Sailing on the Nile

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First of all, I would like to thank you for keeping up with our travels; I am looking forward to seeing my own Buls read it, to remind them of our travels. Children are hopeful and imagine wonderful boundless dreams for themselves, a precious state of innocent that we all lose as life goes by. My dream was to visit the temples along the Nile; I have already referred to my kleptomania for books on Ancient Egypt, back in the French libraries. Abu Simbel was the temple that I found the most fascinating, as it combines the incredible craftsmanship of the Ancient Egypt and the international collective effort of our recent civilisation to salvage it from being flooded. 

15% is the rate of the tourism in Luxor and Aswan since 2011.  To reach our boat, we had to walk through 7 other shadows of beautiful Nile cruisers, where photographs of their once busy past remain, like the one in the shining, except with foreigners posing as Egyptians; they are for all types, from shiny Russian to stony German and woody with spiral staircase culminating by a ceiling mosaic. This also explains the despair of the sellers on the temple sites, and despite their tenacious annoyance, compassion and sadness overrule.

Our voyage from Lower to Upper Egypt began with Karnak temple and Luxor temple, both swallowed right in the center of Thèbes, known as Luxor in our times. Nearby, lays the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut, leaning at the back of the Valley. Habu temple is the final highlight of Luxor, and not the least, where the vibrant colours and pillars once crowded by commoners and offering for the Gods resonate today with the tweeting of birds.

 Karnak Temple

 After having seen hieroglyphics chiselled off and plastered over with Christian figures, polytheism and its rites make you ponder. Pope Francis said recently that “Once man has lost the fundamental orientation which unifies his existence, he breaks down into the multiplicity of his desires; in refusing to await the time of promise, his life-story disintegrates into a myriad of unconnected instants.” I could not disagree more, given the ravage that monotheism is inflicting all over the world as we speak. The Egyptian Gods were representative of one aspect of the powers of nature and animals and each is intertwined to another; it appears more open minded, more in touch with nature and its numerous powers rather than an omniscient God. At the times, commoners were not promised paradise for their 'good' deeds or have to fear the wrath of the Gods, they were to be turned into sand once dead; no promises, only for the pharaohs, should Atun and the scale weigh in their favour.

 

Luxor Temple

 

Habu Temple

The next cruise stop will be in Edfu, with the temple dedicated to Horus and also Kom Ombo temple, which venerate the crocodile god. There will also be a stop on the island of Philae, where the temple lies a few meters from its original location and a felucca ride, along the island of the Nile. 

 Edfu Temple

Kom Ombo and Philae Temple

Another feeling is the sheet of sheer excitement as you enter the Valley of the Kings torn apart by the indignation at the “no picture” sign. The truth is that visitors aren’t allowed to take any photos, since a bunch of unaware visitors have used the flash despite the warning and eternally altered the quality of the hieroglyphics, cameras have now been banished from the site. In addition, EVERY temple bears the mark of idiocracy, where names have been chiselled on top of the hieroglyphics from the 1800 to nowadays, a pathetic attempt to leave a trace on his Earth. There is also the occasional guide or tourist, sticking his fingers in the engravings.

Tutankhamun’s tomb and sarcophagus are inside the Valley and his tomb brought up a lot of emotion, given his tragic destiny and the feel inside his eternal resting place.

The final stop will be Abu Simbel, a three well deserved hours, for a unique location. Indeed, 280 km away from Aswan, the deserted sandy and somewhat redundant landscape is often interrupted by the police cars and machine guns of the convoy all the way to the temple ordered by Ramses the Second.

It isn’t easy to sell to family and friends your life in Egypt. Some days you wake up in this place after hearing a firework and fear it is another revolution and you question your decision to have brought a family here; yet, as you sail down the Nile and witness the most amazing sights and realise that the crazy decision to come here is allowing your own three pillars to see such wonders, achievement and happiness are the final emotions to bring you back home, to Cairo.