As usual, one main entrance to the temple symbolising the Nile. There are 3 uses for the "holes" that can be observed from the facade. Some were used for flags, some were cut by those occupying the temple after it was abandoned to let light in.
The last use was by the priests to "imitate" the voice of the gods to the people. From the picture below you can see how it is actually much larger on the inside. This creates a distortion and amplification effect when they spoke through it.
More carvings at the entrance of the temple.
According to our guide, after the temple was abandoned, it was used by Christians who had fled to avoid persecution as living quarters. The ceilings became black due to cooking inside the temple, and when it was apparent that the drawings underneath had been destroyed, the Egyptian government left the black colour as it is.
Holy of holies with the altar.
More amzing carvings...
covering the walls of each and every room...
and the corridors...
even the outside corridors...
There was a whole series on the walls telling the story of Horus' battle with Osiris. Seth (the evil one) was jealous of how people loved and praised his brother Osiris, and killed him by tricking him into entering a chest and trapping him there. Isis his wife (and sister...) brought up their son Horus who set out to revenge his father. Seth as depicted by a hippopotamus was eventually captured as shown below.
Carvings below show the numerical system in hieroglyphics. The little figure on the left with arms lifted up is the symbol for "million", while the 3 things next to it each represent 100,000 etc
To be continued...
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