After Cairo I flew to Aswan, the start of a three night Nile Cruise. Which was, again, a private tour. What the heck, Internet. Anyway, I stayed one night at a hotel before being picked up in the morning by my guide and taken down to the Aswan damn. The guide in Cairo had said that the dam controlled flooding so that people could live by the river but that it also meant the desert was creeping in. This guide acknowledged that but also said it provided year round growing seasons which enables Egypt to meet the food needs of its growing population. As we drove around I definitely saw dates, sugar cane, corn, and cabbage being grown. The dam itself was big, and it was nice to see so much hydro power. Yay, environment!
Next was a stop at the Temple of Isis at Philae, which had been moved from its original location after the dam was built to preserve it. It now sits on a higher island nearby. You could see the water lines on the walls where it used to be flooded, and there were holes in some reliefs where boats used to moor. Oops. The temple itself was amazing. It was my first taste of the scale of construction in Ptolemaic Egypt. The pylon (big outer wall with gate in the middle) had massive carvings of Isis and the other gods. They'd been scratched out by Christians who turned the building into a temple, sadly. But the figures were still clear even if the faces were gone. They stood towering over the human visitors. Inside there were rows of columns, some with lotus flower tops, some with papyrus, some with the face of Hathor with cow ears. I've been so trained as Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, it's easy to forget that before any of that, there were these Egyptian styles. The temple is laid out in a line, so that the most sacred rooms are in the back. They had no windows but walls completed covered in carvings showing offerings to the gods. WOW.
After the temple, we checked into the boat, had lunch, then in the afternoon took a boat ride down river to the last Nubian village. The rest had to be relocated after the damn and people drifted away. It was OK. Mostly a tourist trap, not worth the money really. We also went to a botanical garden that was pretty. Sunset on the boat ride was pretty too. Oh, and we rode over the remains of the first cataract- it's just a little gurgle in the river now, not a waterfall. Stupid dam. Once back on board, we had dinner and then crashed after a busy day.
Day two started at 4 AM, for a 4:30 departure down to Abu Simbel. These huge temples of Ramses II are another casualty of the dam, moved inland and up from the water level. It took about 3 hours to reach them, as we drove nearly to the Sudanese border. Once there, we walked around to Lake Nasser to get the full effect of approach- and wow. It's incredible that ancient people were able to build statues so large. It would be a challenge even today. Four huge kings sat guarding the entrance to this once southern stronghold of the pharoah's power. You weren't allowed to take photos inside, but there was a large hypostyle hall (that means columns) and sacred chambers in the back. The carvings showed Rameses making offerings to all of the gods. Sometimes you can tell what he's offering easily- like bread. Sometimes it's trickier. Sometimes the pictures look like something else like the incense that looks like a Slurpee or the image that looked like falafal in a pita (or a meatball sub...). Next door was the temple for his wife, Neretari. It had smaller statues outside, but there were more of them. Inside was just as grand. There were some restorers painting a sealant over the carvings to preserve the colors, which was fun to watch.
After driving back and having lunch, the boat left. We stopped at dusk at the Temple to Sobek at Ko Ombo. Crocodile God! It was my first time seeing a temple lit at night, which was cool. There were two awesome carvings here- one that was a calendar of the festivals, which tells so much about the annual ceremonies of the people, and another showing a collection of medical supplies from the time. Awesome, awesome stuff. There was also a crocodile museum with lots of creepy mummified crocodiles.
They also had a huge Nilometer. What's that? Basically a well that measures the depth of the Nile in order to calculate taxes. Water too high or too low was a threat to crops and meant difficult times ahead. Taxes were lower in these cases. The sweet spot was in the middle. Oh, man, can we please had something like this in the US? It would solve so many problems. High taxes in times of prosperity, lower in times of need? And easy to measure fluctuation?
In the morning, we woke near Edfu, site of a huge temple to Horus. It was set up like many of the other temples, with a pylon, open court, columns, and inner sanctuary. The carvings were again magnificent and plentiful. You can always tell Rameses II's work because he ordered his carvings to be deeper than the others, so they couldn't be chipped off by later kings and replaced. He wanted his legacy to last (and it did...).
Most of the day was spent on the boat. It was very leisurely, and had good pasta and chicken for lunch. Watching the Nile float by was very peaceful, until we reached a coal plant. The sting of pollution hung in the air for miles.
We arrived at Luxor around 4, and I was the first off the boat, no lie. We raced to the car and then took off for Karnak. Just north of the city, Karnak temple was HUGE. It has the largest hypostyle hall in the world. Seriously, the biggest. They still aren't sure how it was built, but they said the obelisks were added top down. The tallest obelisk in the world at the time is here. As is the empty pedestal where the obelisk from Istanbul once stood. Above the columns you could still see the painted ceiling, with its brilliant blues and yellows. I loved the colors!
Our last stop of the day was the temple of Luxor, all lit and pretty. Its magnificence surpassed any other Temple we'd seen. Sitting parallel to the Nile, a double line of sphinxes edged the road from Karnak to Luxor. Huge statues of Rameses guarded the entrance, and another grand obelisk stood outside the entrance. Inside were columns after columns after columns. You could trace the evolution of pharaohs as they each worked to add more. The carvings were larger than life, showing victories in battles, religious processions on boats, and rows after rows of heiroglyphics extolling the pharoahs and gods. The temple's biggest function was in the Opet festival, when the statue of Amun came down the river from Karnak.
In the morning, I crossed to the West Bank for the Valley of the Kings. I saw 2 huge states of Rameses II at an active excavation near his memorial temple, and the temple of Hapshepsut, the first female pharaoh. As for tombs, you can enter 3 in the Valley Kings, on a rotating basis. I saw three Rameses, III, VI, and IX. What I wasn't prepared for was the paintings! I've seen touches of color surviving on the exterior of the temple walls, but buried here in the tombs, all of the color remains. It was like walking into the Sistine Chapel. Ceilings and walls were covered in colorful art. Some was writing, others were the important funerary scenes to help the pharaoh reach the afterlife. You could see all of the offerings and read the accounting of what he brought to his afterlife. I don't know that I can even put into words how much more this was than I'd expected. It was Ancient Egypt come to life, in a way I've never experienced with other historical sites.
After the Valley of the Kings, we visited two other sets of tombs. One was for the high priests, and were decorated with carvings not paintings. They were unfinished in Ramonhotep's tomb, so you could see some of the process. Artists create a grid, then transferred the images. Artists specialized in one part, and did that part on each figure. So where it was undone, men had ears but not eyes or mouths. In another area you could see the red and black drawing lines to show where to carve.
My favorite, though, were the tiny workers tombs. Not subject to grave robbers, they are absolutely pristine. The men who painted for the pharaohs of coursed used their talents for their own final resting places. The tombs were tiny holes with arched ceilings, and fully decorated. You can't take pictures inside, and there aren't any online either. It feels like this was a secret treasure- put in the effort to comb here and climb down underground, be rewarded.
I definitely feel like I won the historical lottery with this trip up the Nile. I'm completely in love with Ancient Egypt and on the quest for more reading material. Would I return? Absolutely. One lifetime isn't enough to see it all.
