Egypt Day 5-6: Aswan & Abu Simble

Day 5-- Aswan: With success, there actually was someone to meet us at the train station in Aswan (about 500 miles south of Cairo). So the confusing thing about this tour package we bought is the number of guides we were introduced to. Each city we were picked up and introduced to someone who'd give us his cell phone number and drop us off with someone else who would be our actual guide at the sites. So who was this Mohammed we just got the number for?

Anyhow our tour package included a hotel in Aswan and surprisingly it was nicer than the hostel in Cairo. Instead of having a shower head about two feet from the toilet (yes, you shower standing right next to the toilet in the bathroom), this had a 2.5ft long bath "tub." We checked in and had a few hours until our tour of the High Dam and Philae Temple, so despite the heat we decided to explore the city.

We found the market and seemed to be the only tourists around, maybe because of the mid-day heat. It was around 100' and felt a little humid. But the market was pretty, all dressed with flags for Ramadan. We learned a little about the heckling of the stall owners trying to get you into their booth to look around. All the markets sell essentially the same thing: scarves, spices, cheap-looking souvenirs (plastic pyramid penholders, cheap-o pharaoh pens, little genie lamps, postcards, magnets), some jewelry, nothing particularly fabulous or things you can't live without.



We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed the air conditioning while watching some made-for-US-tv movie until it was time for our tour. Our first stop was the Aswan High Dam. Which was interesting I suppose, though cost LE20 (about $4). And it was nothing compared to seeing the Hoover Dam, although the High Dam's capacity is apparently much greater. There are two dams in Aswan, one built in 1902, then the High Dam built 1960-70. Before the dams were built, the Nile flooded each summer, but because floods vary, in high-water years the nearby crops might drown while in low-water years they died. The Dam is 11,811 feet long, 3215 feet thick at the base and and 364 feet tall. At maximum, 11,000 cubic metres of water can pass through the dam every second, generating enough electricity for all of Egypt (though our guide said that it now only provides about 30% and that wind and solar power were mainly supplying power). But it also blocked the nutrient-rich silk that used to fertilize the Nile valley, displaced an entire ethnic group called the Nubians (due to the resulting reservoir Lake Nasser (named for Egyptian president), which is over 300ft long), and there aren't hipos or crocodiles in the Nile any longer.

Note: although in southern Egypt, we are considered (at least in ancient times) in Lower Egypt (lower because of the flow of the Nile). Lower Egypt is Aswan, Luxor, anything south. Upper Egypt, in the Nile delta, is Cairo.


That's a lot of dam information ;) And it was soooo hot on that dam in the middle of the day. Ugh. But our next stop was Philae Temple, which was beautiful.

Philae Temple is located on an island in the middle of the Nile so we had to take a boat. The temple was originally built on Philae Island but after the dams were built, the Nile rose and flooded the temple so it was moved, piece by piece, 66ft higher to nearby Agilikia Island. The largest part of the temple was built in the 300s BC for the main Egyptian goddess Isis.

A brief intro to the Egyptian gods: Ra (sun god, brought order to original chaos), Osiris (1st king of humans, powers over death and resurrection so mummies are positioned like Osiris with arms crossed over their chest), Isis (Osiris's wife, queen of gods), their son Horus (falcon god), Set (evil brother of Osiris, god of violence and chaos), Nut (goddess of the sky)... these were the main ones we saw depicted in hieroglyphs.


The famous myth we were told here: Set, the evil god of violence, was so jealous about his good brother Osiris that he plotted to kill Osiris. In the story we were told, Set chopped Osiris into 14 pieces and spread him all over Egypt. Osiris's wife Isis set out to find his pieces so he could be put back together and resurrected but she was only able to find 13 pieces (the missing piece was his penis). Somehow though they were still able to conceive their son Horus with a fallus, and Horus set out to take revenge for his father against his uncle. Osiris thus became the god of the afterlife and death.


The architecture was gorgeous and I wish I could remember more about what our guide told us. I do remember him pointing out the design of these columns and the uniqueness that they alternate in style. The top of the columns are apparently the two main plants of Egypt- the lotus, which is the flower and ancient symbol for Lower Egypt, and the papyrus (reed grass), which is the ancient symbol for Upper Egypt and the Nile delta.

So A LOT of the hieroglyphics show the particular pharaoh who built that temple with a crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt to say "I am the king of all of Egypt." This wall shows the god Horus (falcon) with the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and I think a pharaoh giving him an offering. The goddess behind him has cow horns on either side of a globe, which many of the goddesses are shown wearing to represent Goddess Hathor, the goddess of motherhood, love, and joy.


Let me sum up most of the hieroglyphics for you: I am the pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt. Here is my name. The gods bless me with eternal life. I fought many battles against the Nubians (small ethnic group in southern Egypt, like short Ethiopians) and the Libians and I kicked butt. That's pretty much it. In the tombs, they also show these are all the trials I'll face in the afterlife before I reach eternal life and rebirth. And some of the hieroglyphics show procedures (mummification, etc). But for the most part, that I could tell based on what our various guides said, the basic message is I am the pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt. The gods bless me with eternal life.

Pretty impressive that hieroglyphics were both engraved and reliefs (they traced the picture then carved out around it so it's raised), usually both in the same temple on different walls. Everything used to be painted as well.


If you can see my head behind that podium, that's where a statue of the god/goddess would've sat in the inner-most chamber. The inner-most chamber could only be visited by the highest priest and the pharaoh and there were specific rituals about oils to pour around the statue and the offerings to leave.



There is a ton of graffiti and destruction to most of the temples, mainly by people in the early 1800s (based on their name and date carved in), and by early Christians who thought the multiple gods were evil. There were these strange holes carved into this temple, which our guide described but the reasoning seemed way too weird to be true to me. He said that early monks who would keep their hair long (like mine, he used me as an example) carved these holes and would tie their ponytails into the wall so that if they would not fall asleep... yeeeehhh I'm just not sure about that...

And here's when Jen and I got suckered into something I'd read about in my guidebook (dangit!). I was glancing around into these chamber rooms that had been gated and noticed a guard staring at me/saying something to me, but I couldn't hear him. I thought maybe I was in trouble and he kept motioning for me to walk over, so I walked over to him, Jen followed, and he motioned for us to follow him. He showed us this random tunnel, that was also gated off, tried to tell us something or other in broken English, insisted on taking our photo, then of course asked for a tip. (The only thing you really need to know about Egyptians- they all want and expect a tip, for EVERYthing. They are always offering to take your photo, show you something "special," give you information, then are not at all subtle about expecting a tip. You even have to tip the van driver.)


That night back in Aswan, we tried out a restaurant that we were told was very popular with locals and tourists. We didn't head out until after sundown, so you'd think there would be people there but we were actually the first guests in the restaurant. It had an awesome location right on the river and the food was pretty good: mango juice (fresh! Score!), and for some reason I ordered grilled chicken (even though this was probably the 4th time this was served to me), which of course came with roasted potatoes and rice. By this time I was getting pretty bored with the food but was also still a bit sensitive in the stomach so it was fine.

Walking back to our hotel, I realized that I felt pretty safe walking at night through Egypt, at least in this smaller town. The irritating part about Aswan is that they launch the feluccas from there so EVERYone kept asking us if we wanted a felucca trip (sailboat) and offering us a good price. But we already had one booked through our tour.

Day 6-- Abu Simble & felucca: First thing in the morning, meaning 3am, we checked out of our hotel and hopped in a van for a 3-hr drive south to Abu Simble temple on the Sudan border. We were trying to beat the heat (oh and it was hot by like 10am there), as well as getting back to Aswan by afternoon for our felucca. We were given a box-breakfast consisting of... 5 dinner rolls, a cheese-wedge, a thing of jam, and a hard-boiled egg. Really?! FIVE rolls?! We were told that Abu Simble was an absolute must-see... I guess. It was cool but not my favorite temple by any means. Also we were supposed to have a guide at all the temples but we couldn't figure this one out. We thought we'd been ripped off because some guide collected our money when we first arrived at the site, gave us a ticket for a guide (which cost extra), then disappeared. Apparently we were just supposed to find any guide walking around and give them the ticket. Oh well.

Abu Simble was built by Ramses II (also spelled Ramesses), or Ramses the Great, in 1224 BC as temple for... himself! To be honored and worshiped just as the gods.

Ramses II was one of the most famous pharaohs it seems, due both to his constructions all over Egypt and the fact that he ruled for 66 years.

The entire temple was moved/rebuilt in the 1960s due to the rising Nile. The reconstruction alone seems amazing to me.

We weren't allowed to take pictures within the temple so there's not much to show. There were a series of chambers with tall pillars, every inch carved with hieroglyphics of Ramses defeating Syrians.



I love that Ramses carved FOUR statues of himself seated around his entrance. One would've been just too subtle.


This was considered the low season for tourism. I can't imagine, despite the cooler weather later in the year, wanting to visit Egypt during the high season. Check out how many people there are already. Also note, if you can see, there is a small statue between each of his feet: his favorite wife Nefertari.

Next to his temple, in fact, he built a temple for his favorite wife Nefertari so that she could be worshiped as well.

You'll notice that the statues alternate him, her, him, door, him, her, him. Okay, so he outnumbers her on her own temple but he did represent her as the same size (which is a big deal!). Also notice she has the Hathoric cow horns.

So a felucca is a sailboat. Jen had described this to me over the phone before our trip and it sounded way more sketch than what it ended up being. She described it like this: you walk into this restaurant or bar where all these felucca captains hang out and you bargain with one to take you on his boat. He provides food, you provide beverages. There are no bathrooms and you sleep on deck of this boat, no beds, just out on the deck. Uhhhh...... okay..... I ended up agreeing to look into the idea. But this ended up being a really common thing. And one of my favorite parts of our trip because it was one of the only times we just relaxed.

The boat looks small but it fit nine of us tourists and three captains, these short darker-skinned Nubians. There was a small cabin in front of the boat where one of the captains slept but the rest of us just slept under the deck. Thankfully there weren't really any bugs.


I enjoyed having a moment to read my book, though I took some flack for not socializing. Ehh, sometimes we need a little downtime.

My favorite meal of the trip I think. We had these tasty lentils and a tomato salad and goat cheese.


Despite how hot it had been in Aswan, on the felucca under the tarp, it was really cool, maybe only 80' and breezy. So nice!






But this was the most uncomfortable night sleep. We opted not to party with our boat captains, who were only about 20yrs old and docked us on the shore with two other boats and sat on the riverbank for hours smoking pot with the other captains. Our 3am start that morning helped the uncomfortable sleep except that there was a wood rung running down the center of the deck and the deck was just slightly tilted (I'm assuming so water could run off), which meant that my legs kept falling asleep, and there were so many of us on the deck trying to sleep, there wasn't much room to reposition. At least nothing fell off from lack of circulation. And then it was morning, and time to start exploring again.