Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Upper Egypt

Philae Temple, Egypt

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Philae Temple is one of Egypt’s most enchanting ancient monuments, celebrated for its beauty, history and remarkable story of preservation. Located in southern Egypt near Aswan, the temple complex once stood on Philae Island in the Nile River, but today it rests on nearby Agilkia Island after an extraordinary UNESCO-led relocation project in the 20th century. This relocation was necessary due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam, which threatened to submerge many ancient sites under the rising waters of Lake Nasser.

Philae Temple on Agilkia Island with its colonnaded approach reflected in the still waters of the Nile near Aswan, Egypt
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Kom Ombo, Egypt

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Kom Ombo is nestled along the eastern bank of the Nile in southern Egypt. It is a remarkable site that offers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of ancient Egyptian history. Unlike many temples that honor a single deity, Kom Ombo is unique in being a double temple, dedicated simultaneously to Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus the Falcon, the sky god. This dual dedication is evident in the temple’s symmetrical design, with duplicate courts, halls and sanctuaries reflecting the importance of both gods in the region’s spiritual and cultural life.

Kom Ombo double temple Ptolemaic columns rising above the east bank of the Nile at golden hour, Egypt
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Valley of the Kings, Egypt

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Valley of the Kings in Egypt is a desert valley on the west bank of the Nile, opposite modern Luxor, where pharaohs of the New Kingdom chose to be buried in hidden rock‑cut tombs instead of towering pyramids. From the 18th to the 20th dynasties, roughly 1539–1075 BC, it served as the principal royal cemetery for most of the great kings of this era, along with some queens and high officials. The valley lies beneath a natural pyramid‑shaped peak called al‑Qurn, which likely reinforced its symbolic connection to rebirth and eternal life. After Dendera Temple we traveled to the Valley of the Kings.

Valley of the Kings arid desert landscape beneath the pyramid-shaped peak of al-Qurn, west bank Luxor, Egypt
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Dendera Temple, Egypt: Hathor, Cleopatra’s Relief & Life on the Nile

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The day after Karnak Temple, we made the short drive north along the Nile to Dendera — about 65 miles and a world apart. Where Karnak overwhelms with scale and crowds, Dendera is intimate and extraordinarily well-preserved. The Temple of Hathor here dates primarily from the Greco-Roman period, built between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, and it survives in a state that most Egyptian temples can only dream of: ceilings that still hold their vivid color, column faces that haven’t been chiseled away, and on most mornings, room to actually see it without pressing through a crowd.

Dendera Temple complex exterior, one of Egypt's best-preserved Greco-Roman era temples, Qena Governorate, Upper Egypt
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