BEGINNING OF THE END
For a change breakfast is leisurely. No rushing off at dawn to beat the sun and see another temple, monument or ancient site. I can dawdle over my sweet bread roll and I can have three or four cups of coffee. Not that the coffee is that good. In fact, it's worse than awful, like the wine. But as a strict coffee-only person, when faced with the choice of seriously bad coffee or no coffee at all, I'll take the seriously bad coffee. During breakfast, we leave our moorings and continue on the last leg of our river journey to Aswan.
As we head further south the sailing is better as the river is deeper. On each bank, the Nile is flanked by desert and the sandstone cliffs, Gebel Silsila. In the cliffs are fissures and what appear to be entrances to yet more tombs.
Out on deck, watching our approach to Aswan, I remark to my Fellow Traveller (FT) M that this really is the beginning of the end. Quite naturally she disagreed at first. But then, having thought about it, she confessed that I was right. I watched as the crew made sure we were docked safely. Lunch next ...
... Aswan is the site of the Ancient red granite quarry and this is our first port of call. These quarries were in use from as early as 2600 BC. The granite, both red and black, was used by the 4th Dynasty Pharaohs for the pyramids at Giza. Here there is also an unfinished obelisk. It was abandoned because it split whilst it was being cut from the bedrock. I'm amazed at the size of it and wonder what tools had been used to fashion such a thing.
Next the High Dam. The installation is heavily guarded and we can only wander along one small stretch. Lake Nasser seemed to go on for miles and was a deep Prussian blue. It looked like the perfect place to swim. Our guide told us there are crocodiles. And so the search begins. But the crocs are obviously very shy or very lazy. I wonder what bait might tempt them out of their hiding place ... one of the more tiresome FTs, perhaps? The dreadful G— that everyone seems to have shunned. For some reason the short refrain 'Never smile at a crocodile' pops into my head. I glance around at my FT and mentally will some of them to smile! But to no avail. The crocs are clearly Divas.
Our next stop was the temple at Philea, a short ferry trip across the lake island of Agilka. The temple was moved, stone by stone, to its present location before the valley was flooded. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis who was worshipped until as late as 450 AD. The walls of the monument depict her great magical powers and, of course, there is a shrine to her beloved Osiris.
It is late in the afternoon and the sun is casting long shadows through the columns leading to the first pylon. There is yet another significant shift in the style of the art and decoration of the walls and columns. The pillars themselves are very simple, but they are decorated at the top by representations of not only papyrus and lotus flowers but palm leaves of various sorts. Here there is also graffiti from every succeeding century.
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| The vastness of Lake Nasser, Aswan. |
... the evening's meal is an Egyptian buffet. The food was tasty and varied, shame about the wine! After dinner, a group of us sit on the sun deck telling ghost stories. My contribution is my version of a M R James tale as far as I could remember the details. A perfect end to a perfect day.
If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy my earlier posts about Cairo Giza Solar Sailing Tell-el-Amarna Assiut Abu Simbel Deir-El-Bahri Sailing and Egypt generally - just click the links.
There will be more from my Egypt journal next month. Watch this space!
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