An early morning pickup from the hotel with four boxes of breakfast arranged by our travel agent May Sedky of See Egypt. Much quicker ride back to the airport as less traffic at 6 AM. The early morning light allowed us to see "the other side" of Cairo - crumbling slums much like the back side of the Kulri Bazaar Road in our former home in Mussoorie, India. Exteriors of even tony apartment buildings show the wear due to temperature extremes and natural sand blasting.
The Cairo airport is modern, efficient and the EgyptAir employees polite. Our travel agent escorted us to security, quite a nice service when you are blurry and in a new airport. An easy domestic flight got us to Aswan by late morning. We were met by the local See Egypt agent who extolled us with the benefits of the smaller, quieter Aswan over the noisy, crowded city of Cairo. We arrived at our boat, the Swiss Movenpick Radamis II, with time for some sun up on the deck, and meeting our fellow travelers. Fortified by lunch in L'Orangerie, we began our tour of the day by bus to see the unfinished obelisk. The "needle" was huge and carved from a single piece of granite, but was discarded after a fissure was discovered in the stone.
Our guide told us that to this day, it is a mystery as to how a solid piece of granite could have been unearthed and moved to its site outside a temple. As we left, our tour guide, Hossam, advised us to "walk like a camel" looking straight ahead through the gauntlet of very persistent souvenir vendors. It worked.
Our next stop was the High Dam of Aswan, and at first sight is clearly large, but its size is most apparent when we view the tremendous lake that gathers behind it. Hoover Dam is taller and much more impressive because of its sheer height and verticality. It is a simple wall of concrete that reinforces our iconic idea of a "dam." Aswan Dam is a mix of earth fill and concrete, so it appears more as a part of the landscape, almost a natural feature - but its straight lines and the myriad silver electrical towers give away its true function as the primary supplier of electricity to the entire country.
We then went by Nubian owned small boats to the Philae Island temple – full of defaced carvings in the rock of Egyptian gods, goddesses and hieroglyphics. Even tell tale carvings of the Copts were evident in the alter and crosses carved later made in the sandstone walls. This temple was moved a short distance from an island submerged by the lake created by the High Dam.
The coffee table book our travel agent gave us added that the hieroglyphics for the name Cleopatra found on an obelisk on this island were instrumental to unlocking the code of hieroglyphics made by French scholar Jean Francois Champollion in the 1800’s. Unfortunately, the obelisk is no longer on the island but supposedly graces a private yard in southern England.
We went back at dark, weary from the first day of the tour and the travel that brought us all here. We enjoyed dinner then all went to bed early in preparation for another day’s exploration of Egypt.
The Cairo airport is modern, efficient and the EgyptAir employees polite. Our travel agent escorted us to security, quite a nice service when you are blurry and in a new airport. An easy domestic flight got us to Aswan by late morning. We were met by the local See Egypt agent who extolled us with the benefits of the smaller, quieter Aswan over the noisy, crowded city of Cairo. We arrived at our boat, the Swiss Movenpick Radamis II, with time for some sun up on the deck, and meeting our fellow travelers. Fortified by lunch in L'Orangerie, we began our tour of the day by bus to see the unfinished obelisk. The "needle" was huge and carved from a single piece of granite, but was discarded after a fissure was discovered in the stone.
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| The Unfinished Obelisk |
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| Hossam explains walking like a camel |
Our next stop was the High Dam of Aswan, and at first sight is clearly large, but its size is most apparent when we view the tremendous lake that gathers behind it. Hoover Dam is taller and much more impressive because of its sheer height and verticality. It is a simple wall of concrete that reinforces our iconic idea of a "dam." Aswan Dam is a mix of earth fill and concrete, so it appears more as a part of the landscape, almost a natural feature - but its straight lines and the myriad silver electrical towers give away its true function as the primary supplier of electricity to the entire country.
We then went by Nubian owned small boats to the Philae Island temple – full of defaced carvings in the rock of Egyptian gods, goddesses and hieroglyphics. Even tell tale carvings of the Copts were evident in the alter and crosses carved later made in the sandstone walls. This temple was moved a short distance from an island submerged by the lake created by the High Dam.
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| Cole & Chris at Aswan Dam |
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