the towers with palm trunks and a layer of stone.
The main church is thought to have been built between the 5th and 6th centuries with the
southeastern section called the "upper church" being added later. The church was destroyed in
the 9th century. It was rebuilt in the 11th century and became the seat of the Coptic
patriarchate until the 14th century.
It became known to travelers during the 14th and 15th centuries as the "staircase church"
because of the twenty-nine steps that lead to the entrance.
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On the eastern side of the church, there lie three altars dedicated to the names of the Virgin
Mary (middle), St. John the Baptist (right) and St. Mar Guirguis (left). Facing these altars are
wooden screens, of which the central, made of ebony inlaid with ivory, dates back to the 12th
or
13th Century. The screen is stuffed with exquisite geometrical and cross-shaped patterns. The
upper part shows icons depicting Christ as seated on a throne flanked by Virgin Mary, Arch
Angel Gabriel and St. Peter on the right and John the Baptist, Arch Angel Michael and St. Paul
(Boulos) on the left. The altar is covered with a wooden awning supported by four columns,
with a seating platform for the clergy at the back. In addition to the Hanging Church, there is
Abi-Sirga's Church, that lies below street level. Adjoining, there are another six churches and a monastery, all of which lie on two rows
separated by a corridor wide enough for the passage of a few persons. |
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Kom Ombo is home to an unusual double temple built during the
Ptolemaic and Roman periods (300-80 B.C.) ending with Cleopatra, who is mentioned in some of the
hieroglyphics. The temple is dedicated to the crocodile-headed god Sobek, god of
fertility and creator of the world, and the falcon headed Haroeris (Horus the Elder), the solar war god. The temple is located on a
bend in the east bank of the Nile and about 20 miles north of Aswan.
The temple was excavated last century with parts lost into the Nile and to
an earthquake in 1992. The temple has two of everything, to
accommodate the two gods,
and among the projections on the walls, in detail, are sets of
medical instruments carved into the stone. The crocodile-headed god Sobek
wears a crown of double plumes which are located on top of horizontal ram’s
horns. A sun disk sits at the center base of the plumes, and uraei (rearing cobras)
rest on each side. Also visible in the temple are well-preserved bases of walls
that allow you to see how the Egyptians got the stone blocks so close to one
another by using water and wooden inserts. |
| This area was once a home to a large
number of crocodiles, which
were held to be sacred. The only
crocodiles in-sight, now, are mummified and located in the chapel of Hathor within the temple. |
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