Edfu Temple part II

We asked questions and got some intriguing answers. In some noticeable places, there is graffiti on the walls. Some of the graffiti is old, maybe ancient, and some is clearly recent. In one part of the temple Mohamed called the lab, they made fragrances and essential oil’s. On the walls of the lab is carved the recipes for making them. Many of the stone carvings have the faces chiseled off. Mohamed explained that when Christianity became the dominant religion of Egypt about 1600 years ago, the Christians turned the temples into places of worship of their faith. They could not stand to have the presence of what they considered false gods in their newly acclaimed houses of worship so they defaced them literally. Sounds like the origin of the term to me. To deface a work of art. Anyhow, this rhymes very well with present day forms of intolerance by lots of narrow minded people, organizations, institutions and governments. Makes me want to review my own biases in the hope I don’t fall prey to a narrow view of what deserves my respect.Read more