The first leg of our journey from Luxor to Cairo was a cruise on the Nile. Ours was two days and two nights from Luxor to Aswan via Edfu and Kom Ombo. At least three friends had taken similar cruises, and all raved about it. I won’t rave about it. If you’re on the fence about a Nile cruise, skip it.
The highlight is sitting on the top of the boat lazily watching verdant river banks. You realize that Egypt is the Nile. Beyond the strip of irrigated agriculture along the river, it’s all desert.
The cruise cost about twice as much per night as staying at an all-inclusive resort on the Red Sea, but the accommodation is less comfortable, the food isn’t as good, and no drinks are provided — not even water! On the Red Sea you’re paying for fantastic snorkeling. Here you’re paying for what? Ancient Egyptian sites? Between Luxor and Aswan we did not stop at the Temple of Montu, the Muala tombs, the Temple of Khnum, the El Kab necropolis, or Gebel Al-Silsila. All are on the way. We did stop at Edfu and Kom Ombo — both very good. Tickets and guides cost extra, of course, but the biggest complaint is that all the cruise boats are on the same schedule so those sites were rather crowded. Visit at other times, and I bet you’d have those temples to yourself.
We found many companies offering a cruise itinerary similar to the one we did, but they all depart Luxor on the same day, twice a week. Why? Not only were the tourist sites crowded, but the river itself was crowded with boats like ours.
All the boats appeared to be mostly empty like ours.
The trip cost included a ferry escort across the river in Luxor and a taxi to the ship a bit south of the city, but the special service ended there.
Here we are leaving Luxor in the early afternoon.
It was dark when we went through the locks at Esna.
We woke up in the morning in Edfu and hired a tuktuk to take us to the temple.
Edfu Temple is incredible. It was built during the Greek/Roman period so it’s about 1000 years newer than what we saw at Karnak. The outside feels Roman in some ways. A Zeus temple, perhaps:
Or, jumping another 1500 years later (!), there are similarities with Ottoman mosque courtyards or Portuguese cloisters?
The carvings, however, are ancient Egypt.
The highlight at Edfu is the inner temple — a room or two of columns surrounded by tall, narrow hallways, with room after room off the hallways. There are turns, steps, stairways, and every wall is carved.
Back on the boat we found where all those tasty Egyptian mangoes come from. We also saw a lot of citrus and banana.
Egyptian fruits and vegetables are super tasty — lots of sun and add water! We had some good meals. Quail, eggplant, and guava are often available and usually excellent.
Here we’re passing Gebel Al-Silsila.
The sun had set by the time we got off the boat to visit Kom Ombo Temple, but the crowds were more of a problem than the darkness.
Kom Ombo is contemporary with Edfu, but it reminded me more of Karnak.
I had read that this was a Nilometer (used to measure the level of the Nile to levy taxes based on expected agriculture yields), but I overheard a guide calling it simply a well.
In the morning after breakfast we got off the boat in Aswan, took a taxi to the bus station, and got a minibus to Abu Simbel leaving about 30 minutes later. Wow, that was easy. Most of the passengers were foreigners. We chatted with Cali and Jullian, from Singapore and France, followed them to their hotel, and got a room — also easy.
The ruins at Abu Simbel are a short walk away. We visited that afternoon after a falafel lunch. Now we’re back with Ramses II and the New Kingdom. The incredible thing here is that Abu Simbel was going to be underwater — remember Glen Canyon? remember Hasankeyf? To avoid the flooding behind Aswan High Dam, the largest cultural heritage rescue project ever undertaken moved Abu Simbel 65m higher to its present location. The temple was cut apart and moved piece by piece. There’s a video at the visitor center.
That’s just the outside. There are a bunch of Ramses II statues inside as well.
The temple projects Egypt’s power south to the Nubians. Don’t mess with Ramses II.
Amazingly a few meters away is another temple, also moved during the rescue operation. On the outside in addition to Ramses II we see two large statues of Nefertari, his favorite wife.
There’s more inside as well, of course.
It’s an eight-hour round-trip on the bus from Aswan to visit Abu Simbel, and as far as we could tell, there’s nothing of interest in the village besides the temple. I thought the trip was worth it to see the result of the rescue project. Here’s the funnest photo I took in the town of Abu Simbel, from the roof of our hotel.
We stayed our first night in Aswan in the Nubian village, West Suhail (?), on the west bank. That was a mistake. There’s really nothing to see. It’s a dusty village selling junk to tourists. These photos might make it look decent.
We spent the rest of our nights in Aswan on Elephantine Island which seems to have been continuously inhabited since the Old Kingdom. Aswan is important as the site of the first cataract (going upstream) on the Nile. Large boats couldn’t continue upstream, and Aswan became a trading center.
The ruins on Elephantine Island have bits from the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, Greek, Roman, and Ottoman periods. It’s hard to understand what you’re seeing.
Here’s a Nilometer from the New Kingdom:
and another one from the Romans:
As we learned at Luxor and Karnak temples, Aswan is the source of granite for statues and obelisks. At the quarry is a 42m tall unfinished obelisk. If completed and erected successfully, it would be the tallest of the ancient Egyptian obelisks.
One morning I shared a taxi with a young Chinese guy, Shaw, to visit Philae Temple. After purchasing a ticket, you need to bargain with the boat drivers to take you to the island. We found two more Chinese and a Pakistani group to share the boat cost and arranged for 90 minutes at the site which worked out well.
Philae was rescued from the reservoir like Abu Simbel and is from the Hellenistic Period like Edfu. Are we seeing Roman influences? Or more likely the other way around. The tetrapylon at Aphrodisias?
a colonnaded street?
The entrance at Philae looks like what we saw at Edfu and Luxor temples.
On the way back to town I had the taxi drop me at the excellent Nubian Museum. In the garden there’s a small obelisk at the shrine of the god Rc-Hor-Akhti, rescued from Abu Simbel
and also some rescued Nubian rock art.
Of course all these tombs and temples were full of interesting artifacts which are largely in museums now. I missed the museum in Luxor and — spoiler — in Cairo too. 🙁 All I have are these two, inside the Nubian Museum, both from tomb QH33 near Aswan.
Tired of ancient Egypt yet? Let’s get just a little into the Islamic Period before Cairo (next post). The best piece at the museum was this glass lamp from the Ottoman Period.
I had the Fatimid Cemetery to myself when I wandered through one afternoon.
I was told the only mosque worth visiting in Aswan was Al-Tabia Mosque.
It wasn’t so exciting, but it led me to a motor-free pedestrian shopping street, the nicest street I saw during my month in Egypt.
I don’t know if there are any hotels on that street, but that’s where I’d want to stay if I come back to Aswan. I probably won’t come back to Aswan, but I’ve already started a list for my next trip to Upper Egypt: Seti I tomb in Valley of the Kings, Nefertari Tomb in Valley of the Queens, Ay Tomb in the West Valley, Medinat Habu, Valley of the Artisans, the temple at Esna (Khnum), Luxor Museum. 🙂
Bye bye for now, ancient Egypt. We ate some dinner and got a 15-hour (very cold; I seriously think there was no heater) overnight bus to Cairo.
