Egypt, part 2…

After by brief stay in lovely Alexandria, I took a bus back up to Cairo. From there I took an overnight train down to Aswan, which was a 14 hour train ride. From there I began the tour of upper Egypt that my hostel had arranged for me. Aswan was a nice city too. Though my favorite Egyptian city would have to be Alexandria as it was less designed for tourism and offered more glimpses of authenticity.

Nile at Aswan at sunset

The next morning was a bus trip to Abu Simbel which departed from my hotel at 3:30 AM as it was a 3 hour bus ride from Aswan. The sites at Abu Simbel are some of the most iconic sites of Egypt: the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, which overlook Lake Nasser. Really beautiful.

Great Temple of Ramses II

Temple of Hathor

After that is was back on the bus to visit the high dam. The high dam is the dam that was constructed in order to regulate the Nile’s flow and significantly increased the amount of cultivatable land in Egypt. It also created Lake Nasser, which is the world’s largest artificial lake. Though a number of persons on the bus did not seem to impressed about this stop being on their itinerary, I was still glad we stopped their as it gave me a better understanding of environmental planning issues surrounding the Nile River.

Aswan High Dam

After that we went to Philae (Agilkia Island) to visit the Temple of Isis. Apparently the original Philae island had been swamped much of the time after the old Aswan dam was constructed, which had detrimental effects on the temple. So between 1972 and 1980 UNESCO became involved and disassembled, and then reassembled the complex on the nearby Agilkia Island. Isis was the goddess of magic and was the sister/wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. At one point Isis was the greatest of all Egyptian gods and was worshipped as late as 550 AD right across the Roman Empire as far as Britain. In order to get to the island, we needed to take a boat. This temple stands out to me as being one of my favorite ones we visited.

Temple of Isis

Temple of Isis

After that I was taken back to my hotel in Aswan and then picked up for a Felucca trip down the Nile. Feluccas are little sail boats that are popular amongst budget travelers. The other passengers aboard my felucca consisted of one other American, two Australians, one Chinese and one Argentinean and there was the boat’s captain and his assistant. The trip was a lot of fun. We were on the boat for two nights, leisurely sailing down the Nile. We didn’t do much during the day, just admired the Nile. And they served pretty good food and tea, the hibiscus tea was especially notable.

Aboard the Felucca

Along the Nile

After the boat trip we were put back on tour busses and taken to more sites. First was the Temple of Kom Ombo. This temple was dedicated to two deities; the crocodile god Sobek and Haroeris, meaning Horus the Elder. Near the temple is a shrine to Hathor, which now contains mummified crocodiles that had been dug up from the nearby sacred animal sanctuary. After that was the Temple of Horus. Horus is the falcon god of the sky, another beautiful temple which was decorated with statues of falcons.

Kom Ombo

Sobek at Kom Ombo

Temple of Horus

Falcom Statue at Horus

Next was a bus ride to Luxor to visit more temples. Karnak temple was the first stop in Luxor, which is known as being one of the most beautiful temples in the world. This one was dedicated to Theban gods and the glory of the pharos. After that temple we were taken to the Luxor temple. Though it was dark out, Luxor temple is well lit and a popular place to visit at night. What a full day that one was of sightseeing…

At Karnak

At Karnak

At Luxor Temple

At Luxor Temple

The next morning was a visit to the West Bank of Luxor. The first stop was the Colossi of Memnon statues. After that was the Valley of Kings. The Valley of Kings contains 63 Royal Tombs from the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC) including Ramses II and Tutankhamun (aka ‘King Tut.’), whose mummy is still in place there. Many of the tombs are really beautiful, though they don’t allow photography in them and charge heavy fines to tourists who are caught taken photographs. After that it was back to Luxor and then I was put on an overnight train back to Cairo.

This tour of upper Egypt packed the most amount of spectacular sights in the shortest period of time. I can’t really say that I love visiting places where there are thousands of others visiting on the same day. It is a bit overwhelming and exhausting, and doesn’t seem so authentic. But that is just something to be expected from visiting somewhere like Egypt that caters to the masses as there aren’t any other really good ways to see the sights as an outsider. And since I was doing research in Egypt, meeting locals and seeing sights that not everyone else was seeing, I was able to have some more authentic experiences in the country.

Back in Cairo, I spent the next few days trying to speak with persons who could answer questions I had developed on Nile Delta tourism to pharonic sites. I made several visits to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who are the folks doing the research and planning surrounding pharonic sites. I was able to speak with someone who gave me more information about the development of Bubastis, the cult centre of Bastet that I had written about in my previous entry. Apparently the visitor’s center at Bubastis is the first one they are developing in the Nile Delta and will serve as a pilot project for future visitors centers in the delta. I was also able to speak with some folks who work with Dr. Zahi Hawass, who is one of the most famous Egyptologists today. Sadly (but not surprisingly) Dr. Hawass was too busy himself to meet with me. But his staff members that I did speak with assured me that he would send me detailed responses to questions I sent him by email. He must be one busy man as his name seems to appear in almost every article I have read about modern Egyptology due to the large number of projects he has going on, yet he still has time to personally respond to all of his emails.

Egypt was my last foreign country on the trip. It is amazing how fast 3 months flew by. Now I am back in the U.S., visiting my brother and his fiance for Thanksgiving.