Advertisement
Published: April 22nd 2008
Leaving Luxor and heading off south to Aswan on Mar. 7th started out very well. We had our complimentary breakfast at our cheapie hotel, then sped out the door on the way to the train station. Five minutes later we were there, snacks in hand, all ready for a quick three hour train ride to Aswan. Things were going too smoothly to be true, and sure enough, nine am, our departure time, rolled around, and kept on rolling by.
Minutes turned into hours and before we knew it, it was noon and still no sign of our train! A fellow traveller came over to ask if we knew why the delay, since we seemed so unconcerned. We explained that our train had been late from Cairo as well, so sooner or later we imagined that it would have to show up. And it did, over three hours late, so we finally set off towards the unknown lands of southern 'Upper Egypt'.
Historically Egypt was often divided, and ruled by separate pharaohs during times of unrest. The south was known as 'Upper Egypt' and the north as 'Lower Egypt', since the Nile flows south to north. But even while looking
Aswan
Feluccas sailing the Nileat a map, this is hard to imagine, since we usually think of north as up and south as down. A bit confusing, to say the least.
As we stepped off the train in Aswan, we instantly noticed that the temperature was so much hotter than in Luxor. People barely noticed us as we walked with our backpacks down the main drag, towards our hotel. We ended up in a nice room with a great view, overlooking the Nile. It had a normal (functioning and hot water) bathroom, and a rare, soft mattress that our backs weren't that used to any more. After settling in, we went out for dinner and ran into the guy that we had spoken to briefly at the train station in Luxor, who was finishing dinner with his girlfriend.
After chatting for a few minutes, we agreed to meet the next day and share a felucca trip along the Nile. It was great to have someone to motivate us to take a felucca, since we were a bit turned off them after being constantly pestered to take one in Luxor. The restaurant that we ate at was literally on the edge of the
Aswan
Egyptian gals out for a stroll Nile, so close that a person at the next table accidentally knocked their fork into the river.
Our waiter there was pretty funny, and kept telling us jokes and showing us tricks. He asked us who we thought he looked like, then when we didn't clue in, he pointed out who...Arsenio Hall (if anyone remembers who that is). Strangely enough, for an Egyptian guy, he really did look like him, we guess since he was Nubian, and had darker skin. He kept doing the Arsenio Hall arm circle thing and going 'hoo hoo hoo hoo' to prove it and make us laugh.
Later we left and set off on a walk. The streets were lined with trees filled with huge red flowers, which also carpeted the side walks. Other than the odd person asking us to go on a felucca trip, Aswan was very mellow, and had much less traffic. We noticed that a lot of the Muslim men there had a bruise in the middle of their foreheads, from praying and pressing their head onto the prayer mat five times a day. Lots of Egyptian women walked around in groups of friends, laughing and enjoying themselves, wearing
long dresses, long sleeves and head scarves.
That night we had a great sleep, and woke up to a good free breakfast, which included Egyptian tea (leaves, no milk), Arabic bread (flat bread), cheese, jam, and hard boiled eggs. We wandered around for the day, then met with our new pals Melissa and Derrig, Australians who currently live in Scotland. Then on to our felucca sailing session. We easily found a felucca tout, and haggled for a fair price for a two hour felucca cruise. After a short debate, we got a great price for both sides, around five dollars an hour between the four of us!
We climbed aboard, and set sail to our first stop, the Aswan Botanical Gardens, on Kitchener's Island. It was a short sail, and we docked, then walked around the beautiful lush tropical gardens, chatting and enjoying a rare bit of Egyptian greenery. While strolling around, we had some great views of the surrounding hills of desert sand on one side, and Aswan on the other. Getting back on the felucca, we spent the rest of our time sailing around on the Nile, relaxing and enjoying the sunset.
After two hours
of cruising in the felucca, enjoying the nice breeze and conversation, it was time to return to shore and get some good Egyptian cuisine. We ended up at a restaurant that our guide books recommended and ordered some Egyptian specialties. We had kofta, which is seasoned, minced beef cooked on skewers, and lamb, and our friends ordered stuffed pigeon, a delicacy around those parts, and lamb as well. All this was accompanied with salad, and tahini spread with Arabic bread. To finish it off, we had a rice pudding and some hot hibiscus tea. A great dinner and a nice end to a rather relaxing evening.
Our next destination was to go way down south to see the temples of Abu Simbel, only forty kilometers from the border of Sudan. We decided to avoid visiting the ruins in the daily tour bus convoy, which is the usual way to visit Abu Simbel. Apparently this convoy, which includes all of the tour buses, along with police escorts, leaves at four in the morning, driving at top speeds until it reaches the site. This supposedly is to keep the tourists safe, in case of a possible terrorist attack.
It sounded
Aswan
Andy, Derrig and Melissa enjoying some great Egyptian cuisine just crazy to us, both because of the early departure time and the speed. Instead we decided to catch the local bus, which left at a much better time of 8:30 am. Apparently only four foreigners at a time are allowed to take it, and the police can ask people to get off, if there are more than the limit. Leaving at this time would also let us miss the bus loads of tourists which flock to Abu Simbel early every morning.
We ended up meeting a girl named Karen, from Abbotsford of all places, waiting for the same bus. And since we were the only three tourists, the bus was under the limit, luckily for us. We chatted with her on the way there, which made the four hour ride through pure desert, sand and rock as far as we could see pass by quickly. Our ride would have been a bit quicker, except that the bus broke down half an hour into the ride, so we had to wait, then transfer onto another bus. Twice we went through armed check points and had to show our passports.
Stepping off the bus in Abu Simbel was like
stepping into an oven...hot, really, really hot. We were pointed in the right direction by a suave tourist police guy, then proceeded to walk up the road to the gates of the temples. The town was very peaceful, with few people about, probably because of the heat. The beautiful and massive Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world, looked so refreshing that we wanted to go take a swim right on the spot.
The interesting thing about the temples is that their original location is now submerged far beneath the waters of Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The temples were dismantled and moved in a forty million dollar salvage project, which took four years to complete, and were reopened to the public in 1968. This is probably the most successful move of any ruins, anywhere in the world.
We first entered the Great Temple of Ramses II, which was originally carved into the mountainside on the west bank of the Nile around 1244 BC. Four statues of Ramses II sit at the entrance, which we passed between as we entered. We walked around, admiring the well preserved wall reliefs
Great Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel
Three out of four Ramses standing isn't bad depicting various battles, the images huge and deeply carved into the stone walls.
Continuing on, we visited the slightly smaller Temple of Hathor, which was dedicated to the beloved wife of Ramses II, Queen Nefertari. It was very similar, fronted by four statues of Ramses and two of Nefertari. Many of the wall reliefs pictured Nefertari with the goddess of love, Hathor, who is often depicted as a woman with horns, or as a cow. It was pretty walk around the ruins, without any other tourists, except one small tour group. The temples were very well preserved, and in great condition, especially after being moved, and the location on the side of the lake made them even more appealing.
We had originally planned to spend the night in Abu Simbel, but changed our minds and took a minibus back to Aswan with Karen. Half way back to Aswan, it started getting dark and we unfortunately learned a strange fact about driving in Egypt. For some reason, Egyptians drive with their lights off at night! Our driver drove without any lights on for as long as he possibly could, long past dusk.
To make matters more interesting, whenever
Great Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel
A line of war captives, with their arms bound behind their backs there was a vehicle approaching, the driver would flash his lights repeatedly, and the oncoming vehicle would do the same. Both would keep flashing until they passed one another. Blinding and terrifying all at the same time. Sometimes both vehicles would flash a few times, then both would turn their lights off as they passed in complete darkness! We really couldn't make any sense of these strange driving techniques. We were pretty thrilled when we finally got back to Aswan and jumped out of the minibus, happy to be (un)safely back.
The following day, we bought train tickets for our return trip to Luxor, then decided to check out a few sights at the other end of Aswan. We haggled with a taxi driver to take us to our first destination, the Isis Temple Complex, on the Island of Philae. We paid for our tickets, then had to haggle once again for a boat to take us over to the island. It was actually a bit annoying, since everyone was trying to charge us crazy foreigner rates for a five minute ride. Eventually we made it there, on a small rickety old boat that conked out as soon as
Temple of Hathor, Abu Simbel
Andy and Karen loving the tourist free temple we arrived. Our 'captain', a teenager, had to paddle to the dock with a small piece of driftwood for the last little bit.
Once we made it through the crowds on the docks, it was actually pretty impressive. Again, these temples existed in a new location, having been moved stone by stone to avoid being lost after the Aswan High Dam was built. Even in its original location, the temples had been flooded for six months of the year, ever since the construction of the original old Aswan Dam, in 1902. At that time, tourists used to take row boats out and paddle through the temples, peering down into the waters to see the beautiful wall reliefs.
Isis was worshipped at these temples as early as about 700 BC, and continued to be worshiped there until about 550 AD, long after Rome had converted to Christianity. This was an amazing site, with some very well preserved scenes, with reliefs of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Looking around, we noticed graffiti from the Victorian era, vandalism from the early Muslims, and inscriptions by the Romans during the Ptolomaic period in Egypt. An interesting mix!
Our next idea was to
Temples, Abu Simbel
High and dry, safe from Lake Nasser check out the highly recommended Nubia Museum. There we saw incredible pieces of art in granite, wood and bone, and artifacts which showcased the history, culture, and art of Nubia, from its earliest times, up until the present. Lots of pottery, sculpture, jewelry, costumes, and the information was well presented. It was interesting to see how the Nubians lived in the past, and how they still keep traditions alive today.
After all this intense Aswan action, it was time to go back to our hotel and relax for a bit. Early the next morning, we marched down to the train station to return to Luxor. We were ready to get a little more harassed, but also to also take in some more great sights that we had missed the first time around. The train was on time, so we got back to Luxor reasonably early. We stayed at the same cheapie hotel as we had the first time. However, this time we got a bit nicer of a room, with a view of the busy street below.
We crossed the Nile the next morning, then rented bikes, the same routine as before. We returned to the
Valley of
Near Philae, Aswan
Ferry touts waiting for prey the Kings to take in a few more tombs. This time we saw the tombs of Ramses IX, Ramses III, and Siptah. They were also all very impressive, well preserved, colourful and awe inspiring! Content with our visits there, we pedaled back towards the last sight of the day, The Ramesseum.
This is another massive monument erected by Ramses II, to show everyone his strength and greatness. Sadly, much of the temple is now in ruins. At the entrance we were greeted with the sight of the absolutely massive statue of Ramses II, fallen and crumbled at our feet. This is the statue that inspired the English poet Shelley to pen the poem 'Ozymandias'. After seeing the remains and rereading the poem, we couldn't help but feel a tiny bit sorry for old Ramses.
That evening, we also visited the small but impressive Luxor Museum, located on the East Bank. It contained some really exquisite statues in granite, and two royal mummies. One was Ahmose I and the other is believed to be Ramses I, who for a short time resided in a Canadian museum, before eventually being returned to Egypt.
Having seen all of the sights
we had missed the first time through Luxor, we were ready to take the ten hour train ride back to Cairo, which would hopefully only last ten hours this time around. Then on to Alexandria and the Mediterranean.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0652s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lisa
non-member comment
Egypt
Wow - amazing pics!!!