Something more original than "That Damn Dam"

• Jes242's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Aswan

Trip Start Dec 21, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing Next
Entry

  Aswan, Nile River Valley, Egypt
Monday, January 12, 2009

After spending a few days docked in Luxor, our ship finally set sail south to Upper Egypt. After fairly intensive touring, it was nice to simply relax on the top deck and watch Egypt roll by. Almost the entire Egyptian population lives within a few miles of the river. So as we sailed we passed by countless little villages and minor towns. Palm trees and papyri plants lined the banks, only occasionally interrupted by white-walled mosques and dirt soccer fields. Upon seeing us, half the children would stop playing and wave hello (one shouted "money money money" to my delight). The other half would continue their game, undeterred both by the Western intruders and the handful of cows wandering through the middle of the field. Time seemed to slow as we sailed, flowing as lazily as the Nile itself.

Then without warning, clanking metal and loud shouting pierced the idyllic scene. We were under attack. Several small rowboats had deftly maneuvered to the side of our ship and successfully tied themselves to our hull. As the apparent pirates began rummaging for unknown packages underneath tarps, our crewmen begin yelling quickly in Arabic as several unsheathed long knives. Then the bombardment began. One after another, the pirates launched white packages over the side of our ship, landing with percussive thuds on our wooden deck. We besieged passengers cautiously approached one of the resting projectiles. They were just galabiyyas, the traditional Egyptian robe. Our pirates were, in fact, naval merchants. But that did not mean our money was safe. They are, after all, merciless hagglers. Some of us threw money down in bottles and kept the robes but most of us just watched the excitement. And as suddenly as the pirate-merchants arrived, our crew cut them loose and they floated harmlessly into the distance in search of their next target.

The next day we visited two temples. The first was the Temple of Horus, the Falcon God. For Egyptologists, the temple is a goldmine for its well preserved depictions of festival rituals. But for me, I was beginning to show signs of temple fatigue. But keep in mind, if this temple were in any other country, it'd be the prime tourist attraction. But because Egypt has so many treasures, the Temple of Horus gets lost in the noise. But later in the day, the Temple of Kom Ombo managed to reignite my inner-Egyptologist. This symmetrical temple venerates Horus the Elder on one side and Sobek the crocodile God on the other. Archeologists have found countless mummified crocodiles and placed them on display. But the temple is best known for a small depiction of surgical instruments. Egyptians were very skilled in the art of medicine (it would be a little much to call it a science at this point). They performed many operations, including c-sections and even the removal of cancerous tumors. More impressively, they even discovered the importance of clean surgical instruments to avoid infection. Clearly, the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians transcend the construction of intricate and durable buildings. I was finally beginning to appreciate the ruins as not only impressive in themselves, but as minor glimpses into a whole, advanced civilization - giant, stone litotes on the Nile.

By the next day we reached the final destination of the cruise, Aswan. In ancient times, Aswan was best known for its granite quarries (some of which are still used today). To my mom's delight, even the shabbiest restaurants and hotels feature sparkling granite floors. But we weren't there to mull around in restaurants and hotels. We were on our way to the Unfinished Obelisk. Queen Hatshepsut funded the construction of three giant obelisks, but only two were completed and erected. To this day, the third still lies unfinished in the quarry. Even in the ground, it is easy to tell this obelisk would have dwarfed all the others in Egypt. To craft an obelisk, the Egyptians chiseled underneath the granite and placed hot-burning wood below the stone. After igniting the fire, they would quickly cool the stone with water, causing the granite to crack along prefabricated fault lines. They would then dig a channel to slide the obelisk on its side down the hill and on to a caravan of boats on the Nile. After several harrowing but snail-speed weeks, the obelisk would arrive on site and moved into place, still on its side. Using sheer man and animal power and ropes, they would pull up the obelisk while simultaneously pushing sand underneath the lower side, eventually raising the obelisk into place. It must have been quite an operation.

We next visited Philae Temple. Built by the last native pharaoh, Nectanebo as well as later Greek pharaohs, Philae was most impressive (in my opinion) for the graffiti left behind by the French troops. At the entrance, the French legion inscribed a history of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. But the story of Philae does not stop there. During the 20th century, flooding threatened to forever destroy the temple. So UNESCO stepped in, built a metal dam around the entire island, cut the temple into small pieces, and moved the entire structure to a new island. The massive project took eight years and millions of dollars to complete, but saved this ruin from, well, certain ruin.

To end the day of touring, we visited the cause of the flooding - the Aswan High Dam. For all of written history, the Egyptians faced the dangerous uncertainty of the Nile. Annual flooding provided the Egyptians with rich, fertile silt for cultivation. But some years the floods rose to high and utterly devastated the crop. Other years, the floods never came and the grains withered under the desert sun. By the 19th century, Egyptians sought to control nature and dam the Nile, providing a constant, predictable flow. But the Nile proved untamed until the construction of the High Dam in 1971. President Nasser originally sought American aid, but we withdrew our support at the final hour. This sparked the Suez Crisis where Nasser nationalized the Canal. He then turned to the Soviets to build the dam. The construction was controversial. The Dam now powers the entire country with hydroelectricity and eliminated all Nile flooding. But now farmers must use fertilizers to grow their crops. More importantly, the Dam caused the formation of Lake Nasser, which swallowed ancient Nubia, the livelihood of the current Nubian minority, and many Egyptian ruins. But standing on top of the Dam, I could only marvel at its engineering genius and the beauty of Lake Nasser, the largest manmade body of water in the world.

That night we visited Kitchener's Island, the formal botanical paradise of Egypt's British colonial overseer. While we could obviously gleam its former beauty, today it is overrun with feral animals and overgrown with ragged weeds. Our felucca transportation to and from the island, however, proved much more exciting. Feluccas have been sailing the Nile waters for millennia, so most tourists find any excuse to ride these ancient boats. Our Nubian captain, Mustafa, was barely 18 years old and had the temperament to prove it. Very friendly, he played for us traditional Nubian music on the drum, as well as some good ol' American tunes (but with butchered or invented lyrics). But over-confident as well, he attempted to sail us upstream with a headwind through some narrow cataracts. We would have probably made it if the other Nubian felucca captains hadn't used and abused our poor Mustafa. The older captains, also stuck in the cataracts, used our boat as both break and catapult for their respective feluccas. So after some heated bumper boat action, several of us were stuck on the rocks with little chance of moving. Our tour all found this quite fun, and some of us even discovered our inner sailors. But in the end, we were towed out by a motorboat. Our former marine foes, now desperate for a ride, begged us for mercy. So we gave them a tow and all arrived home safely, except for perhaps Mustafa's ego.

Our Nile cruise now over, we took an early morning flight to Abu Simbel, only a few kilometers from the Sudanese border. After a short ride from the airport, we arrived at two massive tombs constructed by Ramses II. The Pharaoh had them built to instruct the southern peoples about the throne and the gods. So to prove the might of Egypt, Ramses II constructed massive statues at the entrance of both tombs. On the left, he deifies himself as a God among the pantheon while on the right he emphasizes his warrior prowess. All in all, an excellent photo op. Feeling photographically accomplished, we once again boarded an airplane and flew back to Cairo. As we landed, I caught a glimpse of the Giza Pyramids rising above the urban sprawl. That sight will never get old (bad choice of words?)

Print this entry Share Aswan hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry