This afternoon as we prepared to depart, the scheduled coach transfer sort of didn’t happen.  There was some panic and chaos in the hotel lobby as people were concerned about getting to the airport on time.  In the end, we had to frantically chase for a taxis and ended up with a ramshackle one with no airconditioning.  By this stage, we were just concerned that this rickety cab did not break down under the weight of our suitcases as it raced to the airport.

As we settled into our comfortable Singapore Airlines flight, we were glad to leave behind the heat, traffic pollution and congestion, however what we took with us were everlasting memories of the wonders of the Egypt and its amazing history.  What a sensational place!

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

This afternoon we visited a carpet factory and our host, an affable gentleman with a very big grin, showed us around the floor and told of us the improving quality of Egytian carpets and how they were catching up with the Turkish.  Walking around the floor and seeing the stacks of carpets on the floor, we couldn’t quite see the comparison in quality as yet.  What did trouble us though were the number of young children working on the floor.  This young girl in the picture was keen to make eye contact when the manager wasn’t looking and I felt she was trying to ask for something.

Still, the manager assured us that they do get time to do some schooling and that the money that they are paid helps them to support their family.  We could have done without this visit, however, it reminded us of the plight of some children in lesser developed countries.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

Saqqara is one of the richest archaeological sites in Egypt and today we visit its Step Pyramid of Djoser.  Saqqara’s monuments span some 3,000 years, with monuments including the earliest ancient funerary structures to Coptic monasteries.

There were masses of visitors at the entrance to the enclosure, so we had to wait our turn to move in.  To get to the Great Southern Court, we walk through a magnificent colonnaded corridor.  This corridor is lined with 40 pillars, ribbed in imitation palm stems. 

Everyone knows of the Great Pyramids of Giza, but it’s the Step Pyramid that holds the most significance in the history of Egyptian monuments.  The Step Pyramid marked an unprecedented leap forward in the world of architecture.  Imhotep has been hailed the inventor of the art of building with hewn stone.  Site excavations revealed Imhotep’s name inscribed on Djoser’s pedestal.  The vast enclosure surrounding the Step Pyramid was another achievement.  The site design provided the template for subsequent Egyptian architecture.

Saqqara became the royal necropolis for the Old Kingdom capital of Memphis.  As the city grew, so did its necropolis.  It spanned an area over 6 km long and more than 1.5 km wide.  The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built some time after 2630 BC. The pyramid was built for King Djoser by Imhotep, high priest and architect.  It was the first pyramid in Egyptian history. The Step Pyramid was the first stone structure of its size in the world.  Prior to this, royal tombs were underground rooms covered by low sandy mounds.  The Step Pyramid was started as a large mastaba tomb.  It followed the well-established Saqqara tradition.  Imhotep chose to use stone rather than mud-brick.  He built one mastaba on top of the other, each one smaller than the one below.  In one of the restored sections of the wall you’ll see a frieze of cobras.  It is quite a sight.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

This morning we drove to Mit Rahina village to visit the Temple of Ptah.   Ptah was the Chief Memphite god and patron of craftsmen and artisans.  The Mit Rahina of today is a small unremarkable village, however the Temple of Ptah was once one of the largest in Egypt.  If you cast your mind back to Karnak Temple, the Temple of Ptah is believed to have been bigger than Karnak.  It’s hard to imagine this when you first walk through the humble front entrance and you might in fact be wondering at the significance of the place.  However, once you see the magnificent statues on site, you can begin to visualize how grand the temple must have been in its days. 

We first visited a small open-air museum which holds remnants of ancient Memphis.  The museum’s showpiece is a giant limestone statue of Rameses II.  Apart from being truncated at the knee, this colossal statue is still in very good condition.  The ancient city of Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom.  It was believed that King Menes founded Memphis around 3100BC and was the ruler responsible for uniting Upper and Lower Egypt.  Memphis, situated at the head of the Nile Delta, was a majestic city during its times.  Rameses II, son of Sethos I, reigned in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom.

In the garden next to the museum stands a giant sphinx, believed to date to the 19th Dynasty.  At 80 tons, this is the largest calcite statue ever found.  Rameses II was known to have built more buildings and had more colossal statues than any other Egyptian kings.   In the garden can be found more statues of Rameses II.  Colossal statues of Rameses II guard the gates to the temple.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

Our amazing cruise has come to an end and sadly this morning we disembark and transfer to the airport for our flight back to Cairo.  Luckily, we’re comforted by the fact that for the next couple of nights, we’ll be very comfortably accommodated at the opulent Marriott Hotel.  I particularly like the practice of individually escorting guests to their tables at breakfast time, even though they handle huge groups of guests.  People rushing for tables in the morning, is not my idea of a good way to start the day.

The weather has gone a little cooler.  Normally you would consider temperatures of approximately 25ºC to be quite pleasant, but after two weeks being in temperatures of 40ºC, we were all feeling a little chilly.

We had a free evening tonight and didn’t feel compelled to rush out of the hotel to dine elsewhere.  The Marriott has a number of nice restaurants and it was nice to dine in the relaxing outdoor Garden Promenade Cafe.

Helen 

Travel Signposts Blog

This evening we arrived back at Luxor and we had the opportunity to attend a son et lumiere show at Karnak Temple. There were heaps of tourists there of course and everyone gathered outside the Temple gates, not quite knowing what to expect.  Then suddenly the place is in complete darkness before a part of the temple is then illuminated.  As you walk towards this illuminated spot a narrative begins, accompanied with some music.  This then goes on from point to point. 

When the location narratives were over, everyone is  moved to a seated area overlooking the sacred lake.  Here some light projections in the sky take place, accompanied by narrative and music.  I must say that whilst it was an experience, it wasn’t all that great.  The greater experience for us was being at the Temple at night and revisiting the great hypostyles and seeing those magnificent temple columns in the night.  After the show we were transported back to the boat where we continued the pleasantness of the evening by enjoying drinks with our fellow cruise companions.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

Before we left home for this cruise, we had some concerns about the type of meals that may be served, seeing that we do not eat meat at all, and salads and vegetables may be dicey.  Being on a river cruise like this, all your meals are taken on board and there’s no option of taking off to a restaurant onshore if you didn’t like the ship’s food.  I must say that from the first evening’s meal onwards, our fears were allayed when we arrived in the restaurant.

The meals were buffet-style and for us, there was a wide selection of salads of Domiati cheese with tomatoes, stuffed vegetables, stuffed vine leaves, fuul (a traditional Egyptian dish of mashed fava beans with lemon juice), hummus and babaghanoush, and they were all quite delicious.  With their hot sun and fertile Nile soil, the Egyptians are able to grow tomatoes and other salad vegetables that are really tasty.

Meat-eating passengers seemed quite satisfied with their lot as well.  Egyptians traditionally grill their lamb or chicken, as in kebabs or you could have koftas which are patties of minced lamb. 

Everything was cooked and baked on board and the chef made changes to the menu each night.  He would always make something vegetarian for us, so that we were not restricted to having the same salads every night.  The spread of deserts each night was very good as well and rather than our anticipated weight loss, we had to be careful not to over-eat and over-bulk.

At mealtime, everyone is provided with a litre bottle of water.  They are very cautious about keeping good health standards as each boat carries 160 passengers and it would not be good for the reputation of the tour if boat loads of passengers got ill.  In fact on our cruise, there was only 1 young girl who felt a little ill and that was due to water or food that she had had on shore and not on the boat.

The restaurant staff were really nice and helpful and nothing was to inconvenient for them.  If it was anyone’s birthday or special day, they would always bring out a special cake which is delivered to the special guest with much fanfare.  One of our favorite waiters was a guy we christened Mr. Why Not.  Whenever you asked anything of him his response would always be Why Not! 

So, it’s possible to stay away from gastro ailments as long as you’re sensible and take heed of health warnings, particularly if you’ve never been exposed to extreme heat and surving in less developed countries.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

This afternoon we set sail up river for Kom Ombo, about 45 km north of Aswan, to visit the Temple of Kom Ombo.  The boat moored right at the river entrance to the village which makes it so convenient for visitors.  The path up to the Temple is lined with beautiful gardens, trees and stalls selling local arts and craft.  As all the passengers disgorge from the river cruisers, there was a frenzy of activity as vendors were excited at the prospects of making some sales.  If you were templed-out, there are also nice garden cafes where you could sit and have a drink or some food. 

Built during Ptolemaic period on a high dune, Kom Ombo enjoys spectacular views of the river and its surroundings.  Kom Ombo is really made up of two temples, the Temple of Sorbek and the Temple of Haroeris.  The crocodile-headed Sobek is the god of fertility and creator of the world, whereas Haroeris the falcon-headed Horus is the solar war god.  It is believed that in ancient times, sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank near here.  In one of the chapels, you’ll see various sacophargi of crocodiles that were found during excavations.

As Mohammed guided us around, he explained that everything is duplicated along the main axis, i.e. there are two entrances, two courts, two colonades, two hypostyle halls, two sanctuaries etc.  The decoration of the hall and remaining parts of the temple is also divided between the two gods, with scenes of Sobek on the east and Haroeris on the west.  Engravings and hieroglyphs on the temple walls and columns depict daily life in the temples during the time of the pharoahs.  Some of these are still in excellent condition.  In one scene we also saw pictures of medical implements that looked like the prototype of scapels that are used today.

As the sun was setting, and more importantly, our cruiser was getting ready to leave, we scambled down and dashed back to our boat, leaving no time to see what was on offer in the stalls.  Never mind, we’ve been promised shopping time back in Luxor.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

Today, we paid a visit to a Nubian village to learn something about Nubian culture.  Nubians are the people of northern Sudan and southern Egypt.  The Nubians are believed to be the first human race on earth, and most of their customs and traditions were adopted by the ancient Egyptians. 

We were led into a building which appears to serve as some sort of a co-operative.  In the main room, there was a tank filled with baby crocodiles.  You were invited to pick them up, but this was not for me.   We went into an alcove and as we sat around, mint tea was made and served.  Our guide gave a little talk on life in the Nubian village.

There were several other alcoves with different exhibits in them.  In one of the alcoves, a couple of the Nubian ladies offered tattooing services.  This was very popular with the girls in the group.  Tattoos form part of the decorative artform for Nubian women.  A woman would normally have one shaped like a mole on the cheek, a crescent on the forehead or a line drawn from the lip down to the chin. Today, the girls were offered more modern choices like floral patterns, scarabs, etc.

The guide then showed us into a room where two women, seated on the floor, were caring for her young child.  This appears to be their home and we felt bad for having intruded.  We were assured by the guide that it was alright and that this was all part of the tour.  That didn’t make us feel any better. 

Other things we were shown in the place were the men smoking their water pipers.  As we left the building, there were other vendors outside, selling their little craftworks.  We went back to our boat for a sail back to our cruiser.

This evening we went back to the Old Cataract Hotel and had dinner at the 1902 Restaurant with a few of our fellow travellers from the cruise.  This restaurant was opened to celebrate the opening of the first Aswan Dam and its grand launch was attended by Khedive Abbas Helmy, the sovereign of Egypt, Winston Churchill and a host of Dukes, Lords and other dignitaries.  The restaurant had a very exotic and welcoming feel, but unfortunately there were not many diners there and therefore the place felt empty.  It was therefore strange that when we rang make a booking the previous day, the person who took the call said that he had to check to see if there were tables available. 

There were six of us in the group and we tried a spread of food, some better than others. We wondered about the wine, given the extremely hot conditions and were assured by the maître d’ that the wines are good. Inspite of buying the best drop, the verdict was that beer was a better option.  We concluded that although the food in this restaurant was not fantastic, we had a memorable evening dining in this historical restaurant, yet another travel mission accomplished.

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog

This afternoon we sailed around Aswan Botanical Gardens in a felucca.  Our local guide was a botanist and was very keen to tell us all about the fauna and flora that existed around the waters.  He certainly knew his birds very well and had hawk-eyes, frequently spotting and pointing out wading birds in the mangrove swamps or bushes.  After a while, it became a standing joke and everyone was going ‘oh look egret’!

Along the river banks we could see donkeys grazing, young children playing at the water’s edge and fishermen resting while their boats were moored ashore.  All of a sudden, we saw young boys swimming up to our boats and then clutching onto the railings or lifeboys.  They were begging for money and many on the boat felt inclined to give some coins to them.  Our guide though was insistent that money not be given to the kids as it encourages them to play truant from school and to resort to begging.  Much as we understood his point, you do feel sorry for the kids as they were putting their lives at such risks to earn a little money.

This evening we made our way top out to the Old Cataract Hotel, which we had seen from the river.  We couldn’t  wait to check out this famous hotel from where Agatha Christie penned ‘Death on the Nile’.  During the Egypt’s British colonial period, the Old Cataract was a favorite destination of the elite and interest in the hotel was revived when Agatha Christie wrote her book.  It was a charming hotel and the archways had Moorish features that reminded us of our time in Morocco.  We had drinks on the Terrace Bar, looking out into the Nile, which was a grand experience.  I can see how a writer like Agatha Christie would have drawn her inspiration from being in a place like this. We decided then that we would make arrangements to come back tomorrow night for dinner. 

Helen

Travel Signposts Blog