Postcard from Egypt: Aswan, November 8th

Today is our busiest day yet.  Our cruise is docked at Aswan, in what is considered Upper Egypt or Nubia in ancient times.

We visit the Aswan High Dam in the morning, followed by the Philae Temple– a lovely temple that was moved to higher ground on an island, when the dam was constructed and the waters flooded the valley behind it.  Later we have a ride on a felucca, the traditional sailing boat of the Nile.

Felucca Sailing on the Nile

One of the most interesting visits this morning is to a quarry used during the Pharaohs’ time for much of the granite stone we’ve seen in the temples around Luxor, far down the river.  An obelisk, originally intended to be one of Queen Hatshepsut’s in Karnak, developed a crack and couldn’t be used.  It remains today just as it was left, half-hewn out of the surrounding stone.  It’s a happy accident, since it demonstrates so much about how the ancient Egyptians made some of their monuments.

The Unfinished Obelisk

The highlight of the day is a late afternoon boat trip to a typical Nubian village, made even more pleasant by a nice, cold beer.  Along the way, we stop at a beach filled with locals enjoying the river as the four-day Muslim festival continues.  We take off our shoes and roll up our trousers, so we can at least say we stood calf-deep in theNile.

Holiday Revelers Frolicking in the Nile

At the village, we visit a family’s home.  We’re treated to the sweetened hibiscus drink that’s popular here as well as tea and some home-made sweets.  Everyone gets a chance to hold a baby crocodile (I passed on this opportunity) as well as to get a henna tattoo.  Then we visit the local school, where we get a lesson in the Arabic numbers and alphabet from the village schoolmaster.  I’m afraid we’re rather poor students, as five minutes later none of us are able to repeat anything.

Remedial Students at a Nubian Village School

Some of us visit the Aswan market that night, which is teeming with festival revelers.  Our guide Ahmed and I shop for small gifts for the group for our upcoming farewell dinner.  We end up doing a back-alley deal at a wholesaler’s for a mixture of seventeen Nefertiti, King Tut and Akhenaten busts, as well as a rhinestone-studded metal crocodile as a birthday gift for one of the guys, who was the first to hold the real crocodile in the Nubian village.

There’s a lot of haggling between the guide and the wholesaler, and I’m shown numbers in Egyptian pounds and U.S. dollars on a calculator for my agreement.  The guide has established a code with me:  when he says “very good price,” it means it’s a good price and I should accept it; if he says, “it’s a good price,” it means we can do better and I should refuse.  We eventually arrive at a very good price, and I’m given a Nefertiti refrigerator magnet as a thank you for my purchase in bulk.

Postcard from Egypt: Cruising the Nile, November 6th

Cruising the Nile, November 6^th

We leave our cruise ship early in the morning and board a ferry boat that takes us across the river.  Our “Captain” introduces himself as Aly Baba.  As at every tourist spot in Egypt, nobody’s shy in asking for bashish and rubbing the tips of their thumb and index finger together.  But occasionally the request is a bit more subtle and even entertaining.

A reminder from Captain Aly Baba

We visit the Valley of the Kings, where the tombs of some of the Pharaohs are cut right into the hills surrounding the valley high above the Nile’s flood plain.  Protected from sunlight and weather, much of the color is still visible in the decorations that cover the walls and ceilings: yellow, red, turquoise and royal blue on a white field. 

While his tomb is not the most spectacular by any means, King Tut’s mummy and one of the coffins and sarcophagi that it was nestled in are maintained in the tomb.  His reign was undistinguished, but by virtue of never having been reached by robbers, his tomb and all its contents were intact when discovered in the 1920s, and that has made him famous.

Our next stop, the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, is in an incredible setting, carved out of the hills that surround it.   It has a special resonance for another reason: it’s here that in the late ‘90s, Al Qaeda terrorists surrounded 58 Japanese honeymooners and gunned them down.  Not surprisingly, there’s no acknowledgement of the event at the site.  And today, a military installation perches atop the hills.

Queen Hatshepsut's Funerary Monument

The Habu Temple is another place we find the original color intact…

Color on a Ceiling Panel, Habu Temple

…and also a reminder that we’re not the first tourists or adventurers to have visited these ancient stones.

19th-century Graffiti

Postcard from Egypt: Cairo to Luxor, November 5th

This morning we leave Cairo and fly to Luxor.  Upon arriving we head directly to our first temple – actually a complex of temples at Karnak.  I know I’m betraying my age, but every time I hear the name, I can’t help thinking of Johnny Carson’s clairvoyant routine as the Great Karnak.

I couldn’t have predicted how impressed I would be by the scale of Karnak.  I’ve seen some impressive ruins in my time, but nothing this massive nor this ancient.  The members of our group, perhaps for obvious reasons, are quite taken with the stories of Queen Hatshepsut, who passed herself off as a king.  We’re delighted that the obelisk she built here is taller than her son’s, who tried to efface her memory.  Sometimes Time is a true and just judge; today, her son is just a minor player in her story.

Massive Columns at Karnak Temple

Before lunch, we board the MS Monaco, which will be our home during our cruise up the Nile.  A few hours’ rest is most welcome after 2-1/2 full days of sightseeing.  In the early evening, we head to Luxor Temple, which is illuminated after dark.  It’s a charming and romantic way to see it.

Luxor Temple is a microcosm of the cultures that have swept through and dominated Egypt over the millennia.  There are, of course, the “chapels” to the Holy Trinity of Egyptian gods – Isis and Osiris and their son Horus.  Alexander the Great appears in carvings on the temple walls, crowned as a ruler of Egypt after the Macedonian conquest.  You can see the remnants of a Last Supper fresco, plastered over the Egyptian carvings in Roman times, when part of the temple was converted into an early Christian church.  And above the temple, attached at a time when most of it was buried in the sands, is a mosque, still open to the faithful today.

Moonrise over Luxor Temple

We return to Karnak Temple for another sound and light show.  This one progresses through the temple, and the voices of the principal historical characters tell us their stories.  While he doesn’t howl during the triumphant music, another mangy dog travels with us from section to section as the show progresses, sitting on the old stones and scratching at fleas.  Apparently, he was booked only for a non-speaking role.