On Thursday morning, we sailed into Aswan, considered “the
gateway to Africa”. The city boasts a
large population of Nubians who share a common faith in Islam but have
different attire, music, and language.
We disembarked the ship for the last time, and were driven through the winding
streets of the city to the airport.
There we boarded a plane to Abu Simbel, 240 kilometers to the southwest
and a stone’s throw from Sudan.
On the banks of Lake Nasser loomed the massive iconic temple
that Ramses II built for himself and then another for his favorite wife
Nefertari. When the Nasser Dam was built
in the seventies, there was a worldwide effort to save the temples. In a massive engineering feat, the temples were
taken apart and then raised to higher ground where they were then identically
recreated. It was hard to tell that
anything had ever been done. Inside,
exploits of Ramses the warrior King were colorfully illustrated on the
walls. Similarly, in Nefertari’s temple,
her beauty was displayed in various forms – as a queen in the company of the
goddess Iris, in the form of the goddess Hathor, and surrounded by flowers.
The earth around Abu Simbel was quite different than
anywhere else. It was black soil in the
shapes of natural pyramids. The air was
clear and the sky was cobalt blue. Even though
our time there was limited to a half day, we were quite glad to have visited.
The longer we stayed in Egypt, the more hustling we
encountered. Or maybe we were just less tolerant of it. It was tiring at times always saying no. We were not even looking to buy
anything. I did find a women’s
cooperative where prices were set and not only did I appreciate the fair trade
exchange, it was stress-free shopping.
Back in Luxor we took the late afternoon train north to
Luxor. We met a man with whom I became
quite conversant. He traveled around
different parts of the country trying to prepare students to take the SAT, and
we talked at great lengths about the test’s faults and teaching the
complexities of the English language. Parents paid huge sums of money for their
children to take a SAT prep class (of which he received very little). His job was extremely difficult as he tried to
help students for whom English was a second language (and hasn’t been studied
enough at that) to take a culturally
biased exam.
We arrived in Luxor for another couple of nights but this
time decided to stay in the city proper, on the East Bank of the Nile. It was a completely different experience than
staying on the quieter domestic West Bank.
It was a much busier place, which also meant more hustle. We stayed at the very simple yet comfortable
Nefertiti Hotel, which overlooked the Luxor Temple. We were pleased with a few of its features –
nice cotton sheets, a rooftop terrace overlooking Luxor Temple, and BBC news
which we had not seen since Kuwait. It
has the clientele of a backpacking place but that lent itself to some nice
conversations. It was right next to the
Old Souk which we ventured into a few times, and we spent hours looking out
over the river and the street below.
Overall, we didn’t feel that we had eaten too much, except
for the bread. The Egyptian flat bread
was chewy and delicious; we can also get it in Kuwait. But it is possible to have too much of a good
thing and we resolved to go on a bread/refined carb fast for a month when we
return. The thing about it here was that
is a core part of any meal and so difficult to avoid.
Like every day on this trip, our days were long, and we
filled them by reading, writing, and doing some sightseeing. Over the course of two days, we had four short
excursions. The first was interesting,
the second disappointing, the third spectacular, and the fourth was right in
the middle. To start off, located on the
Corniche, the Luxor Museum was a pleasant surprise. Well-orchestrated and informative, it
highlighted statues, artifacts, mummies, and other relics from many of the
tombs and temples that we had already seen.
It definitely helped to put things in perspective. It was also here that we learned that we
could have gotten teacher discounts at all the monuments, but better late than
never.
One of the modes of transportation on the Nile is the felucca, a sailing boat that we had seen
several times criss-crossing the river.
Our short passage down to Banana Island was made considerable longer by
the fact that there was no wind, and of course no motor. Banana Island in itself was not much more
than a series of small groves of banana and guava trees, which we were handed
plenty to eat. The two guys on board
rowed for most of the way back. The trip
was not what either Russ or I expected, but it also wasn’t an awful way to
spend the late afternoon.
I never thought I would take a hot-air balloon ride but that
is what we did Thursday morning to watch the sun rise over the Valleys of the
Kings, Queens, Nobles, Artisans, and Workers.
It was amazing to sail over temples and glimpse a birds-eye view of farm
life below. We were blown away by how
amazing it was.
Later that day we went across the street to the Luxor
Temple. Smaller than the Karnak Temple to
which it is connected to (but hasn’t been excavated yet), it was another
monument to Ramses II, who must have been quite an egotistical ruler as his
temples and monuments seem to be bigger and more impressive than anyone
else’s. It was here that we hit the {Ancient
Egyptian history} wall, but enjoyed the warm sunshine of the afternoon and
appreciated the fine architecture.
