Upper Egypt - part 2 of 2

We pick up where we left off -- with two lost souls headed for the night train...

We found our way to the platform -- not 100% certain we were at the right one. Not before long though a uniform came by and asked us where we were going and they confirmed we were in the right spot. We sat down and some locals meandered over to us and started chatting. They seemed nice, although they asked to take a picture with Vitali which we found weird. A girl had asked to take a picture with me at the Pyramids and I couldn't understand why. Maybe we looked unusual to them.

Eventually our train arrived -- the Watania tourist sleeper (specifically for tourists -- up until 2017 tourists couldn't even purchase regular train tickets), which travels the length of Egypt, all the way from Cairo to Aswan, near the border of Sudan. The tourist sleeper, of course, came with a big price tag: $160 for the both of us. It did include dinner, breakfast, and bunks in a private cabin, so not terrible, but certainly paying the tourist tax considering the COL in Egypt.

We found our carriage and loaded on. The train was surprisingly clean and tastefully decorated. Our little roomette even had a sink.

We loaded in around 7:30pm and 15 minutes later our attendant came through with our dinner. Which was our first real meal since we had gotten to Egypt -- and it was shockingly good -- although we couldn't be certain since we were starving. Spiced rice, chicken, and veggies.

The attendant came by a bit later to collect our trays and set up our beds. I slept on the top bunk and I found it much more comfortable than our Amtrak experience on the Coast Starlight. This bed was wider so it felt more secure.

Sleep was almost impossible due to the train being pretty loud and the conductor braking hard randomly, but I suppose we must have gathered a few zzzs here and there overnight. In the morning, we checked google maps and found we were about two hours behind schedule.

The scenery as we followed the Nile south into Upper Egypt was quite beautiful. A lot of agriculture, a few towns here and there, and in the distance -- nothing but sand. The Nile varied in width from quite broad (1.7 miles) -- to very narrow (25').

We eventually arrived in Aswan around 11:00am, 1 hour and 45 minutes after schedule. We set out on the ten minute walk to our hotel -- our first encounter with the incredible heat roiling in off of the desert. We also noticed it was much more conservative here than in Cairo. In Cairo you'd see women wearing a burqa but more often western clothing with a hijab. Here, almost all of the women were wearing black burqas -- in the 115 degree heat.

Thankfully we were able to check in to our hotel early, which was the most expensive of our trip at $36/night.

The hotel had a nice view of the Nile from the roof. Our room was adequate, with two twin beds, and we almost thought -- no AC. We were about ready to resign ourselves to suffering but then we looked behind a curtain and found the wall unit. Phew!

After getting settled we took a tour to see the sights around Aswan. We met our driver, who had a really nice tricked out Toyota, complete with leather and tint. We headed down to the Unfinished Obelisk first, which sounds like an unusual thing to go see but it was actually quite interesting.

Aswan is known for high quality granite -- and all of the granite downstream was historically sourced from here. Queen Hatshepsut ordered the creation of this obelisk, possibly to complement another that was at Karnak. It would have been the largest obelisk ever created -- nearly 1/3rd larger than the next existing one, 137' tall and 1,090 tons, and dating to around 1500BCE.

The workers used round balls of dolerite (which is a stone harder than granite) to strike the granite repeatedly to carve out a shape. 10 minutes of bashing would give you some granite dust and heat stroke. One day while these workers were out there in the sun contemplating their existence -- the obelisk cracked. The size was scaled down several times in order to try and work around the crack but it was eventually abandoned when it became clear that this was a lost cause.

Then we headed over to the Aswan High Dam, the worlds largest embankment dam. The dam was engineered by Russia for Egypt, in an effort to control the annual flooding of the Nile -- which varies enough in its annual flow to be problematic. Completed in 1970, it created the Lake Nasser reservoir. Several temples along the banks of the river would be drowned or damaged by the dams creation, so the Egyptian government moved them. We'll see two examples of such.

We headed to our last stop, the temple of Philae. This temple was relocated from another island to where it currently sits (due to dam construction), which was quite impressive. This required a short boat ride to reach.

We walked to the boat dock and found a couple walking back -- they stopped us and asked -- "Do you want to share a boat?" Because the boat drivers were all in cahoots to charge whatever they wanted for a 10 minute ride. The driver asked the couple we met for 200LE for a private ride so we were glad to share the cost with them.

However when we walked back, the driver suddenly wanted 250LE. We argued a bit but eventually agreed to split the 250 and off we went.

After a few minutes the temple came into view -- Wow! The original position of Philae at the first cataract of the Nile was an important trade stop between Nubia to the South and Lower Egypt to the North, as the rapids required disembarking any vessels.

We disembarked and started wandering around. The initial approach is along a colonnade and to the monumental pylons, ubiquitous in ancient Egyptian temple architecture. All Egyptian temples generally follow the same layout -- starting with larger rooms that gradually become smaller and smaller until you are in the sanctuary, the holiest place, usually reserved for images and figures of gods and visited by no one except the priest.

The temple is also said to be one of the burying places of Osiris after he was torn apart by his evil brother Set.

The temple here is dedicated to Isis, dating to 700BCE. BTW! The Great Pyramids date to 2500BCE. I think I failed to provide any historical context in the last post because I was so mad about all the touts.

We also quickly discovered -- temple cats!

A man in a galabiya appeared out of nowhere to offer me cat food for a baksheesh. I happily paid him, as the kittens were just TOO CUTE! The kittens were too young to be interested in the kibble though.

Sooo precious, but how did they get here?

Unfortunately, zealous Christians and iconoclasts did a thorough job of mutilating the imagery here. Interestingly, images of Horus were sometimes spared -- it's theorized that the iconoclasts either had some degree of respect for the legend of Horus or associated his story of death and rebirth with Jesus.

It was very cool to see -- our first Egyptian Temple!

We headed back to our boat and then back to the mainland. The next morning, we would get on a bus at 4AM to drive 4 hours south to the temples of Abu Simbel, near the border. This was a hard sell to get Vitali to go. "But we'll only be here once!" I entreated, and we both knew it was the truth.

We woke up at 3AM, grabbed our bagged breakfast which included things that usually need refrigeration but were left out on the counter overnight. At 4AM we got onto the tour bus and stopped around town to pick up more tourists, and around 5AM we finally hit the open road, and a lot of checkpoints. There was a lot of nothingness in the desert. Even at 6AM we could feel the van's AC struggle to keep up.

We arrived around 7:30am, bought our tickets, and entered the site. It was a short walk down to the shore of Lake Nasser where the wholly relocated temple sat, about 65 meters above its original position. The temple was built in-situ, which meant they had to essentially relocate an entire hill. For how remote this site is, there sure were a LOT of tourists.

Constructed in 1264BCE by Rameses II, as part of an impressive building spree, particularly around Nubia, to impress upon the Nubians the power of Egyptian rule. You'll notice Rameses II included four statues of himself on the exterior of the temple. Inside, there were even more! The torso of one of the statues fell off during an earthquake in antiquity and was placed where it was found when the temple was relocated. Along the legs of the statues are Rameses wives and children.

Lots of incredible imagery everywhere you looked. And at every doorway -- a tout to take your picture for a baksheesh!

The temple is oriented so that on October and February 22nd the light illuminates the deepest room of the temple -- and the statues of the gods found within. Except for Ptah, the god of the underworld -- he remains in the dark.

Next door was a temple Rameses II built for his chief wife and great love -- Queen Nefertari. For only the second time in ancient Egyptian history was a queen depicted as almost the same size as the king. Who is present in three colossal statues on the outside of her temple. For, reasons.

Inside is basically a smaller version of Rameses' temple, less ornate, but with some beautiful scenes of their relationship.

By around 9:00 the temperature had already surpassed 100 degrees so we headed back to the van -- which was due to leave at 9:30AM. But first -- we had to walk through a very long line-up of souvenir shops touting 5LE scarves and other knick knacks. I even got a 'Ni Hao' from a tout. A few people in Cairo had guessed I was Japanese by looking at me and saying 'Japan?'. This was the first guy to guess Chinese correctly.

Eventually we made it past the human barrage, paid 5LE to use the bathroom (no free toilets anywhere in Egypt, and forget toilet paper), and departed. We had a longgg ride back.

The next day we would board a ship to cruise down the Nile to Luxor. I had found a good deal online -- $281 for two nights. Nile cruises are typically offered as 3 or 4 night package deals. However – the itinerary is always the same – and includes a night in Aswan (where we were boarding) and two nights in Luxor (where we were disembarking). Why pay to stay on the ship if it’s not moving?

So we booked the deal online which basically represented passage on a ship. The cruise package industry is kind of weird here -- we weren't booking a voyage on a specific ship -- we were booking a tour company, who would place us on a ship to complete their itinerary. They probably distribute tourists based on the price they paid and how full ships are. We looked forward to finding out which one we would get.

Who are we kidding? We were highly trepidatious.

At 10am the next morning a car came to pick us up from our hotel and take us to the ship. We drove along the waterfront – passing ship after ship docked in town. Finally – we slowed down and stop. A decent looking ship presented itself and we were ushered on. Once we stepped onboard -- we were pleasantly surprised! It had been recently remodeled, and actually quite nicely done. We would later walk through several other ships as we docked parallel to access the pier -- and ours was hands down the nicest one.

We sat down with our tour guide with welcome drinks of hibiscus tea and went over our itinerary. Tonight, we would stop at Kom Ombo and then sail to Edfu and dock there overnight. Tomorrow, we'd continue on to Luxor, where we would spend the second night. He asked if we wanted to go see anything today (for extra money, of course!) but we told him we had already done all the sightseeing in Aswan, so we were taken to our room, which was very nice! The finishes were all pretty high quality, which surprised me.

We dropped our bags and headed to the lunch buffet. The restaurant was slightly below water level which was interesting. I was able to talk to the head chef who, for every meal I ate there, would walk with me and tell me what I could and couldn’t eat. Although a few times he told me I could eat something when it was clear that there was gluten in it. I was only glutened minorly which was impressive, although we had a little "adjustment" to our digestive tracts which would last for about a week.

Lunch was actually quite good. So far, we were very impressed by our experience on the ship. I think we got lucky being placed because tourist numbers had not yet improved dramatically – so the boat company was just trying to fill up the cabins. There were 66 rooms on this ship and in total we think about 20 groups were on board. I would guess there were maybe 20 cruises going at once in either direction. I can't imagine what it was like pre-covid.

The boat departed at 2pm and sailed for a few hours. Many cruise ships passed us and before long we didn't see any more ships behind us. We were on the last slow boat north.

We headed up to the sundeck to await afternoon tea and our tour at 5pm. It was 113 degrees in the shade.

There was a lot more beauty and green things than I expected.

Around 6pm, we pulled into Kom Ombo, to see a bunch of other cruises jockeying for position at the temple. We docked parallel to the shore, but 4 ships deep.

We followed our guide Israel (who is employed by the tour company we booked the cruise with) into the site and were immediately assaulted (and with much more vigor than before) by a mass of touts trying to sell their wares. We must have had our well-traveled faces on because we were bothered much less than the people around us.

Israel told us we had to go buy tickets ourselves -- and there was a huge line. That took another 45 minutes. While we were waiting we met Tammy, a teacher currently living in Giza who has also lived in Myanmar and Bolivia, and her brother David, who comes to visit her wherever she is stationed. She complained to us about the challenges of living in a developing Arabic country.

Eventually we obtained tickets and followed Israel around as he showed us various tidbits about the temple as the sun was setting. It was a nice site, and cooler than I expected. This temple, dating to 180BCE, is unusual for being a double temple -- it has duplicated spaces: a temple for Sobek, a crocodile god, and Haroeris, a falcon god. The grounds even had a pit where they kept crocodiles. There was a museum on site with the mummified remains of crocodiles.

Below, a joint between blocks showing where a wooden tie would have been.

We headed back to the boat (not before being absolutely fleeced by a shop selling snacks) and headed to dinner. I was able to eat a variety of food which was an incredible change from the last week. There was some sort of delicious prepared okra that was so good. As soon as all of the tour groups were back onboard we departed for Edfu.

The next day we had to wake up at 5:15am in order to be ready for the 6am tour. We were supposed to be taken in horse drawn carriages to the temple complex. We tipped our driver with much reluctance after being dropped off at the site, because his horse was clearly unwell.

Then we stood (in less of a line and more of a mob) for an hour and half as everyone and their mother converged on the single ticket window at the same time. And of course – there were line cutters abound. I was also experiencing some postural hypotension with no where to sit down so it was 👌.

We stood 10 feet away for about an hour before we started complaining to our guide and we eventually designated one person to buy tickets for everyone, which is what the tour company should have arranged to begin with.

FINALLY we obtained our tickets, almost the last group to do so in line, and headed towards the Temple of Horus, dating to 237BCE - 57BCE. It was our guide Israel's favorite temple and is considered one of the best preserved temples in Egypt.

It was also wayyy bigger than the other temples we'd been seeing.

It was very busy with all the cruises amassing on the site at the same time. There were still traces of color visible underneath an overhang, after more than 2,000 years.

The temple fell into disuse around 391AD and had been gradually buried under 39 feet of sand and silt. At various times those pesky iconoclasts came in and mutilated the carvings as well as burning fires inside to obscure the imagery on the ceiling. Some carvings were spared though -- they were hidden beneath the sand. It was rediscovered in 1798.

The temple was quite beautiful – the color on the hieroglyphics were still intact in places, and the overall effect was very impressive.

Below, a river gauge (Nile-meter), and the sanctuary of the temple.

Since we were the last group in we were the last group out -- and had a few minutes in the empty temple with just our small group.

We headed back to the carriage drop off point and Israel tells us we should tip our driver. Uh oh -- we had already tipped him because we didn't know we'd have the same driver both ways. So we go to look for our carriage (#55) and find that he was nowhere to be found -- absconded with his baksheesh to make more money. Scummy. Then we were hassled about tipping the new carriage driver but we refused. Go find your buddy and tell him he’s an asshole.

Back on the boat we had a tasty breakfast and then laid out in the sun for a bit as we set sail for Luxor. Today was almost entirely sailing, which was a big selling point for us booking the cruise.

We spent the whole day alternating between the pool, the shaded part of the sun deck, and our room, just watching the scenery. Odd, it looked so peaceful from a boat 100 feet from shore and the nearest touts. Or so we thought.

We took a nap at one point and awoke to hearing someone yelling HELLO from outside. We looked and saw a little ship that had lashed itself to ours -- and he was trying to get someone's attention on board? We alerted the front desk who probably laughed at us, because it turned out it was a tout, advertising his wares to revelers on the sundeck, 50 feet above him.

We stopped to get in line for a lock, during which even more touts descended on the ship. I made the mistake of looking over the side of the boat at them and before I knew it one had pitched me a tablecloth.

We watched a French group who had obviously imbibed quite a few bottles probably clear one guy's inventory out.

We made it through the lock and continued on, late into the day.

We passed a lot of feluccas, which are traditional sailboats, and on which you can book a more affordable passage up or down the Nile.

Around late afternoon we finally approached Luxor.

As the ship navigated itself to park the sun began to set.

We watched as the minarets lit up in many colors in the distance -- Ramadan was nearly over and people were ready to celebrate!

The ship turned around for the next cruise back to Aswan, and parked for the night. We were a few hours late, but we didn't mind. We came on the boat to cruise the Nile, not to be parked on the Nile.

We had another really good dinner and then went to bed, only to be awakened by the front desk calling us at 10pm to try and convince us to come get a drink at the bar? I guess our tab wasn't high enough.

The next day we had breakfast and then disembarked, riding along with our tour group in a mini-van to be dropped off at our hotel on the west bank of the Nile.

The guesthouse let us check in early at 10am – and we had the nicest room on the top floor, with a fantastic view right to the Nile. The room even had a hot plate!

We walked down to a market to grab some food and asked the shopkeep where we could find some chicken -- he offered to buy us some fresh tomorrow and we could pick it up! We agreed, and jokingly debated on the way back whether this "fresh chicken" would be alive on delivery.

We arranged through the hotel to be picked up the next morning to go to the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple.

We were picked up the next morning by a guide and driver and met David, an oil consultant from Dallas, who was quite nice. We drove over to Hatshepsut’s temple which was designed by an architect who also happened to be her lover. The temple was quite beautiful, and of strangely contemporary proportions, and dates to the 15th century BCE.

The carvings on the exterior of the temple celebrate her accomplishments -- including an expedition in her name to the Land of Punt, which brought back trees that were planted here, the first recorded example of foreign tree transplantation.

Queen Hatshepsut leaves quite an interesting legacy. She was the second confirmed female pharaoh, coming into the throne as co-regent with her newly deceased husband Thutmose II's son Thutmose III by another wife, until he came of age. It gets a little complicated -- her and Thutmose II are half-siblings by Thutmose I -- but he was born of a secondary wife and she was born of his primary wife.

As Thutmose III aged Hatshepsut decided she liked being queen and gradually won over public support. Her mortuary temple features depictions of her divine birth -- from the goddess Hathor(?), meaning she had the divine right to rule, on top of being the primary heir of Thutmose I.

All records of Hatshepsut's reign cease about 22 years after she ascended the throne -- and 20 years after that Thutmose III led a campaign to erase any evidence of her rule, including defacing or overwriting mentions of her name on the temple. A grudge? Perhaps.

We then headed over to the Valley of the Kings, where for nearly 500 years from 16th to 11th centuries BCE rock carved tombs were hewn for the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

The visitor center had a really neat model which showed not only relative positions but relative depths.

The valley itself was quite striking.

We would visit three tombs, each with increasing beauty.

First was Merenptah, Rameses II's son.

Then we visited the tomb of Rameses III.

And finally the tomb of Rameses V/VI (which cost an extra $10 for us to visit). The tomb was built for V but his uncle, VI, also used it. The colors here are regarded to be the most vibrant.

David had also paid an extra $50! to see another tomb so he went to visit that while we waited. On the way back to the hotel we also stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, giant crumbling (but still standing) statues, dating to 1350BCE. We also stopped by an alabaster workshop where we were invited to buy souvenirs, which we did. They showed us how they make the pieces and they are extremely labor intensive.

We made it back to the hotel and headed over to the market to see about the chicken. Quite disappointingly he let us know the chicken was not good when he went -- and we were thankful he didn't pass on bad chicken to us. He was a really nice guy!

We watched the traffic on the Nile that afternoon, which was quite entertaining.

The next day we intended to take the 50 cent ferry across the river but found many rides on offer for only $1 so we grabbed one and crossed.

We walked to the Luxor temple first, walking the long way around accidentally and fending off carriage rides left and right. They would pull up beside us on the street and walk slowly with us until we’d said no enough times for them to give up.

We made it to the ticket office eventually -- and headed inside. It was blissfully empty.

This temple dates to 1400BCE, and has been added to at various points in history -- including by Alexander the Great. The temple is unique in that it is not dedicated to a single god -- but to the rejuvenation of kingship -- archaeologists theorize coronations could have happened here. It is the longest continuously used religious site in the world; now it is the site of a (relatively) contemporary mosque.

Luxor is connected to Karnak via the Avenue of the Sphinxes -- a 1.7 mile causeway which was unveiled in November 2021 after 70 decades of restoration. As its name suggests, it was once lined with sphinxes. We walked along this, and about halfway was a ticket booth for Karnak. Thankfully, no touts were bothering us here presumably because of the entrance fee -- and we enjoyed our slow walk across the city like a rotisserie chicken spinning in place.

Eventually we made it to Karnak, which was packed. All of the cruise tours were here at the same time. Karnak, dating its earliest structures to 1971BCE is considered the second largest temple complex in the world, after Angkor Wat in Cambodia (which we just visited!), and the assortment of buildings and temples was pretty mind-boggling, especially since the only area open to the public -- the Precinct of Amun-Re, was very large by itself. Below, a model of the precinct.

I can only imagine what it must have been like 3,000 years ago.

Curiously -- Notre Dame in Paris has almost the exact dimensions of the main hypostyle hall, which had absolutely towering columns.

Getting sick of the crowds and sick of the heat we walked back to Luxor via the Avenue of the Sphinxes, grabbed some snacks, watched a horse collapse in the street and be whipped to no avail, and then went back to our guesthouse to relax. Jesus.

In the morning we had arranged transport to the airport -- which involved a small boat across the Nile and then a car, where we awaited a flight that would take us away from Luxor, and shortly after that away from Cairo, and out of Egypt. To a new adventure – Thailand.

- - -

Visiting Egypt was a unique experience. I've always been interested in Ancient Egyptian culture and the architecture its society left behind. The historical sites did indeed live up to my expectations -- and surpassed them in some places -- for their beauty, creativity, engineering prowess, and mythical content.

Unfortunately -- our day to day interactions left a lot to be desired. I've read online since our experience and found a common sentiment -- some Egyptians see foreigners as walking ATMs. We even had a child walk up to us at an ATM and put her hand out for money. Obviously the wealth inequality is a big driver, but the culture of baksheesh is contributing to the issue too. A lot of tourists hire guides and package tours as a way to minimize harassment -- if touts see you with a guide, you've already paid your premium, and you're more or less left alone. Hotel rooms and food were so cheap -- $25-$35/night -- but tickets to attractions added up to hundreds of dollars. It all feels orchestrated to maximize how much money leaves your pocket with no regard to the tourist experience -- which ultimately means less money for the Egyptian tourism industry because people don't want to come back.

I would definitely recommend everyone plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see the sights there, but we will likely never go back due to the excessive harassment and constant rip-offs. Overall it was a positive experience, but caveat emptor.