Category Archives: Egypt

Home again Home – Day 15

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Early morning wake up call, then a leisurely final breakfast before we were herded onto the coach for the trip to the airport. Thankfully we could check our baggage in all the way to London. Passed through several x-ray and detector machines. I was asked to have my lens checked by security staff, in case the Cairo security team took exception to it. Binoculars had to go into hold luggage.


We had a long wait for our connecting flight at Cairo, some of the group went on a trip to see a mosque. We stayed in the airport hotel, read books and ate a buffet lunch which had been booked for us. The buffet was similar to the boat buffet, but although the sweets looked absolutely stunning, their flavour and texture left a lot to be desired.

The final flight home was uneventful on a Boeing 737-800, thankfully not a MAX.

Philae, Aswan High Dam and Bird Watching – Day 14

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Our last day visiting sites. We left for the trip to the Temple Island of Philae, this involved crossing the old dam and then catching a tourist boat to the Island. The Temple of Philae was flooded when the dam was built. In 1979 UNESCO designated Philae, Abu Simbel and other ruins as world heritage sites. Back in 1960, UNESCO started a project to try to save Philae, a cofferdam of steel plates was built around the site. The monuments were then cleaned, photographed and dismantled into 40,000 units before being transported and reconstructed on the Island of Agilkia about 500 meters away. The temple was reopened in 1980.

The boat trip was short. I was allowed a go on the helm! We were soon assembling for our walk around the temple. The first time we saw so many cats posing to be photographed. When we left the site, Rosemary was privileged to be able to feed some of the animals from a ham sandwich proffered by a German tourist. (It was his packed lunch. R envious of tourists who were allowed such things rather than have to go to back their boat/hotel for lunch.) Back on the tourist boat, some vendors were allowed onboard to sell items. This was the first place we had seen Black Africans, Nubians, in Egypt.

On the coach, we travelled to the Aswan High Dam and parked in the visitor centre in the middle of the dam. This dam is huge, with the largest man-made lake in the world. It is not a high tech looking dam. All the previous ones we had seen were tall concrete structures. This dam is made of rubble and clay and has a very gentle slope. It was built by Russian expertise in the 1960s. The dam is able to control the flooding of the Nile downstream.

Back on the Misr, we had lunch and then went for our optional bird watching trip on the Nile amidst the cataracts. A few bird pictures were taken (1000, cut down to just a few).

Finally, we had a trip to the Nubian Museum. The museum, a new one, opened in 1997 has materials recovered from the tombs and temples of Nubia and tells the history of the area. Apparently, there were also some lovely gardens to look around, but as always on these trips, there is never enough time.

Finally back on the boat our final cocktails, dinner and farewell from the crew along with instructions for the morning.

Edfu and Kom Ombo – Day 13

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Today we visited two temples. The first was Edfu Temple, we disembarked and either caught a horse and carriage or walked the 200 yards to the coach. Having pity for the poor horses, the guides did not condone the carriage idea. The drive to the temple was fraught by the large numbers of horses and carriages returning from the temple. Some visitors had beaten us and had been there very much earlier than us. At least they had left. This temple is in good condition, with near perfect pylons and interior and exterior walls. There was still defacing of faces by the Roman/Christians, this was higher up because of the sand which had buried the base. The carvings into the sandstone are exquisite, you can see the muscles in the limbs, and the way the knee cap has been shaped.

Back to the boat, and we immediately left for Kom Ombo. Lunch and tea before we disembarked to see the temple and mummified crocodile museum. We docked, and then there was a short walk from the boat to the Temple. An ominous number of shops were on the river bank. Two gods seemed to be represented here, Sobek and Horus. Sobek has the crocodile head and could have been here because of the grand island on which huge numbers of crocodiles once lived. Perhaps worship of Sobeck was to appease their appetites. Another carved item on the wall was a set of surgical instruments, were they for surgery or used for mummification procedures? Much debate ensued.

After the temple, we walked to the small crocodile museum and viewed the mummified crocodiles, plus crocodile related items. A nice museum. A short walk back to the boat and we managed to escape the clutching hands of the many vendors.

As soon as we were on board we departed for Aswan.

Cocktails and then dinner.

Karnak and Luxor – Day 12

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A wake-up call, breakfast and then out to see a couple of temples on the East side of the Nile. First stop was Karnak Temple. The walk from the visitor centre to the temple had been made spectacular with open paved space from the Nile to the Pylons. Lighting had also been placed in the tiles in a long strip to the temple. But…. as George commented, the temple is thousands of years old and much is still standing, the modern tiled area, perhaps 20 years old, was already falling to pieces. The day was cloudy as well, so no beautiful blue skies to set the monuments off.

The columns were magnificent, as were the needles. We liked the ‘spreadsheet’ (of numbers of offerings) where the columns were added up, and then there was also the grand total. Lotus and Microsoft eat your hearts out, spreadsheets were invented a long time ago.

Rosemary liked the graffiti on the columns; old graffiti is good and historical, while modern graffiti is a scourge. She started googling the names when she was back on the boat. Examples were 1850, K.Wroblewski; 1857, F.C.Drake; 1804, John Gordon; A.L Corry (she’d hoped for an “H Carter Wos ‘Ere” type one, but no). Another observation was the graffiti was always high up, out of modern-day reach, a testament to the sand which used to cover the site and has since been removed. You could also see on many monuments the lack of vandalism by the Romans at low levels, but higher up, the chipped out faces. Again the sand protected the lower levels of the monuments.

Back on to the coach and a short drive to The Temple of Luxor. On the way, we made a short detour to see the Papyrus Institute, a short demo of Papyrus making, and then the hard sell of art painted on Papyrus. We resisted.

At Luxor, there was a long alleyway lined with sphinxes going in the direction of Karnak. Originally, the two temples had been joined together by a 2 Kilometre sphinx-lined alleyway.

Outside the pylons of the Temple was a row of colossal statues of pharaohs, even now a new one was being restored and rebuilt. Inside the temple was a Mosque which had been build on top of the temple. It looked incongruous so high up. Again this was because of the sand which had entirely filled the temple at some stage. The entry to the mosque was from higher ground on the street side of the temple. After renovation began, it was decided the mosque could stay.

Lunch beckoned, amazing how hungry one gets with regular feeding. We arrived back for lunch, and the Misr immediately set sail for Edfu. We apparently passed through the Esna Lock on the way. This must have happened when we were partying because I never saw it.

Another lecture by George Hart this time ” An Artist on the Nile: The legacy of David Roberts”.

Dinner, a good Egyptian buffet, was after the fun of everyone dressing up in their Egyptian costume of Galabyia for the Crew Show. There was some dancing and embarrassing photographs were taken. R had said when I booked the trip that she could already feel a headache coming on for that night.

Finally there was also a quiz evening on Egyptian history, sadly our group did not win, despite the best endeavours of our note taking American.

Hatshepsut and The Valley of the Kings – Day 11

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Today we were to visit two major sites, so up early for breakfast and then out to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. A dreaded road train to the site. (Coming back, we walked.) Hatshepsut is the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh. She was a prolific builder and commissioned buildings in Upper and Lower Egypt. She also erected monuments in Karnak.

The Temple had been excavated and much reconstruction undertaken by the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. An interesting factoid is the main axis of the temple is set to an azimuth of about 116½° and is aligned to the winter solstice sunrise. The walkway from the visitor centre to the temple is spectacular.

Next, we drove to the Valley of the Kings, a 20-minute drive, in fact, it is a short distance from Temple of Hatshepsut, just over the ridge, but a long way around. The Valley of the Kings was predictably busy. The ticket gains you entry to three tombs, from a selection of five which are open. These change I believe. You also have the option of purchasing tickets for another three tombs, Tutenkarmen, Ramesses VI and Seti I. Seti was around £45, and Tutankhamun £10.

We stopped for a rather unnecessary 30-minute talk about what we were going to see, and the remaining time of 60 minutes to see even the three tombs was rather short. Those who bought extra tickets for another tomb would have been pushed for time. I dearly would have liked to have walked around the site a bit more and to have taken more time in the tombs.

The Tutankhamun tomb, which Rosemary went in to see on her own, was v small with not much in it, but some fabulous wall paintings and of Course Tutankhamun’s mummy. Value for money, not good, but of course an important tomb. R could not work out where all the treasures could possibly have been. The three other tombs we saw together, were the tombs of Merenptah, Ramesses III and Ramesses IV They were very beautifully decorated, and also went deep into the rock. Reports back from other said the Seti tomb was wonderful , with hardly anyone in it, the price putting visitors off.

In the tomb of Merenptah, I was caught by a tomb guardian, who started to show me around, against all advice from our guides. Rosemary did an instant disappearing act. I never really understood what the guardian said, who also insisted shining his torch on the object being described, which made it impossible to photograph. Then, of course, came the request for a tip, and S, like Charles, does not have any money, and R had vanished from sight. Oh dear.

Back on the coaches for lunch, stopping off to see the Colossi of Memnon. George reckoned that much extra archaeology and reconstruction had happened in recent years.

The afternoon was free. An interesting sailboat was moored next to us. After tea, before sunset time, we were taken around the boat, the SB Feddya, owned by Traveline which also operates our boat, the SS Misr. I think Movenpick actually manages them. It all gets a bit confusing, The Feddya was very well equipped and luxurious – only 4 passenger cabins, and a crew of 20. It operates between Luxor and Aswan. Typically, friends would hire it. I have not seen the cost, but I imagine if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

There was an optional Sound and Light show at Karnak in the evening. We did not go, and by all reports that was a good decision.

Dendera and Tour of SS Misr – Day 10

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Today the SS Misr set sail at 4.00am to Qena. A lie in today, breakfast at 8.00 am. Just before arriving at Qena we passed under a bridge which was too low, so the sunshades and funnel were lowered. The usual ship’s hand was on deck to check the height of the bridge. I had to jump to touch the underside of the road bridge.

Shortly afterwards we docked at Qena and boarded our coaches, along with the German contingent who were still in tow. We all wondered where the coaches went at night time, the guides always brought on some food for the drivers. I think some passengers were mystified as to why we had to remove all our possessions. Anwar joked that the coaches went off to Somalia for the night.

The short bus trip had us at Dendera . As usual as at all Egyptian sites, your bags are X-rayed, and you pass through a metal detector which beeps away as each person passes through. No one taking any notice.

The Temple at Dendera was fabulous with excellent engravings. A not-to-be missed is the zodiac on the ceiling of a chapel in the Temple of Hathor. This was originally taken to France for examination. The Egyptian Government asked for it back. Several years later it arrived and was placed back in its original location. Later is was discovered to be a plaster of Paris copy, the original stolen (?) one by the French is in the Louvre.

Back to the boat for lunch, which set sail for Luxor where we were to spend the next couple of nights. Just before tea we had a tour of SS Misr. This took us in to the galley, which had several separate rooms various different preparation, such as meat & pastry. The galley looked very clean and very stainless steel. They showed us the bottled water they used.

We then went, much to R’s delight, to the engine room to see the two steam engines which provided the propulsion for the boat. The SS Misr was launched on 28th May 1918. She was built by Lytham Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Preston, Lancashire. The boat was owned at one stage by King Farouk when she was converted into a luxury yacht. She has been renovated, but still uses steam engines for propulsion. There are two engines, each with two cylinders, one high pressure and the other low pressure. The boiler is a modern diesel fired boiler that can generate 4.2 tons of steam an hour at 10 bar. She now carries tourists up and down the Nile from Cairo right through to Aswan, and destinations in between.

There was a diagram of the original boat before it has three floors added in the restoration, extended in height and width. I can understand how to add the height, but how do you make the boat longer and wider, surely there can’t be much which is original? Of the three floors added, I expect one is considered to be the deck at the top, or maybe it’s the crew quarters below the main floor.

I now know what the loud noise is outside our cabin. There is a powerful fan which sucks in cool air to be blown into another plant room which has generators and other equipment. Unfortunately, our cabin on the lower deck, is on the same side as the fan and nearest to it, so it is affected the most by the throbbing noise. People on the other side, further forward and higher up would not hear it at all. Note for when I take the Aswan to Cairo cruise, don’t book cabin 201.

Before Dinner we had another George Hart lecture, this time on the “Valley of the Kings”, where we would be visiting in the morning.

Abydos – Day 9

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Today was meant to be a very early morning start for out boat, 3.30, but somehow it was delayed an hour or so. We arrived at Al Balyana along with the German boat. They made it to Abydos before us, but we were told they would be rushing on elsewhere. The coach trip to Abydos was slow with the convoy of several coaches being herded through the narrow streets to the temple. These streets ,with the milling, waving people, are not designed for traffic, especially large coaches.

As well as us and the Germans at Abydos, there were crowds of Egyptian school children. Anwar showed as the mud walls and the smaller temple of Rameses II first. We had just finished with this before we became inundated with school children. A quick look at the Nilometer, and then up on to the roof of the Temple of Seti I. Next a tour of the temple, with huge columns, and high ceilings. Where the roof had been cleaned of black mould, there were delightful coloured ceiling paintings. The more able also visited the catacombs which entailed a short ladder, followed by a low three foot drop on entry. Our tour leader advised it was not for short legs, so R declined. (We were told that a Nilometer was used to check the level of the Nile from which the priest could determine the amount of tax to be paid by the farmers.)

The engravings on the limestone, and even the sandstone were exquisite. It is such a pity that the Roman/Christians disfigured so much of what they thought was inappropriate. There was also a wall carving listing the cartouches of all pharaohs up until that time, excluding five (Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare (who was perhaps Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti), Tutankhamun & Ay). We should have remembered these five cos they formed a question in the quiz.

Some lovely large bats were also roosting in the temple. By this time we had the temple almost to ourselves, the Germans and school children had all departed. I really did need a human figure in some of the pictures to show the true scale of the temple.

Back at the boat, we continued our cruised south with the Germans behind. We passed through a lock in a new barrage at Nagaa Hammadi, which had recently been built to replace the old barrage. Here we also saw masses of pied kingfishers. It was now starting to get dark, the sunset was very red, presumably because of all the smoke from crop burning which was happening all around us. In a short, distance was an old lock no longer in use, because the water was now higher. It now has a small, swinging road bridge. Ships passing through have to operate the swing bridge manually. Four of our crew operated a large capstan which they run around, and the bridge slowly opened. The Germans followed and, we assume, closed the bridge.

We then travelled on to the town of Naga Hammi (aka Abo Homar) where we moored up outside a restaurant blocking the view of the Nile from the diners. Here we had dinner on our boat, waiting for the two large swing bridges to be opened, a road bridge and a rail bridge.

Everyone was in bed before the bridge was opened, but I noticed at 11.00 pm we had started to move, so rushed up on deck to witness the passage through the bridges. Three large boats had waited, us and the Germans and another boat travelling north in the opposite direction. The bridge opening was late in the evening to reduce the chance of the bridge sticking from the expanded rail tracks from the day time heat, or was it because there was less traffic and no trains coming by?

We shortly moored up again for the night on the south side of the bridge. The reception & waiting staff, who were normally well-dressed, appeared now to be all in dress-down, jeans and T-shirts. Think they were surprised to see me prowling around with a camera.

Cruise day to Sohag – Day 8

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Today was a cruise day, the second in a row. (Yes, R slightly shocked by it.) We left Asyut early in the morning. Shortly after we set sail, I stood on the cabin balcony in my shorts and admired the still water, the bank and dawn. A reflective photo opportunity. The police boat alongside must have wondered what I was doing at 5.30 in the morning. Strange we were due to leave at 6.00 am, and we must have already been travelling for 30 minutes.

Back to bed for a couple of hours and then breakfast. Keeping with my breakfast diet, fruit most days with the odd omelette every other day.

Good opportunities to photograph river life as we travelled on to to Sohag. A break for lunch, and then a documentary about the Rosetta stone which provided the key to translating hieroglyphs. The same text had been written in Egyptian and Greek, along with the addition of Coptic script, so the code was broken. Alas in this competition to be the first to break the code, the French won.

More river bank watching, it never gets boring, so much to see, the birds, the people, the children waving. Teenage boys, even pause in staring at their phones to wave at us. Strange. Then tea was soon upon us followed by a lecture by George, entitled “Egypt’s Golden Age: The temples of Thebes”. This was to prepare us for the next day’s sightseeing.

Soon dinner was upon us. I can’t remember exactly which days, but we did have some themed Egyptian meals. Instead of a buffet, platters would be placed on the table, and you would help yourself to all manner of goodies. So today I publish one such menu, complete with their spelling. R said the Falafel were the best she’d ever had.

After supper we had another opportunity to have a walk around alocal town, this time Sohag. The boat which had been following was also moored up, we was alongside. This walk about was an organised walk by the tourist agency of Sohag and we were led not to the shops, but to a square/amphitheatre to listen to some traditional Egyptian music. We were given Egyptian flags to wave, music played and we were encouraged to dance. Much to Rosemary’s ire, I was encouraged to dance with a delectable German from the other boat. All this was filmed, presumably for some Egyptian tourist propaganda film. Don’t think they filmed our police escorts.

Egyptian Salad
Tomato, Lettuce, Parsley, Cucumber, Olive Oil

Baba Ganoog (sesame salad)
Sesame, Onion, Aubergine, Parsley, Olive Oil

Goat Cheese with Tomato
Fresh Cream, Feta Cheese, Tomato, Parsley, Olive Oil

Mesh
Fresh Cream, Parmesan Cheese, Blue Cheese, Olive Oil

Fried Aubergine

Fried Green Pepper

Fried Green Pepper (spicy)

Potatoes (French Fries)

Brown Beans

Falafel
Brown Beans, Celery, Onion, Fresh Coriander, Parsley, Sesame

Grilled Chicken

Grilled Kofta (Beef)

Dessert Mahalabia
Milk, Fresh Cream, Cornflower [sic!], Coconut, Butter, Sugar

Cruise day to Asyut – Day 7

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Today was a cruise day, so a relaxing day with lots of unnecessary food to eat. SS Misr was scheduled to leave at 5.30, and arrive at Asyut before sunset. We had a lock to go through just before arriving at Asyut. The barrage and lock had been built by the British in 1902, and a hydroelectric plant was added in the 1980s. Since then, new locks have been built.

Before dinner, there was a talk by our guides Anwar & Sharif about Modern Egypt. He mentioned he was a Muslim but went to a Christian school. The result was he had more holidays and didn’t have to go to school on Fridays and Sundays. His friends and work colleagues were both Muslim and Christian. He painted a very rosy picture of the relations between Christian and Muslim. The country is 15% Christian, while the city of Asyut where we were heading was 50% Christian.

On education, Anwar mentioned there were public schools and private. In many areas, in the public schools, the children were divided into morning or afternoon pupils. I think children should be educated until theye were 15.

With health care, the state provided a very basic level of health care. Better quality health care was available with insurance premiums and schemes run by the companies you worked for.

Though Muslim men could marry up to four women, this was not considered normal and was frowned upon. Sometimes it was good in that you could marry someone in addition who had been widowed and thus could support them. It also seems from what Anwar said, women could earn and keep their own money, while the men had to earn and support their wife. A wife could divorce her husband if he was not supporting her properly. She could complain to the courts if she was asked to pay for example for the electricity bill, which her husband should be doing. She would also get the house, all the furniture and maintenance after the divorce. It was noticeable how many of the women in the audience paid close attention to this part of the lecture.

After the lecture we went through the lock at Asyut before docking in our secure mooring outside the Security Diretorate.

On the trip, I managed to grab some pictures of river life, fishing boats, birds and people farming.

Visit to Tel El Amarna – Day 6

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The SS Misr left El Minya early in the morning and we made our way to Tell El Amarna. The morning was spent eating breakfast, a late one at 7.00am, then a lecture by George Hart on the “Arts in the Reigns of Akhenaten and Nefertiti”. An early morning lecture, so wide awake for this one.

If we were not full enough after breakfast, it was an early 11.30 Lunch. We arrived at our destination of Tell El Amarna and moored up in a small compound next to the waterside archealogical museum.

The whole of the afternoon was spent touring, first were two sites to see close to the river. The first was the small temple of the Atun (Aten). There was not much to be seen, some mud walls and a rebuilt column. A breeze blew and there was a small sandstorm over the walls There had been considerable archaeological research here, and now the site was becoming buried again with sand. Probably a good thing, the mud block walls are very friable, and at least the sand protects them.

Next we drove a short distance to the Palace of Akenaten. We had seen the remains of the decorated plaster floor at the Eygyptian Museum in Cairo. This had been removed because the locals of this village had started to destroy it, fed up with tourists traipsing over their land. We could not get into the site, viewing it from one spot. George was allowed by the guides to speak here. Apparently the archaeologist who excavated the palace had been George’s Mentor.

Back on to the coaches to see Northern Tombs. The coaches split, we went first to see the Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten. This was a huge carving in the mountain, decreeing this to be the boundary of Akhenaten’s land. There were some steps up to the Stelae and a good view of the flat desert to the Nile.

Next stop was a drive up the Royal Wadi to the tomb of Akhenaten. It was nearly 8K along the wadi. Unfortunately, the tomb had been damaged by flash flooding. It was quite dark there, despite lots of lighting, most of which were not turned on. I think the generator had broken, and a small portable one was being used in its place. Large tomb with a long walk down, some anti robber and flooding defenses. Several rooms to be viewed.

Next, we drove to the Northern Tombs, parked in the bus park and walked up to the tombs with our guard. These tombs were high up on the cliff, good views across the desert to the Nile. Pity it was always hazy.

Tomb 4 – Merya/Merire High priest of the Aten. This tomb had some good quality wall carvings and paintings.

Tomb 5 – Penthu served at court during the 18th dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The quality of the wall carvings here were poor.

Tomb 6 – Panehesy Chief servitor of the Aten in the temple of Aten in Akhetaten. This tomb again had some good wall carvings, and columns.

These tombs were high up on the cliff and required a short walk up steps to access them. Again good views across the desert to the Nile. Pit it was always hazy.

Our final stop was the museum where there was a reconstruction of rooms from houses and palaces in the region. We were able to walk to the boat and were soon ready for cocktails and dinner. Another boat moored up next to us in the evening.