Cruising along the Nile

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After a full day of seeing the sights in Cairo, our train took us down to the start of the Nile Cruise. We rode all the way down to Aswan, Upper Egypt. Some people may not be aware, but Upper Egypt is south of Lower Egypt. This is because the Nile flows from south to north, thus, making the upper part further south. All along the Nile though, Egypt is lush, full of life and similar to a tropical oasis. It was always quite strange though, because you can see the desert just beyond the Nile. Besides this, you get to visit many temples along the way of the Nile. I went ahead and combined a couple of days travels on this blog, since we saw temples for the next couple of days.

One important aspect to understand is that the climate and direction of the Nile has shifted slightly over the thousands of years since Ancient Egypt. Thus, what was once right in a great location for transportation and climate has often become shifted to a land locked desert area. The same is very true with the pyramids. The pyramids used to be in a very lush area, but now, surrounded by desert.

Besides that, the Cruise boat was very nice. The price wasn't too bad, but we had to purchase our own drinks, including water. Yes, you don't drink the water in Egypt unless it's out of a bottle. The Egyptians we met, although always asking for a tip, we're quite friendly and open. Being along the Nile though was an experiance in itself. It's literally like being on a cruise in a tropical region, save for being surrounded by a desert and traveling to amazing temples thousands of years old.

Another neat thing to note is the Rosetta stone. For a very long time, people were unable to understand the meanings of Egyptian hieroglyphics. For a very long time, people could only guess what all the sybmbols really meant. However, with the conquest of Napoleon's conquest into Egypt in 1799, the Rosetta stone was discovered. It dates back to BC times, about 100 BC, and has one creed written out in Greek and two other Egyptian dialects. Soon afterwards, it was translated, and then all other ancient Egyptian writings could be understood. Soon after this time, a huge movement to investigate and explore ancient Egypt followed. What's very interesting to me is that there are still numeorus places where digging and excavation continues today.

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Photos

Nile sunset
At the end of the day, the Nile gave a great view!

Our cruise ship
Here it is, my home on the Nile for a few days.

One of the first temples
This temple, carved directly into the mountain, put us off to a great start.

On going excavation
On the side here, you can see places where they are still finding and exploring sites.

Statues out front
Here you can see some fo the largfe statues, about 20 feet tall.

Hieroglyphics
All along the walls you can see artwork, and some like this still had some original paint!

Another statue
It's rather impressive to think this was all thousands of years old, making me wonder how this place looked at its prime.

Getting a closer look
Here I am, getting a better view of the work.

An idea of how it was
Here you can see some of the paint well preserved, you can imagine the entire temple colored brightly thousands of years ago.

Our next major temple
This temple, in a less remote area, had walls built at elast 10 stories high, encassing a place inside.

Going further
Getting past the entrance, a temple lies within.

More heiroglyphics
All along the walls, you can see writing like this, everywhere!

Inside the temple
There were numerous rooms within this temple.

Main room
This burial room was the main focus of the temple.

Another room
All rooms of course were covered in writing.