We caught an overnight train to Aswan in the south of Egypt on May 29th. Our first class train seats were comfortable and air conditioned, although the bathroom looked like the lower level of an outhouse. After 14 hours in the train, we arrived to Aswan the following afternoon and visited two of the five Egyptian dams along the Nile River.
The High Dam (newer of the two) was completed in 1971 and generates roughly half of the country’s electricity supply. On the flip side, constructing the dam led to the creation of Nassar Lake, the world’s largest artificial lake and the subsequent flooding and and relocation of Nubian villages and monuments in the area. The dam stops the annual flooding of the valley along the Nile River which has had mixed results on the land. From the High Dam it is possible to see northern Sudan on a clear day.
On the way back to Aswan we visited the Philae Temples. The oldest remaining part of the temple was built around 400 B.C. and rulers of Egypt successively added their mark to the complex until as recently as 300 AD in worship of the goddess Isis. Later in the day we took a felucca (sailboat) around Elephantine Island and explored Aswan Botanical Gardens.
Day Two on the Nile:
We stopped off at Kom Ombo, the temple erected in honor two gods: Sobek, the crocodile god and Haroeris. Kom Ombo was a major trading port and was even a regional capital during the Ptolemic times. The mummified crocodiles are thousands of years old!
Day Three on the Nile:
We awoke to find our cruise ship docked in the town of Edfu the next morning. Edfu is largely an agricultural center and its specialty is sugar cane. The main tourist attraction is the Temple of Horus (falcon god), which is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt because it was built on higher ground and avoided seasonal flooding of the Nile. Construction of the temple began in 287 BC and was completed about 200 years later. Modern day Edfu was built on top of the sand covered temple until it was rediscovered excavated in the 19th century.
From Edfu, we sailed to Luxor and passed another small dam, which creates a disparity in the water level. Our ship passed through a locking gate system similar to the system used at the Panama Canal in order to continue down the Nile at a lower water level.
Day Four on the Nile:
Luxor, once known as Thebes, has been inhabited for over 8000 years. The city became the capital of Egypt around 2000 BC when Montuhotep II conquered and united all of Egypt. Luxor is also affectionately known as the hassle capital of Egypt and we certainly experienced our share of locals following us around offering to help with everything from carriage rides to carpet sales.
We made a quick stop at the mostly destroyed Colossi of Memnon and spent the morning in the Valley of the Kings, which houses tombs of the Pharaohs. The tombs date back to about 1500 BC and so far archaeologists have found over 60 tombs, the most recent discovered a few years ago – and they are still digging! The entrance ticket includes three tombs; we visited Ramses I, III & IX. The tomb of Ramses IX was especially impressive with much of the colorful hieroglyphics still intact.
The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the most powerful and important female ruler in ancient Egypt, was equally impressive, although most of the coloring has faded.
After recovering in the air conditioning of the cruise ship, we set out again in the afternoon to visit the very large Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Karnak is one of the largest ancient Egyptian monuments, constructed and added to for over 1500 years. No one knows why this site was so important, but one and a half millennium of rulers felt compelled to add their personal touch to the site in form of a kiosk, obelisk, sanctuary, pylon or temple. It is fascinating to observe the changing architectural styles over the years.
Luxor Temple is home of the picturesque valley of the sphinxes. Modern day Luxor still covers most of the avenue of sphinxes which runs 3km to Karnak. The temple itself was once underground. There is still a mosque on top of main temple where the street level used to be before excavation.
We headed back to Cairo with a renewed interest and appreciation for Egyptian history and mythology and humbled by the tremendous achievements of a great ancient civilization. The next time we will be more careful in selecting our tour guides: The first day the guide didn’t really speak English; the second was more interested in Nadia’s bosom than the temple; the third kept trying to make us pay again for things that were already included in our package; the fourth was great, in spite of the inevitable detour to the alabaster pottery shop. Upper (southern) Egypt is a must see!
Aaron and I celebrated his 29th birthday in Egypt. Cairo is a beautiful and ancient city, with monuments that span thousands of years. We stayed in Egypt for ten days and most of our visit was in Cairo, with an additional four days on a Nile cruise. We stayed with my cousin Mohamed in a newly built community, called El-Rehab, half an hour’s drive from Cairo.
Egypt was a bit overwhelming at first, with the noise, heat and sheer amount of people (20 million in Cairo.) Mohamed was nice enough to let us use his driver Tariq, which was a good thing since we could never drive in Cairo. The painted dividers separating lanes seemed to be for decoration only, as most cars straddled the lanes and zipped by one another with only a honk to signify that you would be hit if you didn’t move. Meanwhile, pedestrians strolled through the highways and streets at a leisurely pace, seemingly unaffected by the danger. Walking anywhere seemed like a constant stream of near-death experiences. I warned Aaron that Mumbai would be much worse, since in India we would also have to contend with cows and other animals sharing the road, and lots more cars.
Our first day in Cairo was spent touring the pyramids, including the pyramids of Khafre and Khufu, as well as a visit to the Sphinx. The pyramids were stripped of all the wealth and statues, but climbing through a pyramid was an experience in itself. I say climbing because we had to squat and wobble up a long passageway, and Aaron was bent completely double. Pyramids are not for the claustrophobic! I did feel a bit like Indiana Jones as we struggled ahead in the dim lighting and narrow passageways.
Outside, we saw the Sphinx, which is being corroded by a kind of monument cancer from within. And of course, camel drivers were everywhere, following us around and telling us “My friend, I will give you a good price for a ride.” Or, “You want to take a picture?” Overall, everywhere we went there were people constantly coming up to us and asking us to buy things. Having a six foot white guy next to me certainly added to the harassment level.
Afterwards, we spent the afternoon with Aaron’s friend Shady, his American wife Kate and their adorable six month old baby, Ray. Shady and Kate took us to lunch on the Nile, then we spent a relaxing afternoon at the beautiful Al-Azhar park that was recently built near the Citadel. The park was apparently once a garbage dump, but is now a beautiful and relaxing oasis in the city. We had dessert and drinks at a restaurant inside the park, and spent the afternoon chatting and catching up.
The next day we spent the morning at the Egyptian Museum, where we wandered around with our guidebooks on a self-guided tour. Aaron joked that everyone must have thought I was his Egyptian guide. In fact, many people asked if I was Egyptian on the trip, but of course once I opened my mouth the illusion was lost.
One of the more interesting and morbid exhibits in the Museum is the display of royal mummies. There were about a dozen pharoah’s mummies on display, including Hatshepsut, a few of the Ramses, etc. It was a bit eerie considering we were basically staring at ancient bodies. It was amazing how the facial features, and in some cases even the hair, were intact! Another highlight was the golden treasure of King Tut, the boy king whose tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and is one of the only examples of an intact tomb.
In the afternoon, my college friend Monem treated us to a sumptuous Egyptian lunch at Abu el-Sid and told us he was recently engaged! Congratulations Monem! Later, we wandered around Khan Al Khalili, the biggest bazaar in the middle East, and enjoyed browsing around, though we didn’t enjoy the constant harassment by the vendors.
In the evening, we had made plans to meet Aaron’s friends Heba and Nahla at a restaurant on the Nile, called Sequoyah. Getting there was an adventure itself. We took a taxi for the first time alone. The ettiquette of taxis in Egypt is that you are supposed to get into a cab, tell the driver where you are going, then once you arrive at the destination you are supposed to just pay what you assume is the fare and hop out.
This was Aaron’s second visit to Cairo, so he knew that if we followed the normal ettiquette, we would be overcharged, and the driver would yell at us and cause a scene when we refused to pay more. So, we stood on the side of the road, as Aaron negotiated rates with every taxi driver that stopped. When they failed to give a good price, he waved them on. Finally, the third (or was it the fourth?) agreed to take us at a reasonable rate. We hopped in, told the driver the destination, and started the journey.
We soon realized the driver did not speak English. He said he spoke some French so I tried that, but he only knew greetings. We called Heba to tell him where to go in Arabic, and he said he understood, but then kept stopping and asking people if they spoke English and could tell us to tell him where to go. Since we had no idea where the restaurant was, this was imposible, and after much discussion in broken Arabic, French and English, we decided to get out on the Nile and figure it out from there. By some miracle, we found ourselves at the restaurant and enjoyed the evening with Heba, her fiance Sami, and Nahla.
We went on a Nile cruise for several days, which deserves it’s own blog entry. When we returned to Cairo, we had planned to go to Alexandria for Aaron’s birthday, but we had both eaten something that made us sick (or what I call, the real curse of the pharaohs) and had to take it easy for the rest of our visit. We enjoyed spending time with Mohamed, who we also visited at his office in Heliopolis. Mohamed is regional director of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) which is a UN agency, and we enjoyed the tour of his office and the chance to meet his staff.
I loved Egypt and its history, and we both especially enjoyed getting to know Mohamed and spending time with our Egyptian friends.
