Day 4 - Aswan
I'm determined to get these Egypt entries done! I know that I have not been doing a very good job, and I do apologize. Although I really enjoy writing these entries, and hope that you enjoy them as well, I seem to have a hard time sitting down to write them. My plan is to finish up on Egypt today, so you may be inundated with information in the next day or so.
On our fourth day we woke up on the ship having already arrived in Aswan. Our first stop was at the High Dam of Aswan, not nearly as impressive as it sounds. It's called the high dam because it is higher than the original low dam, makes sense, really. The dam was erected between 1960-1970. The dam was intended to regulate the flood of the Nile, and use the dam to generate power. It's an interesting idea, because though they now have enough electricity to sell it to neighboring countries, the land in the upper Nile is not as fertile. The flooding of the Nile each year was very important to the surrounding land. It provided the rich nutrients, minerals, and water to the soil.
The Nubians are a group of people who were settled south of Aswan. When the high dam was constructed, Lake Nasser a man made lake was made , which spans 340 miles long from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. Most of the Nubian villages were in this location, and therefore had to be relocated. The government moved 100,000-150,000 from their homes to other villages in Egypt and Sudan. There were also other ancient sites that had to be relocated brick by brick, most famously was Abu Simbel.
Our next stop was the unfinished obelisk. While the history behind this site is very interesting, the site itself is really quite dull. Aswan is the city where most of Egypt's finest granite is found. Granite was used in many of the monuments throughout all of ancient Egypt. The stones were quarried here and sent up the river on large boats. One of the most impressive sites are the obelisks, scattered throughout the country. The obelisks had to be carved of one stone, with the tallest being 105.6 feet tall, weighing in at 455 tons! (I suggest if this interests you look up the theories on how they were erected.)
This particular obelisk was left where it was being carved out of the granite. You can see three of the sides that were completed, but the obelisk was discarded where it lies. This particular obelisk would have been the largest, weighing in at 1,168 tons. The basic shape of the obelisk was cut out of the granite in Aswan, where it was then delivered to it's final destination and the designs were added. However, this one was found to be flawed late in the process. We were inventing the running dialog that may have been happening during this excavation, and were quite amused with some of the stories we came up with.
Later we took a boat to visit the Temple of Philae. The temple had to be moved to a slightly higher island not very far away, this is due to the rising waters from the High Dam. The ride out to the temple was quite enjoyable. Naturally there were 100's of tourists, and many boats that were eager to make the trip to the island. As I'm sitting here writing this I really don't remember many of the details about this temple. Unfortunately, I think by this time I was getting templed out.
In the afternoon we took a feluca ride down the river. This was something I was really looking forward to, but was pretty disappointed. We sailed for about 15-20 minutes amid masses of other boats. As soon as we were safely out on the river our boat captain(?) and his first mate laid out a mat and put wares out to sell. Normally out on the street we can avert our eyes and walk past without so much as a nod, but where do you go when you're on a boat in the middle of the Nile? Luckily, and surprisingly they weren't too pushy.
Our wonderful guide had convinced us that we should really take an extra tour out to a local Nubian village. After our short feluca ride we exchanged to a motor boat in the middle of the river (I really did not want to take a dip in the Nile, I probably wouldn't be here to write this blog if I had). After a rather enjoyable 30 minute ride down the river we tied up to the bank with multiple other boats and went on our tour of an 'authentic' Nubian village. While it was fun, it was a total tourist trap, like most of Egypt now is. The most fun was going to a local house and getting to hold some Nile crocodiles. I even got to hold a baby, I was surprised by how adorable they were. "I want a crocodile NOW, Patrick!" We went through the village, checked out a school, and of course the local merchants were pedaling their goods.
On our fourth day we woke up on the ship having already arrived in Aswan. Our first stop was at the High Dam of Aswan, not nearly as impressive as it sounds. It's called the high dam because it is higher than the original low dam, makes sense, really. The dam was erected between 1960-1970. The dam was intended to regulate the flood of the Nile, and use the dam to generate power. It's an interesting idea, because though they now have enough electricity to sell it to neighboring countries, the land in the upper Nile is not as fertile. The flooding of the Nile each year was very important to the surrounding land. It provided the rich nutrients, minerals, and water to the soil.
The Nubians are a group of people who were settled south of Aswan. When the high dam was constructed, Lake Nasser a man made lake was made , which spans 340 miles long from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. Most of the Nubian villages were in this location, and therefore had to be relocated. The government moved 100,000-150,000 from their homes to other villages in Egypt and Sudan. There were also other ancient sites that had to be relocated brick by brick, most famously was Abu Simbel.
Our next stop was the unfinished obelisk. While the history behind this site is very interesting, the site itself is really quite dull. Aswan is the city where most of Egypt's finest granite is found. Granite was used in many of the monuments throughout all of ancient Egypt. The stones were quarried here and sent up the river on large boats. One of the most impressive sites are the obelisks, scattered throughout the country. The obelisks had to be carved of one stone, with the tallest being 105.6 feet tall, weighing in at 455 tons! (I suggest if this interests you look up the theories on how they were erected.)
This particular obelisk was left where it was being carved out of the granite. You can see three of the sides that were completed, but the obelisk was discarded where it lies. This particular obelisk would have been the largest, weighing in at 1,168 tons. The basic shape of the obelisk was cut out of the granite in Aswan, where it was then delivered to it's final destination and the designs were added. However, this one was found to be flawed late in the process. We were inventing the running dialog that may have been happening during this excavation, and were quite amused with some of the stories we came up with.
Later we took a boat to visit the Temple of Philae. The temple had to be moved to a slightly higher island not very far away, this is due to the rising waters from the High Dam. The ride out to the temple was quite enjoyable. Naturally there were 100's of tourists, and many boats that were eager to make the trip to the island. As I'm sitting here writing this I really don't remember many of the details about this temple. Unfortunately, I think by this time I was getting templed out.
In the afternoon we took a feluca ride down the river. This was something I was really looking forward to, but was pretty disappointed. We sailed for about 15-20 minutes amid masses of other boats. As soon as we were safely out on the river our boat captain(?) and his first mate laid out a mat and put wares out to sell. Normally out on the street we can avert our eyes and walk past without so much as a nod, but where do you go when you're on a boat in the middle of the Nile? Luckily, and surprisingly they weren't too pushy.
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| Feluca |
Our wonderful guide had convinced us that we should really take an extra tour out to a local Nubian village. After our short feluca ride we exchanged to a motor boat in the middle of the river (I really did not want to take a dip in the Nile, I probably wouldn't be here to write this blog if I had). After a rather enjoyable 30 minute ride down the river we tied up to the bank with multiple other boats and went on our tour of an 'authentic' Nubian village. While it was fun, it was a total tourist trap, like most of Egypt now is. The most fun was going to a local house and getting to hold some Nile crocodiles. I even got to hold a baby, I was surprised by how adorable they were. "I want a crocodile NOW, Patrick!" We went through the village, checked out a school, and of course the local merchants were pedaling their goods.
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| Baby Crocodile! |
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| Patrick and I with our very sweet guide Ahsraf |
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| Spices and scarves for sale in the village. |
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