Philae Temple; and sailing ?

We started our day in a much better mood than the prior one - all of us except Avery that is. He had had a high fever during the night, and was still listless. We had received a message the night before from Grandma Dale, so Josh figured out how to get on-line (which was not a straightforward operation) and called her using Skype on his laptop. We used the opportunity to also call my parents and get advice from my Dad on how to treat Avery’s condition.

Charlotte and Olivia slept soundly. Charlotte liked the hotel – the Iberotel Aswan – a lot and didn’t want to check out. But right after breakfast, we did. We met another representative from our tour company (remember, I must have scared off the guy that met us at the train station) and we also met our new guide for the next four days, Montaser. He said to call him Monty and I liked him right away. He immediately told me that calls had been made to the boat and the hotel in Luxor and everything was squared away as far as having an extra bed was concerned.

Our first stop was to the pharmacy. It was clean and well-ordered and the pharmacist was extremely nice. We bought the Antinal that was recommended by our tour operator and by our guide: syrup for Avery, tablets for Josh. These cost five Egyptian pounds each, or less than a dollar. Getting Avery to take the yellow, chalky fluid was another matter.

After the brief stop at the pharmacy, we went to visit the granite quarry of Aswan. This is the quarry that most of the granite in all of Egypt came from to decorate the temples and to carve the statuettes that were worshiped and then buried with their owners. It is also the quarry that is known for having the “unfinished obelisk,” an obelisk that would have been 42 meters high – the tallest in the world, had they not discovered a crack in the granite. At least that’s the story --- it could have just been that the project was too ambitious. In any case, there was a massive amount of red granite all around and it was fun to hike and walk up to the top – except for the fact that one of us had to carry Avery. At the conclusion of the visit, we walked through a mini-souk to get back to our van. Several Egyptian men were complimenting Josh on his beautiful family and calling out after Charlotte, yelling “how many camels??” In other words, how many camels do you want for her! We stopped to talk with a spice merchant who gave us an olfactory tour of his market. We even smelled burning frankincense.

Next, we drove to see the Aswan high dam. It was constructed from 1960 to 1971 as a joint project with the Russians. It is about 4 km across and 111 meters high and about 1km wide at the base. On the other side of the dam is Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world. It was really beautiful because it was pristine. The water was clear, and the mountains of the desert served as a backdrop. No one was on the lake, and there are currently no inhabitants on this side of the dam. The Nubians who are the indigenous people to this area of Egypt, were relocated North of the Dam during the construction of the High Dam because once complete, their homes would be submerged. Nowadays, the Nubians are making a bid to move back to the area surrounding Lake Nasser. But, since there are now 3 million Nubians it would be too expensive for the Egyptian Government to relocate them. Nubia had not been a part of Egypt in ancient times but rather was incorporated in 1914 as part of the British occupancy during WWI when the border was drawn between Egypt and Sudan.

Philae

Hieroglyphics at Philae

Our final stop on the tour this morning was to visit the Philae Temple. By this point, Avery stayed in car with the driver and slept (although not as willingly as in Cairo). The four of us took a short boat ride with Montaser to the island of Ajelika. Like the Nubian people, 14 monuments were relocated due to the construction of the High Dam. The Philae Temple is one of them – it had originally stood 




on Philae Island, the majority of which is now submerged in the Nile. The temple was magnificent but it was not built in the ancient period, rather it dates back to the 1^st or 2^nd century AD – so it is from the Roman and Greek periods. It’s position on the water afforded great views. Due to the seasonal flooding of the Nile, for centuries, half of the temple was under water for six months of the year, and we could see the different color in sandstone half way up the monument. Montaser gave us a great overview of the architecture of the Temple and the meaning behind many of the bas reliefs. This temple is dedicated to Isis, the God of maternity and fertility, but is unique in that it had three altar rooms instead of just one. Isis is is the wife fo the God Osiris and mother of the God Horus. All three are honored in the sanctuary. Later, the temple was used by the Christians and he pointed out where the crosses were added.

After visiting Philae, we went to check in for our Nile cruise. Interesting, there was some discussion in Arabic about the voucher (as I would have suspected) but Montaser straightened it out. He is a great guy and really goes the extra mile. The boat itself is one of the newest sailing the Nile. The rooms are very nice – better than I expected. Montaser took care of everything for us and we just went to lunch. Avery was still not eating. In fact, he just lay down on my lap on the banquet bench.

After we had a chance to settle in, went to sail on felucca – the ancient, wooden sail boats used by the Nubians. The kids were all looking forward to it. The only problem was there was not too much wind, so we were barely moving. The tour around Elephentine and Kitchener’s island that was supposed to take 45 minutes to an hour, took almost two – and we didn’t even go all the way around. While we were “sailing” Olivia was bored and had the idea of playing charades. That was fun for a while until Avery announced he had to poop. Given his circumstances, I thought this was an emergency situation and that Josh would have to hold him over the edge of the boat. This prompted the decision to abort our tour AROUND the island and just double back to shore. Josh and our Nubian captain ended up rowing us back most of the way. The rowing is not done with paddles but rather with sticks so the traction per reach was minimal. In the end, we had a motorboat tow us in. Montaser explained that there is rarely any wind on this part of the Nile. So why, I asked, is the felucca sailing done at all when everyone needs to get towed. The reply: it’s traditional and everyone wants to do it. Egyptian commercialism at its best!

On the Falucca, prior to Avery's poop

Back on the cruise boat (where Avery was afforded the use of a proper toilet) we all rested before dinner. We are to be seated at the same table for each meal for the duration of our cruise. Yet, we already noticed that this cruise has a very international crowd. There is a group of 30 Italians; there are also two French groups; we saw Australians and New Zealanders too; not many Americans. Altogether, I believe the boat accommodates a little over 100 people and given that this is a New Year’s Cruise, it is completely full.

Avery wouldn’t eat much at dinner either but I did force-feed him a little rice. After dinner, we met a nice Italian family with two boys from Napoli. We met just outside the boat’s shop where they were buying traditional Galabaya outfits for the Gala Dinner tomorrow night. Our girls fell in love with the beaded hats – Olivia chose a red one with gold accents and Charlotte chose a green one. It was almost 10pm and time for bed. Unfortunately, our rooms, while on the upper-most deck, were also located just above the disco. I think it’s the first time Olivia and Charlotte slept with earplugs.