Sailing the Nile

Thursday, October 2, 2008
On the Nile - Destination Luxor

On the Nile

Well I am currently sailing down the Nile River heading towards Luxor. It is another glorious day. Not 45 C at this time but the day is young. I was up at 0600 with a few other brave souls to visit a really run down temple. I should mention that the boat did in fact leave Aswan at 0330. We woke up in the port of Kom-Ombo. Many people, including my roommate decided to sleep in as this was not the most important stop of the day. There was not much left of the temple but was still very neat to see. Although most of the walls and ceilings and rooms were gone, it was still possible to see the vision. I was finally able to get close up and see the hieroglyphics and even take pictures although I did get shooed down when I climbed up some blocks of rock.

Kom-Ombo Temple

Hanging out with some of the hieroglyphs

A few of the columns that are still standing

Yeah, I got in trouble for being up there but I got the picture first.

Temples have 3 main areas. The open court is the first part you would enter. You will find a lot of images that depict what the pharaoh has done and seen and offerings to the gods. It looks a little like propaganda really. The second room is usually for the high priest, priests and those types of people. The final room is for the pharaoh and the high priest only. The high priest is the pharaoh’s real connection to the gods.

Another shot of the Temple

Anyway, it was a quick one hour stop and now I am back on the boat. Very interesting to watch Egypt sail by. Of course they are a lot of lush green areas but you do not have to look much farther to see nothing but desert. People seem to appear out of nowhere and they certainly are a few odd things along the way. Like I said, I have been writing many of these posts in segments, one day at a time, so you may feel like I am bouncing around. There is always free time in-between our stops and I have been trying to keep up. Hopefully you will get a nice feel for how my days on the Nile are. Anyway, I am going to relax a little bit longer before we stop at our next temple.

Random temple in the side of the hill

Random building

Not so random but the view from the balcony of my room.

Random fisherman on the Nile.

Maybe I should go back and describe the cruise ship a little. Obviously it is not one of those great big huge ocean going ships. It probably only holds about 600 people or so. There is a little pool and bar on the top sun deck with lots of chairs, there is an inside bar on the next level down, the restaurant is in the basement and the rooms are on the floors in between. I am told this is 5 Star Nile Cruise ship (because they serve alcohol) . The room is pretty nice and the bathroom clean which is all I really need. Caroline and I each had to take a corner so we could both open are bags at the same time but it is all working out just fine. No complaints at all.

The pool deck. I hung out here a lot....not in the pool but up here.

Our stop around noon was at Edfu and the Temple of Edfu. We hopped off the boat and climbed aboard some horse drawn buggies which took us to the temple. The streets were very full of people as it is still a holiday so many people out and about. The shop keepers here do not seem to be on vacation though because there is a lot of hassling to come in and buy the second we get anywhere.

Caroline, Elizabeth, Alan and I hanging out on the buggy.

This little guy hitched a ride all the way to the temple.

The Temple of Edfu is absolutely spectacular.

A glimpse of the Temple

It is far bigger than I could have imagined. It was found sometime in the 1860’s by a French archaeologist. It took over 50 years to uncover the whole thing. It was completely buried in sand. I cannot imagine unearthing something like this.

Me with Horace. He was a popular guy.

The Temple is dedicated to the falcon-headed sky god Horace. It is one of the most preserved temples of the ancient world and they still let us take pictures. Most of the rooms in this temple would have only been entered by the high priests. Everything would have been perfect so Horace would not be upset. It is interesting to look around though and see that many of the engravings have been vandalized. This was done mostly by members of other religious groups including Christians. It is usually the faces or groins of the engravings that would be scratched out.

Here are a couple of shots of me....demonstrating how big this temple is.

Some of the hieroglyphs in Edfu Temple

Just hanging out.

Holding hands with a carving

On the boat we have had a very quiet afternoon, laying in the sun eating lunch and that kind of thing. We are waiting to reach the lock so that we can transfer to the different level of water. I think that should be neat to see. I have never seen a lock this large before but 2 cruise ships fit in and then were lowered down about 10 to 15 metres and then we sailed away.

A look at the lock.

Once we docked in Luxor it was time for the evening entertainment to begin. We were told that we were going to see a belly dancer. First though this other guy came out and did a traditional dance. He was very good. Really entertaining. The belly dancer followed and well let’s just say the excitement most people had for the evening quickly went away when she walked into the room. I have not seen a belly dancer live before, but I can tell you that I know she was not very good. We kind of felt sorry for her because she tried to pull people out of the audience to dance…..and nobody would. Eventually the girls are our table saved her.

Tom dressed up for the night. He's a Brit....don't ask.

The girls getting ready to go dancing.

The port is very quiet tonight, which is good as we have a very busy day tomorrow (eventually I might be able to stop saying that).

Julie