By Bob Van Leer

  (QEDA, EGYPT, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006) - The main activity today was a visit to the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. She is the goddess of love.

  This is a remarkably well-preserved temple on which construction began before the reign of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and was completed during Roman times. The entrance courtyard has rows of columns that I estimate at 6-7 feet in diameter and 30-40 feet tall. As in other temples, columns, walls and ceilings are all decorated.

   The roof of the temple is intact. A stairway leads to the roof and the building is solid enough to walk to the roof and use it as an observation tower to look over the valley.

  Our guides have been giving us information on Egypt and living along the Nile. Salah said that the Nile is 4500 miles long and may be the longest river. More than 1000 miles of the river are in Egypt. There are no tributaries feeding the river in Egypt.

  He said half of the 73 million population of Egypt is in villages of five-10 thousand people. He said these villages are composed of three or four extended families. Feuds between families are still a problem. Education is free through the university level. School attendance is compulsory to age 15, but in the villages children may be held home from school if their help is needed farming.

  Illiteracy is 29% but is falling fast. The country has 4.5 million civil servants. Unemployment is high. Salah said there is a movement away from agricultural employment and more manufacturing, especially since the 1980s.

  He said Egypt is not a "heaven" for women, but is improving. Less than 10% of Egyptian men have more than one wife.

   Hussein said there is a generation clash in the towns between the old and new generations. Arranged marriages are being given up. It has been common for cousins to marry to keep land in the family.

  After a man dies his widow is required to marry her late husband's brother no matter his age or marital status or whether she can stand him or not. And if a wife is producing only girls a husband is allowed to take another wife, often with the urging of wife no. 1.

  While docked at Qena in the evening we went for a tour around town in a kind of small railroad train on wheels and then to see a program of Nubian dancers. All of this was out of doors and it is quite cold here at night.

  Driving around town we notice more women with heads uncovered than we see in the daytime. Some of the uncovered women were young, but not all. There were few couples to be seen. There were small groups of young men and groups of young women, but not the two sexes together. Many of the town people waved and smiled as we drove by.

  This afternoon we will sail back upriver to Luxor and be docked there for a couple of nights.