Cruisin' the Nile (The Sequel)

Again, this will have to be brief...

When I last left off, we had arrived in Luxor and visited Karnak. The following day we got up fairly early and took a ferry across the Nile. We rode donkeys into the Valley of the Kings, which took about an hour. This was actually a lot of fun and the donkeys were very small and well-behaved so it was quite relaxing. We rode through the Egyptian countryside and got some good views of rural scenes. We visited three tombs as part of our tour and I opted to take in another two: those of King Tutankhamon and Ramses V/VI. King Tut's tomb is really rather unremarkable and it's hard to believe that all that incredible treasure was housed in such a small space. The third sarcophagus as well as his mummy are on display in his tomb which was pretty neat. The tomb of Ramses V and VI was spectacular - it's amazing how all the artwork on the wall has survived thousands of years.

After the Valley of the Kings we went to the Valley of the Workers, which is where all the artists and tomb-builders lived. There are some ruins from their town as well as their tombs, which are much less spectacular but no less interesting than those of the pharaohs. We donkeyed back to the Nile passing the Colossi of Memnon and ferried back to our boat for lunch and an afternoon cruise up the Nile to Edfu. I found the imposed relaxation of our sailing times to be quite lovely. There was nothing better to do than lounge on the sundeck with my nose in a book and a cocktail by my side while the shores of the Nile slid past. It was a nice respite from the rather frenzied pace of this tour. Sometime in the middle of the night we made our way through the locks and woke to find ourselves docked in Edfu.

After a fairly late breakfast (8:30!) we set out for the temple of Edfu. This temple is dedicated to Horus (he has a falcon's head)and is very well preserved. There are some beautiful statues as well as wonderful reliefs. In some places the colour is even still visible on the reliefs. Then it was back to the boat and a short cruise to Kom Ombo where we visited another temple in the afternoon. This is another magnificent temple in a similar design to Edfu. This one is dedicated to both Horus and Sobek (he has a crocodile's head) and the temple is virtually split down the middle with each of the gods represented on one side. As with many of the temples, this one has been badly defaced by the Coptic Christians, who used it as a refuge during the 600s or there abouts. It's heartbreaking to see the damage done to the temples and statuary by the Christians, as well as the graffiti chiseled into them by European explorers in the 1800s. While it still seems inexcusable to me, at least there was some (misplaced) rationale for the Christians' handiwork. Not so with the explorers'.

The next morning we got to lounge around in the sun while we sailed south to Aswan. We had some free time in the late morning, during which I chose to visit the Nubian museum. It was very well presented but unfortunately I really didn't give it the time it deserved. We spent the afternoon on a felucca ride (traditional Egyptian sailboat)and I got to swim in the Nile and later climb a dune/hill on the shore to enjoy the views. It was back to the boat for dinner and then off to see the sound and light show at Philae, yet another magnificent temple. It was really beautiful and made me wish I had had time to visit it during the daylight hours. This morning we got up at 3:30 and climbed aboard a bus convey down to Abu Simbel, our final temple on this tour. It was well worth the long drive and is a stunning temple built by Ramses II. There is a smaller temple nearby which he built for his favourite of 52 wives, Nefertari (although he figures more prominently in it than she does).

Interestingly, both Philae and Abu Simbel, along with about 40 (?) other temples have actually been relocated from their original sites. Much of the Nubian countryside was flooded out when they dammed the Nile, and they were able to move the temples to higher ground while they were building the dam. This was a multi-national initiative with UNESCO lending a strong hand. It's amazing how you would never know that these massive structures had been cut up into pieces and reassembled at new locations.

I am now enjoying a free afternoon in Aswan and we will take the overnight train back to Cairo tonight. I'll definitely miss the boat - I really liked this cruising thing. Some of the other boats on the river are really spectacular - we look a little bit like the poor cousin in comparison, but it was certainly adequate for me.

Even though my tour officially ends tomorrow, some of the others are continuing onto Jordan, essentially doing my last tour in reverse. They have a couple of free days and have planned some activities, so I'll join them. Tomorrow afternoon we'll visit Sakara (Saqquara ?) outside of Cairo and then on Monday do a day trip to Alexandria which I'm really looking forward to. After that I'll be on my own and looking forward to some downtime.