Aswan Day 1

Another hot sunny morning. The forecast is a high of 45 again today. I don’t think we have seen a cloud since we arrived in the Middle East. Good to get an early start.

The morning was a leisurely pace and some different activities. First we went to the unfinished Obelisk in the middle of a granite quarry in downtown Aswan. It is over 100 metres long but developed a crack when they were almost done carving it. The 2 obelisks at the Karnak Temple came from the same quarry and you have to wonder how they carried the obelisk from Aswan to Luxor. Apparently the Nile would flood up to where the quarry was and also to where the Karnak Temple is so they floated them down the Nile.

Our next stop was to see the High Dam that created Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world. Before the High Dam was built the British had built a dam on the Nile but the Nile breached the Dam and still flooded. So they added to the height of the Dam but it still flooded so they decided they needed an even higher Dam

and the Aswan High Dam was built with help from the Russians. To create the lake they had to displace several communities of Nubians. Nubians are a separate race and culture from Egyptian. The have their own language and cultures and tend to stay in their own villages.

The Egyptian government offered them free land to move. They also relocated a few Temples but many got buried when the lake was created.

One of the Temples that was moved was the Phlea Temple. It was moved piece by piece to a higher island. We took a boat to the island. While similar to other Temples in design and hieroglyphics it was very beautiful being surrounded by water. Also there some obvious Roman and Greek influences in it.

Back to the ship to cool off and have lunch.

Around 3 PM we headed out to learn more about the Nubian people. Our mode of transportation was a boat that would take us slowly

upstream against the current of the Nile. First stop was a Nubian botanical garden. Lots of unique plants and they had labelled all the trees. Next was a much anticipated stop to “the beach”. On the way we passed a gigantic sand dune which apparently the Australians love to sand board down. We could see the tracks in the sand. Presumably they had gone out early in the morning as there is no lift to take you to the top. Climbing sand is not an easy task.

While the Nile is polluted, apparently where the water comes out near the Dam, it is fairly clean. We parked the boat upon shore and headed in to cool off. The water was about the temperature of Lake Simcoe in June but it was very refreshing. It didn’t take us long to dry off in the dry heat of southern Egypt.

We then went a little further up stream to visit a Nubian village where we had a lesson in the Arabic alphabet and numbers at their local school. We also learned to write our names in Arabic. Next we visited someone’s home where they kept pet crocodiles. (Apparently there are 40000 crocodiles in Lake Nasser). We had drinks and some snacks there as well as Kim and Erika got Henna tattoos from one of the daughters in the family.

A quiet sunset boat ride downstream back to the Cruise boat. The lights on some of the tombs and Temples along the way were beautiful, as were the

lights of the city of Aswan.

We arrived back at the ship around 7 PM, so a long day. We had a quick dinner and then off to pack as we are leaving the ship tomorrow. We also took some time out to watch a Nubian show in the lounge.