Blogs from Aswan, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 24

Ok, getting back to the story!! So I arrived in one peice to Aswan, 800 miles south of north Cairo. it's very hot, about 39 degrees at 9.30am. However they tell me during July and August it can get up to 50 degrees in the shade!! thank god my tour got put back to now instead of next month! don't think I would have made it! There is no humidity here. Our guide said that it rained for about 10-15 minutes just once this year. Aswan is surounded by the Sahara Desert and is a prodominately African city. Most of the buildings are made of stone and cement. Aswan has the biggest granet quarry in Africa. It has been running for 5,000 years so far and they say that is it an endless quarry as they ... read more

The title question regarding the number of Mohamed's in Egypt, could be asked of several names of course. It just struck me that after just a couple of weeks in Egypt I had met at least 4 or 5. I asked one of the local tour leaders' how many he knew. His response of 40 wasn't really a shock. Having to remember each Mohameds' fathers' name for further identificatiojn might be difficult for people like me though. Not a good country to be bad with names that's for sure!! And on with the travels. Having spent the last day in Cairo racing around the museum, it was nice to stop and watch the sunset. We stoppped right on a bridge and within a couple of minutes a cup of tea was offered to us all. ... read more

As we were finishing up our Arabic Language course, we had the option of adding on a Nile cruise for $130. At this price, why not? The cruise was from the southern city of Aswan to the Ancient Egyptian city of Luxor. We took an overnight train from Cairo down to Aswan. We were in first class so it was not too bad, but upon arrival, I had the feeling reminiscent of a good long trans-oceanic flight. Once we all got used to the idea of having traveled south for half a day and now being in ‘upper Egypt’, we started to savor being in a really really hot part of the country. The savoring lasted for about 5 minutes, after which we initiated an ongoing mission of finding ways to avoid the sun. I will ... read more

Arriving at Aswan the previous evening, the Misirair turboprop banked over the city giving us a full view. The airport was some distance out beyond the city in the desert, the dark tarmac runway standing out again in a sharp contrast to the bright surrounding terrain. Overnight was at the Kalabsha Hotel downtown. We began our visit to Aswan with an early Thursday morning tour of the High Dam construction site. The Aswan High Dam was then in the final stages of construction, with two years remaining until completion. They would not let us take pictures, so, sorry, no photos of the construction site to post. A civil engineer with us was most upset that there were to be no photos. Construction vehicles and workers were very much in evidence and very busy. I noted the ... read more