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Published: December 24th 2023
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The day began with a leisurely breakfast on the deck and the promise of more ugh history to please the masses. Jumped on our tug for a quick trip to Gebel el Silsila which was the site of the quarry used for much of the building material around the place. First stop was a small temple built for the workers which was built by the successor to Tut. Then we wandered through the quarry and visited the project manager’s house. Being a kin of ours, we were interested in his set up - lived there with his wife and daughter while the other workers lived across the Nile.
We were fascinated (ok, some of us were, some of us passed the time by singing Taylor Swift songs) by the way they organised the workers - not dissimilar to the organisational structures we see today. The workers were skilled but often their numbers were boosted by farmers working in the flood season. They were assigned to a ‘team’ with a specific symbols which they would mark on each of the blocks they would dig out. The best workers got the join the lotus group.
Back to the boat for some
more on deck relaxing, reading and watching the world go by. We enjoyed another delicious lunch before stopping at Edfu for a visit to the temple. Our transport awaited in the form of two horse drawn carriages which drew some delight from one of the hangers on.
We had Edfu mostly to ourselves save for a noisy school group. The temple was dedicated to Horus and Hathor, who, creepily were married even though she had been his wet nurse. Lots of stories to be told in the carvings around the walls. More incest and scandal with Isis and Osiris who were married even though they were brother and sister. And Seth who killed Osiris because his wife (and sister, and also Seth’s sister) was a hottie. So he got turned into a hippo, obviously. A fitting punishment for coveting your brother’s wife who is also your sister.
Back to the boat for a bit more cruising and some G&Ts on the deck before we pulled in to our island home for the night. A BBQ dinner and some cards before crashing into bed.
Our morning started with breakfast followed by a walk in the village on the
island. We visited lots of the animals and learned about their agricultural practices all the while gathering quite the fan base of giggling little girls who followed us around.
Just to mix up the ugh history from our previous theme of temples, we branched out to another fan favourite, tombs. Some more relaxing on deck before we arrived at El Kab. An ‘Egyptian limousine’ to ferry us to the site which is in an area dating back to 3200BC. Thankfully they had kittens and puppies so the hangers on were kept adequately amused while we learned about the owners of the four tombs.
Beeb gave us all a lesson in mummification which was depicted on the wall of one. Another was for a man who was a romantic as he is depicted bringing flowers for his wife and the tomb included space for her. Another obviously wanted to portray how popular he was, as he had many mourners at his grave, one who was guzzling down the wine to forget he was gone.
Some more kitten and puppy time before we were back on the boat for some lunch and some more relaxing. We arrived at the
dock in Esna and Geoff was unfortunately too sick to join us on the walk around town (and Eloise too full of boredom). So Beeb and I had a look around the town - it used to be an important centre of trade between the north and the south but faded in importance. The beautiful houses and trading centres have fallen into disrepair but you can still recognise their former magnificence. A trip through the market to gather some more fans and see all the wares on sale before returning to the boat for dinner and our final sleep on board. Just to keep with the theme of the day, we were joined by a very friendly cat who was more than happy to share some dinner and was quite taken with the idea of sharing the cabin. Not for cats unfortunately for him!
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