Egypt - Cruising back to the Past
November 2008
The Nile, as it carves its way through the desert to the Mediterranean Sea, takes you on a journey through the remnants of one of the world’s oldest civilisations. Nothing can prepare you for the size or splendour of the temples guarded by gigantic statues or the tranquil beauty of watching farmers work fertile fields as the mountains turn pink with the setting sun. With a little bit of imagination you really could believe you’ve sailed back in time.
...behind tall sand dunes topped with ancient stone lighthouses lies nothing but desert.
A cruise down the Nile is the only way to truly immerse yourself in the ancient past, but before you start your journey you first need to visit Cairo. There are only two reasons why you would wish to spend time in Cairo and that is to see the pyramids at Giza and to visit the Egyptian Museum. Cairo itself is a huge disappointment, with its polluted rivers and canals; over congested streets and unfinished buildings that make the city appear bombed. However, seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World makes up for a lot and also gives you a taste of what’s to come.
The priority of every new Pharaoh was to prepare for the afterlife and that meant building their tombs. Even today, despite losing most of their original smooth finish, the pyramids are incredible to behold. However, as you stagger bent in half down the narrow passageway with your heart pounding due to lack of oxygen it’s hard not to hide your disappointment when you reach the tiny room in the centre. That’s why your imagination needs to visit the Egyptian Museum.
Built in 1900, the museum is a museum in its own right. It’s wonderfully old, run down and jam packed with hundreds of sarcophagus, pieces of temples and statues of all shapes and sizes. It somehow seems appropriate that the building isn’t shiny and new and the shabbiness adds to the excitement of exploring the corridors and anti chambers almost as if you are walking in the footsteps of Howard Carter. The highlights of the visit are seeing the Rosetta Stone; the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun and, for horror film fans, The Mummies Room is worth the additional entrance fee. But even more disturbing is the room filled with mummified animals!
The real adventure begins when you leave Cairo and after a short flight you will arrive in Aswan, an ancient frontier town sitting on the border of Sudan and the rest of Africa. It also sits on the first cataract of the Nile which is why this fast flowing stretch of water became the location of the river’s first dam and later the more impressive High Dam.
Once away from these two man-made structures the Nile is surprisingly narrow and passes around rocky islands covered in palm trees. On both sides behind tall sand dunes topped with ancient stone lighthouses lies nothing but desert. The river buzzes with activity as white sailed feluccas tack silently back and forth and if you blot out the many identical cruise ships moored on the east bank you could easily believe you were back in the time of the Pharaohs.
The Temple of Isis at Philae is a spectacular place to start your exploring and is located on an island between the old and new dams. It’s almost impossible to imagine the engineering skills required to build this temple but equally incredible is trying to imagine moving it. When the British built the original dam back in 1902 it threatened several ancient landmarks including Philae and many temples were submerged for most of the year. In 1960, UNESCO decided to move the endangered sites but it wasn’t until 1980 that the island of Agilkai located 550 metres away became the temple’s new home.
..appear to mystically hang above a backdrop of pink tinged mountains.
Other sites well worth visiting are Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo and The Temple of Horus at Edfu which is dedicated to the falcon headed god and one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. The reason for this is that like many temples, once it was abandoned, it became buried in sand where it remained undisturbed until excavated in the 1860s.
You will know when you’ve arrived at Luxor as the bank of the Nile can be 3 or 4 cruise boats deep. This makes for interesting disembarkations as you traverse your way through the reception areas of each boat before arriving on solid ground. However, being in the outside parking bay means that the panoramic views across the water first thing in the morning are spectacular. The vista is enhanced by more than a dozen colourful hot air balloons that appear to mystically hang above a backdrop of pink tinged mountains. Watching them hover at different heights makes you just wish you were up there gazing down on the valley below but the 4 am start seemed to dissuade most from this optional tour.
Luxor, the ancient city of Thebes, is home to many incredible temples and tombs. The most famous are the Valley of the Kings, Karnak and its own Luxor Temple which sits right in the middle of the town. The Valley of the Kings is located on the West bank of the Nile and nothing can prepare you for what lies hidden beneath the limestone mountains. It’s worth taking time to look at the 3D model in the visitor’s centre which shows the labyrinth of tunnels leading to the 63 tombs that have so far been discovered. Unlike the pyramids, these later tombs were totally hidden from robbers and as you walk down the valley there is nothing to see except entrances to what resembles old mine shafts or metal stairs that lead you into the mountains where more tombs are located.
The majority of visitors only have time to visit 3-6 tombs and the entrance fee includes entry to any 3 tombs currently open but some such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses II require additional tickets. Each tomb was built in different eras so no two are the same and the longer the Pharaoh lived the more elaborate his tomb. Some therefore only have a single chamber but one has as many as 120; some are painted with hieroglyphics whose colours are still vibrant and others, like the tomb of Tutankhamun, are quite unremarkable.
Back on the East bank of the Nile, Karnak is the second most visited site in Egypt and is famous for its 134 columns arranged in 16 rows some 10 metres tall. It’s amazing to think that Karnak used to be linked to the equally impressive Luxor Temple by a 2.5km long avenue of sphinxes although only parts of this avenue can still be seen. More imagination is required at the entrance to Luxor Temple which used to be flanked by six colossal statues of Ramesses, four standing and two seated but only the seated two remain. Also here is a 25m tall pink granite obelisk one of a matching pair and whose partner has stood in the centre of Paris since 1835.
....the scenery has not changed since the days of the Pharaohs.
The most beautiful section of the Nile lies between Luxor and Qena and apart from the electricity poles and cables strung across the Nile or the satellite dishes hanging from mud huts the scenery has not changed since the days of the Pharaohs. Farmers and their donkeys work fertile fields lined with palm trees; women scrub clothes by the river bank and children stop their chores and run to the water’s edge to wave and shout hello. The most haunting time of day is as the sun sets and the mosques’ minarets come to life. An eerie dusk settles across the river instantly turning the air cold as the sun slowly sinks into the desert.
Only a certain number of boats are allowed up this section of the Nile and at one stage our captain had to check the depth of the river with a long pole. Another unexpected surprise was the addition of a machine gun to the back of the boat and a police escort to and from Dendera Temple which made us feel like royalty as traffic and carts, pulled by donkeys, came to a halt as we sped past.
The inside of Dendera temple is being painstakingly restored and the painted ceilings cleaned so far are incredibly well preserved. It is also possible to go onto the roof where you can see the gaps in the stone that allow the sun to enter the temple at different times of the day, highlighting the columns’ hieroglyphs like spotlights. Once up there you can visit a small room which has a zodiac carved on its ceiling although this is only a replica as the original is in Le Louvre.
Six days of cruising, exploring temples and tombs absorbing facts, figures and history is the perfect length of time to visit the ancient past. However, the most amazing fact of all is that it’s even possible to cruise back in time thousands of years and walk in the footsteps of one of the world’s first civilisations. That makes it a journey worth taking at least once in your lifetime.