The Martin's Blog

 Tom – Slept late, had the buffet breakfast and while Helen packed I worked on the computer.  I broke down and paid $28 for 24 hours of internet use in our room, even though we were leaving at 3:45pm.  Picked up the two large suitcases we had checked with the hotel when we arrived and headed for the airport.  Our Travco people again accompanied us and helped us all the way to the gate.  Our Emirates flight to Dubai left Cairo at 7:15pm.

Tom – We docked at Kom Ombo during the night and were up early to start our guided tour (Anmor) of the Kom Ombo Temple at 7:30am.  It was a magnificent site to see out of our cabin window that morning.  We wondered how we would be able to see anything in the short time allotted but found that we were only a short walk away.  Kom Ombo means the crocodile god.  It seems that the Nile River was infested with these beasts and they were known to eat the animals, people, and children that lived along the shore.  They thought that if they worshipped a god dedicated to the crocodile it would be nicer to them; but how do you worship an evil thing??  So they divided the worship between two gods, the good god Horace (the falcon) and the bad god Kom the crocodile.  The first site we saw was a small room with three mummified crocodiles; good size but nothing to compare to the ones in the Cairo Museum.

Temples were important for various reasons: worship, gathering place, school, and for healing.  This temple was the first to show the medical wall depicting the instruments used, such as hooks (the brain was taken from the head through the nose by a hook when mummifying, ugh), spoons, knife, saw, medicine bag to hold the herbs, and a balance scale to weigh the herbs.  To the side of the instruments were the birthing stools with women sitting on them ready to deliver.  On another wall you actually saw a delivery with the child head down from the waist with arms outstretched over head coming from the mother.  There were several other reliefs that showed mothers nursing their babies and one that showed a two year old child nursing as well. There was also a baptismal font and an arrangement resembling a confessional with the priest in the middle and two alcoves on either side.

Since the temple was so close to the river, it also had a “Nileometer” which was a huge/deep well that measured the height of the Nile flood and therefore predicted the value of the next harvest.  The depth of the Nile was determined by the number of stone blocks covered by the water.  Another interesting wall represented the calendar.  Their year had three seasons (flood, sowing, and harvest), each season had four months, each month had three weeks, each week had ten days adding to a total of 360 days.  There were five additional festival days for the primary gods (365) and each year had ¼ day added so that the fourth year they had a day to celebrate their village god.  Pretty good for 4,000 years ago!

This is a picture of an older river tour boat as we left Kom Ombo

I did a tour of our boat, the Crown Empress, this morning.  It is the largest of 282 cruise boats on the Nile River.  It is 110 meters long, 50 meters wide, has a draft of 1.5 meters and has four stories of rooms.  As mentioned previously, the entire top of the boat is the deck.  They call it the “train.”  It can accommodate 270 passengers; however, we have about 150 on this cruise.  The eating area is on the bottom level and you are actually sitting below water level – it is an interesting perspective as you look out the large windows.  The boat has three 500 hp engines and an immaculate kitchen with several preparation rooms.  One was for breads and pastries, one for meat, and one for vegetables and salads.  In the preparation room all produce is disinfected and only bottled water is used in washing and preparation of food and sauces.  The captain in the control room has all the latest technology at hand but we were told he doesn’t use it; he just sails by knowledge and instincts.  We were told that the captain or pilot positions are family affairs and passed down from father to son.

As the boat cruised upriver toward Aswan, we went up on deck to enjoy the scenery, a cup of coffee, and learn how to play cribbage.  Kristi brought up her game, told us the rules, and then Helen and I played our first game – Helen won by a couple of points.  As we ate lunch the boat docked in Aswan and we prepared for our tour starting at 11:30am.  In preparing to take the tour, I examined my materials from the travel company and discovered that they were not consistent.  We were supposed to get a four night cruise and when they rescheduled our return flight from Aswan, when we arrived in Cairo, they gave us only 3 nights on the boat – that meant that we had to be back at the boat by 4pm in order to catch our flight back to Cairo and that we would miss the Nubian night dinner and entertainment!

We were not happy but needed to get over it so we could enjoy the afternoon.  Anmor was again our guide but this time Curt and Kristi accompanied us because they had refused to go with their original guide who had “blown them off” in Edfu.  Because there were now five of us we had a Travco van and driver.  Our first stop was the Western Quarry that had been used to acquire the stone for many of the monuments and pyramids we had already seen.  The technique for extracting the large blocks of granite and their movement to the river for transport was fascinating; everything was done by hand using basic physics and gravity.  Holes were chiseled and then wooden wedges were placed in them and soaked with water.  As the wedges expanded they would crack the granite along predetermined lines.  The blocks would then be rolled down to the Nile on logs when the river was in flood stage and transported by boat downstream.  They also cut large obelisks (hundreds of tons!) from this quarry and we could see one that was three-quarters finished that was found to have a flaw and therefore never completed.

Next we drove to and across the low Aswan Dam built by the British (1898-1902) and then up to the high Aswan Dam built by the Soviets (1960-1971) for a view of Lake Naser and the Nile River Valley.  Many Egyptian monuments and historical sites were flooded with the formation of the dams.  We visited one of these, Philae and its temples which were saved by UNESCO.  They built a waterproof wall entirely around the island, pumped out the water, and then cut and removed the structures block by block and rebuilt the structures as close to their original configuration as possible on a nearby island that is twenty meters higher in elevation.  The project cost 40 million dollars!

We got to the island by taking a Nubian launch to its south side.  I took some great pictures during the ride.  Most of the structures were related to the Temple of Isis and dated from about 380 BC to about 305 AD (almost 700 years!).  The early Christians then defaced most of the reliefs and inscriptions even forming a church inside the temple.  Then the Muslims defaced the Christian facilities!

Driving back to Aswan, we stopped near our boat to take a Felucca (sailboat) to the Aswan Botanical Gardens on an island in the Nile River.  Feluccas are large wooden catboats with a large cotton sail.  The captain stands on the stern and controls the large tiller with his feet as he uses a pulley system to control the sail.  There is also at least one crewman (we had two) who can help with trimming the sail and raising and lowering the centerboard.  Our crew of three were all young Nubians.  Nubians are quite black and we were told that they have a tightly knit community not allowing intermarriages.  They have often revolted against the Egyptian authority.

The Botanical Garden was completed by Lord Kitchener in 1928 when he was consul general of Egypt and commander of the Egyptian army.  He imported plants from the Far East, India, and parts of Africa.  It is a beautiful place juxtaposed to the backdrop of the western edge of the Sahara desert on the west side of the Nile.  Helen bought a small hand made wooden camel from one of the young Nubians as we sailed back to our boat.

Long story short, we caught the 8pm Egypt Air flight to Cairo and were transported (hour and a half) to our original hotel on the west side.  As we drove through the city we saw a Coptic cathedral completely covered with lights for Orthodox Christmas Eve.  Had we known we would have been here, we would have planned to go to mass.  Stopped to buy some KFC for dinner on the way, and hit the sack about midnight.

Tom – When we woke for breakfast we found that during the night our boat had moved through the lock and was now docked at Esna.  When we left for the tour of the Esna Temple we were surprised that our guide was again Sarah.  She had driven the 34 miles from Luxor with the other guides.  It was again a clear day (except for the haze from burning sugarcane) with a cool breeze.  We walked about two blocks to the temple moving through the main tourist alley lined with stalls.

The Graeco-Roman Temple of Khnum (Ram headed creator god) is the main attraction of Esna.  Only the Hypostyle Hall of the temple has been excavated so far.  The rest is still under sand and the houses that have been built on top.  They have the same problem here as we have in Springfield, that is, people don’t want to give up their homes for a community project.

The temple has some great reliefs that show the Greek and Roman emperors or Kings making offerings to the Egyptian gods.  We were told that the Greek and Roman occupations of Egypt were so successful because they accepted and incorporated the Egyptian gods into their own religious ceremonies.  After visiting the temple, we haggled to purchase two galabia ($17), light robes worn by the Arabs, for the galabia party on the boat that night.

The boat continued up the Nile (south) as we ate lunch and watched the river bank from our room and on deck. 

 In the afternoon we stopped at Edfu where we met our new guide Anmor, a teacher from Aswan.  We rode a decorated horse drawn carriage to the temple.  The Temple of Horus is another Graeco-Roman temple and is the most completely preserved temple in Egypt.  Horus is the falcon god and the son of Isis.  We enjoyed hearing the mythology stories from our guide and seeing the events depicted as reliefs or engravings on the stone walls.  The Graeco-Roman temples are constructed as pyramids lying on their side.  Therefore, as you walk down the central axis, the structures (columns, walls, etc.) get smaller and smaller until you reach the holy of holies, where the gold statue of Horus was once located.  It is as if you are looking down a rectangular tunnel.

On the way out of the temple, after much haggling, Helen bought a blue veil with coins to wear at the galabia party that night ($4).  We both felt a lot of tension in town during our carriage rides back and forth and were glad to get back to the boat.  The other two couples who sat at our table both had troubles with there guides.  One left them at the temple and never returned and the other got out of the carriage half way back to the boat and had them pay the fare!

Today Helen learned how to fish the Egyptian way!!  In a row boat with unusual oars (long planks counterbalanced near the handles), one man rowed and the other stood and slapped the water with a huge palm branch.  He was scaring the fish into a net set in the water ahead of the boat.  When they could tell they had enough fish by the depth of the float attached to the net, they would pull it in and start again.

Another observation from the deck was the difference between the two shores.  On one side the ground is level and very green, the other side, is more hilly and brown with the desert sand.  As you look at the brown background you notice several homes; most of the them are the same color as the desert and shining through you see some painted a lovely blue, sometimes pink, or yellow.  It is amazing to think that the Sahara desert goes from the west side of the Nile to Morocco covering an area bigger than the U.S.

It was Egyptian night on the boat.  The buffet highlighted Egyptian food and most people dressed in some semblance of Arab attire.  Our newly wed table mates Rafaei and Amna were corralled by singing/drumming boat workers and performed a traditional Egyptian wedding dance.  There was a raffle drawing that night in the lounge and dancing until about 11pm.

 Tom – We took breakfast early (5:45am) in order to be ready for our tour that started at 6:30.  Sarah again met us in the lobby and we drove to the West side of the Nile, past the Colossi of Memnon (about 60 feet high but very eroded), and to the Valley of the Kings.  Our tour ticket allowed us to go in 3 of 11 possible tombs.  There are 62 known tombs in the valley.  Sarah selected three for us and they included the tombs of Ramses IV, Merneptah, and Ramses I.

   Ramses IV  Walking down the tunnels into each tomb was exciting, there was always something else to see.  You could spend a day in each trying to decipher the meaning of the figures and hieroglyphics.  The painting and color on some were still quite good, however on most it was either faded or non-existent just showing the symbols.  The red granite sarcophagus of this tomb is one of the largest in the valley.  This tomb is also known for the striking painting of the goddess Nut stretched across the blue ceiling.

Merneptah  He was the 13^th son of Ramses II, who was the most notable pharaoh having ruled Egypt for 67 years.  Merneptah’s 12 older brothers died before Ramses II.  This was a long tunnel like tomb with fairly well preserved reliefs.  We especially liked the blue ceiling with gold stars

Ramses I  There was a short but steep walk down into the tomb of Ramses I.  Only the burial chamber was decorated and included many scenes of the pharaoh with various gods including one where the pharaoh is knelling between the jackal-headed “Soul of Nekhen” and the falcon-headed “Soul of Pe” representing Upper and Lower Egypt.

Tutankhamun  We also paid an extra 160 Egyptian Pounds ($29) to go in the tomb of Tutankhamun (boy pharaoh – 18), which was the only tomb ever found nearly intact (1922).  The majority of the treasures found in the tomb are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  Some go on world tour and the only ones currently in the tomb are the outermost of three gilded wooden coffins, setting in a red quartzite sarcophagus, and the mummy showing only the head and feet.

After leaving the Valley of the Kings, we stopped at a stone shop where they demonstrated the hand making of alabaster jars.  Again, we were lead to the showroom and pressured to buy something.  Continuing, we went to Deir al-Bahri and the large and impressive Temple of Hatshepsut.  Unlike the majority of visitors, and to the surprise of our guide, we wanted to walk about a third of a mile from the entrance to the temple and not use the trams.  It was set up on a direct line from the Temple of Luxor across the Nile.  Hatshepsut was a queen who acted as pharaoh for 15 years when her husband died and was obviously very powerful.  She is shown in some reliefs dressed as a male pharaoh (including a false beard) and in others as a female.

Made it back to the boat at departure time and found that we now had to walk through four boats to get to ours, which had been moved from the dock to the outside of the other four boats.  We went up on deck to watch departure and the start of our cruise.  The deck consisted of the whole top of the boat including a covered bar, what they called a pool (wading pool with a deep 4 x 15 foot end for submerging your body), about 170 lounge chairs, 180 other chairs around about 50 tables, 18 large umbrellas, two old exercise cycles, and one tiny treadmill.

Ate lunch, went back to our cabin and opened our curtain and large sliding door.  I worked on this diary while Helen either knitted or read.  We would stop regularly to watch Egypt go by – palm trees, banana groves, small villages, birds, sugar cane fields, fisherman, domestic animals, and in the background the barren landscape.  Putting it simply, it was green by the river and brown in the distance.

At 4:30 we went for tea time (coffee) and more Egypt watching on deck.  When our boat stopped to queue up for the lock as Esna, small rowboats descended on all the cruise boats.  As one man controlled the boat, the other would call out in multiple languages to the tourists on board and throw plastic bags with cotton scarves (also towels) on to the deck.  Then there would be negotiations back and forth with plastic bags flying everywhere.  Only a few tourists INCLUDING Helen participated in the exchange and most bags were just pitched back into the boats or water where they would be fished out.  Rafaei also participated and, since we didn’t have any Egyptian pounds, eventually paid 100 pounds (about $18) for two, one for Helen and one for Amna.  Afterward we had dinner and then our group played Tablet in the no smoking area of the lobby until bed time.

Tom – Didn’t sleep well, luckily we had packed the night before so only had to dress and go.  Karim and Wahil were on time and Karim brought us kufte kebob sandwiches that his mother had made and mango juice drinks for breakfast.  We checked our two large suitcases at the hotel for our return and paid our bill.  They charged us for our New Year’s Eve Gala, which I had already paid for, so that had to come off the bill.  Then I found that they charged me $2 a minute for the calls I made ($80) – I thought they were covered by my phone card!

Our Egypt Air flight to Luxor left at 6am.  It was less than an hour flight and we were at the Crown Empress Nile cruise boat by 8am.  We met Sarah our personal guide in the lobby and immediately were off with our own driver to the Temples of Karnak.   I could get use to this kind of treatment!  It would take a book to describe this place.  First it is big – about one mile long and half a mile wide.  Second, it has been built, re-built, expanded, destroyed and reconstructed many times over 1500 years.  Third, it contains numerous temples, sanctuaries, pylons, obelisks, chapels, statues, and a sacred lake.

Connected to Karnak to the south is the Luxor Temple two miles away.  Luxor was also known as Thebes.  Though smaller and right in the middle of town, it is as impressive.  Like Karnak it has changed significantly through the years.  There was a relief of Alexander the Great representing himself in Egyptian regalia in his role as pharaoh.  There was even a mosque built on top of some of the ruins and the remnants of a church that was built after a Roman Fort there was burned.  History on top of history, how do you keep it all straight?

We were back at the boat for lunch and to check into our room at 1pm.  The room was bigger than I expected with two single beds that we pushed together, a desk, two comfortable chairs with end table, a large closet with shelves, and a good size and modern bathroom.  There were two large double doors that could be opened for an open air view of the river and it was fun watching the riverbank and scenery as we passed.  We were on the top level (fourth floor) so we could see well over the river bank.

We were tired from the early morning start and dosed a bit until tea time (4:30 – 5:30).  Tea/coffee, light snacks were offered each afternoon on deck.  Though sunny the breeze was cool and we needed jackets to be comfortable.  We sat at table 12 for each meal.  There were two other couples at our table, Rafaei (24) & Amna (22) newly weds from Alexandria.  Rafaei works in Dubai.  He was a national caliber distance swimmer and is also a sailor.  Curt (51) & Kristy (  ), also newly weds (second marriage for each) were from Hawaii (Maui).  Curt is a contractor and former freestyle skier and Kristy is a part-time surgical nurse.

After dinner Helen and I walked downtown to see Luxor Temple at night.  It was interesting to also see some Christmas decorations, lights and even Santa Claus and a reindeer.  Our boat was parked right across from King Farouk’s winter palace which is now a hotel.