A step into Nubia and back to Egypt

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.