Round the World 2015: Upper Nile

Aswan

We left Alexandria and flew, via Cairo, to Aswan on the Nile in southern Egypt. It was 107F when we arrived. As we left the airport, everyone else was either taking the road to Aswan via the dam or via the bridge, not us. Our taxi took off down a narrow, asphalt track like a rollercoaster that went over and under sand dunes and down through rock to the Nile River. There we spent a night in a guesthouse in a Nubian village on the west side of the Nile River, across from Aswan. The house was below the Tombs of the Nobles which we were told predate the pharaohs. The temperature near the Nile was easily 10 degrees cooler than a short distance away. What we lacked in comfort was made up for in culture. We were given a tour of the village that ended hours after dark. Nubians have inhabited southern Egypt and northern Sudan for millennia. Many Nubians were displaced when their homeland was flooded following construction of the Aswan high dam.

The next morning we caught a boat that took us upstream above the first whitewater to an area where sand dunes met the Nile. We swam there for a while. The water was crystal clear and surprisingly cold. Around noon we were dropped off on a river cruise boat. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones to transfer onto the cruise boat from another boat. The cruise was for 4 nights traveling downstream to Luxor and seeing the sites along the way.

The first afternoon, we took a felucca (sailboat) ride. The next morning we caught a motor boat to see the Temple of Isis at Phillae. In the 1970s, the temple was taken apart block by block and relocated from the actual island of Phillae which was submerged after construction of the high dam. The temple Phillae was built by the Greeks (one of the Ptolomys) between 300 and 200 BC.

Afterward we crossed the Aswan lower dam (constructed by the British around 1900) on our way to see the Aswan high dam (completed in 1964 to solve flooding problems and stabilize water supply downstream). We also visited a granite quarry in Aswan where we viewed an incomplete obelisk. Actually it was a failed attempt at a 40 meter obelisk that cracked. Jack and I tried our hand at shaping granite with a harder rock. It was actually pretty easy. We made an inch deep, 4-inch wide groove in short order.

Tourism on the Nile has collapsed since the 2011 revolution. There were once 300 to 350 boats cruising the Nile. Today there are only 50 to 60 and only 20 of those sail regularly. There were only 24 passengers on the boat. The food was abundant and fantastic. I kept expecting to see or at least thinking of Miss Marple and Death on the Nile.

Komombo

From Aswan, we traveled 40 km north, down the Nile, to Kom Ombo where we visited the Temple of Kom Ombo dedicated to the crocodile god Sebok. The temple was built by a Ptolomy between 300 and 200 BC. Afterward, we visited a crocodile museum. Many animals including crocodiles were mummified and buried with the pharaohs. Kom Ombo is home to many of the Nubian diaspora.

Edfu

We then sailed 60km further north to Edfu where spent the night. The next day we visited the Temple of Horus, the falcon god. The temple was also built by a Ptolomy between 300 and 200 BC.
All of the temples we visited had literally been defaced. Over the millennia, Christians and Muslims had chiseled away the faces hands and feet from the pagan god images. Only portions buried by sediment or too high to reach remained intact.

Road from the airport