Aswan, Luxor, and the Nile River, Egypt (Post #64)
Hi friends!
Michele here…we have been on a whirl-wind tour of Egypt since we got here on November 17th and most recently, we have been traveling along the Nile River.
The last blog I mentioned that we were going to take an overnight trail from Cairo to Aswan. Aswan is a small city in southern Egypt and it sits right on the Nile River. Although the train compartment we were in was somewhat dirty and looked like it was from the 1950s, it was very functional and the sheets were soft and clean. We had a private sleeper car that had two single beds (one on top of another) that unfolded from the walls. Our 5 foot by 3 foot compartment also had a small sink, mirror, and we were served dinner and breakfast. (The meals were like airline meals but they were FREE – and we like free things). In Aswan that afternoon, we went to the Temple of Philae. The Temple of Philae was dedicated to Isis, who found the heart of her slain brother, Osiris on the now submerged Philae Island. Philae Island is where this temple used to be. An interesting thing about this temple is that when it was rebuilt, someone messed up and didn’t align the temple’s main entrance way with the rest of the temple. As this was the first temple we saw, we were amazed at the abundance of hieroglyphics. It’s incredible to think that these well preserved writings and pictures on the temple walls are thousands of years old. Here is an example:
The next day we planned to see the Temple of Abu Simbel. This temple is located 25 miles from the Sudan border (and about 3 hours drive from Aswan). As non-Egyptians, we were required to go with a police convoy that leaves Aswan at 4:00am. Mike was not feeling well the night before, so it was just me getting up at 2:45am in order to meet the designated driver. This temple was built by King Ramses II and he built a temple next to his own for his wife, Nefertari next to his. This temple has gigantic figures (65 feet high) in front of it, most of which are of course, statues of Ramses II. I wanted to capture the magnitude of the Ramses II figures so I took a photo that included some people in it. (See below.) If you look closely, you will see small people near Ramses II’s feet. These are statues of his wife and children.
We spent another day in Aswan walking through the souq (market), and seeing a few sights, including a couple of Nile River islands, before taking off on our felucca trip. “What is a felucca?” you may ask. A felucca is a wooden boat with a canvas sail that has been used for hundreds of years to float up the Nile River. (Note that the Nile River runs south to north, not north to south).
So, on Thurs, Nov 24th, we took off on a 3 day, 2 night sail up the Nile River with two other people. These two people were simply two other individuals that had also signed up for a felucca boat ride. The boat ride was beautiful and very relaxing. Here is a picture I took at sunset. In the background, you can see two other felucca boats (like the one we were on) as well as a cruise ship (the more expensive way to go up the river).
We had a captain and a cook on the felucca and all our meals were cooked on the wooden boat. We slept on wood boards with a thin matress on top and since everyone asks us…no, there was no toilet on the boat, so when we had to go to the bathroom, we had to ask the captain to pull over to the river bank. We had a great time with our two new friends and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. Admitedly, after a couple of days on the boat, we were ready to sleep in a real bed and take a shower. Here is a picture of the four of us at dinner. We are eating chicken our captain bought at a market along the river by candle light (with a candle holder made out of a water bottle) .
Yesterday, our felucca trip ended at Kom Ombo temple. After wandering around this temple, we caught a minibus to Edfu temple. As always, we were impressed with the magnitude of these temples and how long the detailed hieroglyphics have lasted. Some have still retained their beautiful colors. After another hour on the minibus we finally arrived in Luxor and after a quick shower and some food, we were off again to see Karnak and Luxor temple. Karnak Temple was monstrous. To give you an idea of its size, one hall of the temple is 6 square kilometers. There is a lake at the temple and a forest of 134 colosal pillars. Although we were getting a bit “temple-ed out” by this point, Luxor temple was quite a sight since we went there after the sunset. All of the statues were lit up and very impressive was the Avenue of the Sphinxes. This was a path/road leading up to the temple entrance that contained approximately 100 sphinx statues on both sides of the walkway. We were so tired when we went to bed, we hardly noticed the celebration in the streets outside our hotel. Seems there was a political victory and every car was honking its horn and there were truckloads of people playing music and running though the streets.
This morning we slept through our alarm but still managed to meet our driver and guide (and check out) by 7:15am. We saw spectacular tombs at the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens in addition to visiting the Temple of Hatshepsut. (Hatshepsut was a queen and the only one that ever ruled Egypt.) The tombs were really burried underground and you had to walk down many stairs to get to them. They usually contained a dazzeling display of colored pictures and hieroglyphics in addition to the sarcophagi.
We are now waiting to go to the train station where we will take a night train from here (Luxor) to Cairo. See you later…
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Tags: Category #18: Egypt
Michele Harmon
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