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Egypt 8 – Felucca sailing and a Nubian Village

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

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A felucca

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View of the sail looking up from my boat

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Kid in a Nile-style row boat

After returning to Aswan by about noon following the epic trek to Abu Simbel, I considered a nap but decided I needed to man-up to make sure I got to see the rest of the sites available in Aswan before I headed to Luxor the next day.  Aswan is a cute little village on the shores of the Nile near two islands:  Kitchener and Elephantine.  A fun thing to do is take a felucca ride around the islands stopping on both to see the sites.  A felucca is an Egyptian sailboat and is a fantastic and comfortable way to beat the heat and get a different perspective.  I negotiated with a felucca captain at the shore for about $10 per hour and set off on a 3 hour adventure.  The first stop was the uninhabited Kitchener Island which houses a surprisingly beautiful botanical garden.  After about 30 minutes there we continued our sail, had a nice cup of tea (prepared on a propane burner on the boat) and stopped at Elephantine Island which is home to the Aswan Museum, a Nubian Village and the obnoxious and luxurious Movenpick Hotel.

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Scenes from the botanical garden on Kitchener Island

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The Nubians, if you recall from earlier, are an ancient African people who were also largely displaced by the damming of the Nile.  The Nubians are one of Africa’s oldest tribes dating to the 4th millennium BC and who were settled along the Nile from Aswan and south into Sudan.  After the damming of the Nile, they were relocated to several locations including  Elephantine Island where several villages remain today.  When I disembarked from my felucca, the village’s “chief” met me at the boat landing.  He took me on a tour (which was not optional and for which I was expected to tip him) through the village.  I’ve included some pictures here…the chief told me that 3000 people live in this little village though during the day they are mostly off the island working.  The gardens were of some interest to me as he said they are all community gardens open to everyone in the village and the excess production is sold on the mainland.

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Contrast of the green Nile Valley and the nearby desert

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Scenes from a Nubian Village

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Mosque within the Nubian Village

The next day I returned to Elephantine Island to visit the Aswan Museum and a new “chief” offered his tour services which I declined with a bit of a chuckle on my way to the ferry.  The rest of the pictures below are from the still-being-excavated ruins of Elephantine Island.  Of particular interest is the photo of the Nilometer…one of a few remaining in Egypt that was previously used to measure flood levels of the Nile to predict crop yield and subsequent taxes.

Tomorrow the Mini-Extravaganza is headed to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut.  Enjoy the photos!

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Bananas

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Mangos

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My felucca waiting for me at Elephantine Island

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My two intrepid captains bidding me farewell

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Ruins from Elephantine Island

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Yes those are flowers stuck behind my ears.  My guide insisted.

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One of the Nilometers on Elephantine Island.  I will admit I don’t totally get how this works.

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Mummified baby if you can believe it.  I had to stop short of letting him take a picture of the baby mummy with me in the photo.

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Ridiculous.  This guide offered my 2nd of 3 marriage proposals and quite frankly, the most serious.  He even got out his phone to exchange numbers.

Egypt 7 – Abu Simbel and Lake Nasser

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

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The Four Statues of Ramses II

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And up close with two of them

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The biggest attraction in Aswan is Abu Simbel which is not actually in Aswan but 150 miles to the south and about 20 miles north of the Sudanese border.  Some people fly to Abu Simbel but most drive along the desolate desert highway in a police convoy.  Yes, I said a police convoy.  It must be said here that getting to Abu Simbel is an absolute production in and of itself.  In 1997 there was a terrorist bombing in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor (much more on Hatshepsut in the coming Luxor posts) which pretty much decimated tourism throughout Egypt thus removing the livelihood of a significant portion of Egyptians.  Since then, the government has been very keen to protect the tourists and thus instituted required police convoys to various locations in Egypt.  Several have been lifted over the years but the one to Abu Simbel remains and that is how I found myself in a 100 vehicle (coach buses, minibuses, private taxis) convoy headed toward Sudan.

The details of this trek cannot be underestimated.  I got a wake up call at 2:45 am at my hotel and was picked up by the tour company at 3:15 so we’d have enough time to meet the convoy at 4 am.  If you’re not there and checked-in by 4 am you’re screwed…the police won’t let you go.  It was nuts.  So of course we all arrive at Abu Simbel at the same time, stay for two hours with thousands of our closest friends and then embark on the 3 hour trek back to Aswan arriving back by noon.  Abu Simbel was beautiful and scenic on the shores of Lake Nasser…but if I were to do it again I think I’d figure out a way to stay near the village of Abu Simbel so as to not have to visit when everyone else is there.

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Interior hall with you guessed it…more statues of Ramses II

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One of the interior store rooms

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Carved hieroglyphics on the wall

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Interior reliefs

Abu Simbel is one of the many archeological sights that was threatened to be submerged by the damming of the Nile so in 1964 UNESCO embarked upon a 40 million dollar resue project to move the monument above and away from the original site to avoid the waters of Lake Nasser.  Abu Simbel was built by Egypt’s most egotistical pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BC) for himself and his beautiful wife Nefertari.  The intent was that the 4 statues of himself would be the first thing travelers, visitors and enemies alike would see as they arrived in Egypt from the south.  Similarly, he built a separate temple for Nefertari which is not quite as imposing as his own temple but still quite impressive.  Both temples are carved directly into the rock and have many, many chambers and walkways inside.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the temples for fear of ruining the colored reliefs with our camera flashes.  I found the pictures you see here of the interior elsewhere on the web.

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Queen Nefertari’s tomb

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Nefertari up close and personal

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Lake Nasser about 7 am

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Lake Nasser, as we learned previously, is the reservoir created by the damming of the Nile River.  It is the largest reservoir on the planet and is 83% contained in Egypt while the rest is in Sudan (and called Lake Nubia).  Lake Nasser is more than 2000 square miles in surface area and 37 cubic miles in volume.  The fishing is reported to be very good for Nile Perch in Lake Nasser with the record fish ever caught weighing 392 pounds.

Tomorrow on the Mini-Extravaganza we’ll take a felucca ride and visit Elephantine Island before heading off to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  Enjoy the pictures!

Egypt 6 – Aswan and the River Nile

Monday, May 17th, 2010

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View of the desert over Lake Nasser

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Monument to Egyptians from the Soviets after completion of ... [Continue reading this entry]