Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples of the Nile: Aswan, Egypt

As I mentioned in my previous travel stories about Cairo and Giza pyramids, I have heard a lot of stories and visited many temples on various tours. It was a part of the Nile cruise itinerary and I don’t remember like 90 proc of the historical facts that were tried to be installed into my brain. So here is what is left with me.

Aswan

The most profound memory of Aswan is sitting on a balcony of a hotel and watching the glorious sunset above the Nile filled with farouks – traditional Egyptian sailboats. On the other side of the river, I could see ancient monastery ruins, a mausoleum, and the start of the Sahara. The water of the Nile looked intense blue in comparison with the desert’s reddish palette. We had a nice traditional dinner in “Makka” restaurant, to which we walked along the river. The trick I have learned in Cairo – walking with head down and looking to the ground – worked here as well. There were a lot of horse carriages along the way and the selling was harsh.

The next day, after checking in into our cruise boat, we met our first guide named “The shooting star”. Tarek taught me a very special lesson while touring around the ancient sites devoted to Gods. He was saying, that he does not care about other people’s vertical relationships, in other words, relationships with God. It is the very personal business of each of us. The only concerning relationship for him were horizontal – human to human. Understand and accept differences, learn of different ways of living without judging – that’s the most important story of the Aswan temples. Another thing I will remember was his openness about money and baksheesh (or tipping culture in Egypt). I still find it more of corruption than “showing appreciation” but it was nice that someone told us the sums expected and to which people it should go. For example, for a short car ride or boat ride you are expected to leave 20 EGP, and for a full day of driving between 50-100 EGP. For the tour guide we left 400 EGP for 2 days and 250 EGP for one day’s tours. They all seemed to be happy to receive some extra money even though the tour was already paid. But oh well, maybe I am not aware of some things.

So, back to the pilgrimage to Aswan, we visited three sites (and a perfume shop which kinda makes sense…):

• Unfinished Obelisk. Actually, it is pretty amazing how Egyptians made extremely tall obelisks from one piece of stone and then transferred them to other places and made them stand.
• Philae Temple was devoted to Isis who was a goddess of love and magic. Interesting fact, that the Temple was drowning due to damp that it was in and it was transferred to an island nearby. Even though it was over-crowed and we spent there only one hour or less, it was very beautiful and enjoyable place. Next time I would go there alone and take my time to explore and observe. Find my own story about love and magic. Another thing that I would leave time to enjoy is the Nubian village outside Aswan. Nubians are the ones that take you to Philae Island with their motor boats. It was a very short time there but the Nubians felt very warm and calm people and actually had the nicest crafts market I’ve seen on this trip.

• Aswan High Dam. We drove back and forth over it. It has a lot of security because if it goes down then basically the most of the Nile Egypt would be under water. It had a nice view to the Philae Temple from a far.

• Perfume shop. I was so angry that the guide took us there as I was already tired from the tour and heat. Also, our cruise’s full-board catering plan didn’t include water – this is crazy but it seems that it is how it works there. And so, the essential oils was the last drop for me that day. I started to feel like a tourist in a tourist trap.

Despite all the above, that day’s tour ended up with the best thing in Egypt — sugar cane juice. That’s what sweetened my anger into “Egypt is not all that bad”. I was also looking forward to tomorrow when the boat would start its journey down the Nile.