Nile River Cruise

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From Aswan to Luxor we sailed down the Nile on 'Melodie' our baby cruise ship. We were fortunate enough to be the only group on board, which was total luxury. Melodie was a very small boat in comparison to some of the other monsters cruising around.

We spent 2 days cruising on Melodie and made 2 stops to visit the temple of Kom Ombo and Edfu. Both temples have a fascinating history. The Edfu temple was taken over by the early christians who were trying to escape persecution, and for some bizarre reason did not like the 3D hieroglyphs and chiseled them off to a 2D version, they made an awful mess. They also lit fires inside the temple which has caused the smoke stained ceiling as depicted in the photographs. Again these temples must have been wonderfully colourful as each hieroglyph, beams and the ceilings were covered in brightly coloured paint.

We also experienced the corruption of the tourist police. Bryan was approached by two tourist police (both of which carried machine guns) who told him to come with him...Mum and I followed. We were taken to a semi-isolated part of the temple and shown two things on the wall. They then demanded money! Mum and I also witnessed them standing in an archway demanding money for entry (it was meant to be free). Apparently this happens all the time in Egypt, the tourism police are certainly not there to protect you. In fact they are notoriously lazy, I caught them asleep on several occasions, once with the officer resting his cheek on the barrel of his loaded rifle...what a muppet.

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Photos

Crocodile Pit!
In ancient times when the nile river flooded, crocodiles would come into this pit and they would be killed as a sacrifice to the gods.