This morning we joined a 100 bus caravan to the site of Dendara.

Ruth and Ehab helped me hire a private tour guide to make sure that I had someone who knew the language to keep the predacious guards off my back while I thoughtfully wandered the monuments for just the right photograph.
(OMG Thank You R&E!)

Michael turned out to be a delight and was willing to answer our cascade of silly questions about current Egyptian culture that we had been pondering over the last two weeks.

Dendara was the site of worship of the Neter Hwt-her since the earliest times. The present temple was built during the Ptolemaic (Greek 300-30 BCE) era and is patterned after an older Hwt-her temple that stood there.

More than any other location in Egypt, this temple abounds with astrological imagery.

Every inch of wall or pillar is full of representations of star goddesses, the sky goddess - Nuit - and the procession of the sun through celestial time.

There is a magnificent hypostyle hall with the hawk and vulture flying overhead and the body of Nut stretched across the ceiling at both ends.

This temple is also where the famous circular zodiac (now reproduced countless times on papyri) was found on the ceiling of a small chapel on the roof.

I had become so wrapped up in making the photos and Michael’s expert guidework that we had to run the length of the complex so as not to hold up the caravan returning to Luxor!