Sailing through history down the Nile

We studied Egypt in school history and learned about emperors and empresses, Egyptian gods and goddesses, pyramids and the sphinx and what not.
We asked our ma whether she would take us to the Valley of Kings to see the tombs of the pharaohs.

We could not wait to see all these historical sites. Our mother, however, kept telling us that travelling was not easy due to some reason which only adult could fathom out.

Finally, ma agreed to take us two brothers to Egypt during our mid-term vacation. We reached Cairo on 11 October and took another flight to Aswan the next day.

The domestic airport was full of travellers, mostly grown-ups from China, Europe and America. We saw only one family on the plane with two children who interestingly were speaking Bengali. They came from Hyderabad, India. Travel agent Mustafa met us at Aswan airport and he took us to Aswan High Dam on Lake Nasser.

The beautiful Lake Nasser covers Egypt and northern Sudan. Sudanese people called it lake Nubia. Lake Nasser is the largest man-made lake in the world which was built on the River Nile to construct the dam in Egypt. The guide told us Sudan was against the construction as it would flood part of Sudan. The guide explained to us how electricity is generated using the water through turbines. The Russian government provided the Egyptian government with funds to construct the High Dam in 1970. The old Aswan Low Dam was built by the British government in 1902. The Low Dam looked smaller than the High Dam. The High Dam provides 15% electricity of Egypt, helps in controlling floods, and store water for agriculture.

The Nile originated from Lake Victoria runs through Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. From South Sudan it reaches Sudan as White Nile. Blue Nile originated from Lake Tana of Ethiopia. Both rivers, with distinct colours of water, meet in Khartoum, Sudan and take on the name River Nile. Lake Nasser was created from the River Nile between Egypt and Sudan. The river flows through Edfu, Kom Ombo, Luxor and reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

It was a sunny morning as we were about to start our tour to the High Dam. The guide told us that we would be going to our boat. Boat? Small boat, big boat? What are we going to do in the boat? So many questions came to our minds, but ma simply smiled quietly. We were hungry. But KFC and McDonalds were not open for breakfast.

We then went to the boat and to my surprise, it was really a big one! It was a five-storied boat with approximately 70 rooms. We selected a two-bed room for us and we liked it. It was our home for the next three days.

There were beautiful wooden sail-boats everywhere in the Nile River in Aswan. Those were called ‘felucca’. We saw people were riding on the feluccas in groups.
We were hungry and tired. The staff of the boat told us that lunch would be served at 1.30pm. So, we explored the boat and found a swimming pool at the top, the sundeck. We put on our swimming suits and dived in.

We were almost shivering as the water was too cold. We went for hot shower after about half an hour.
Our second guide for the day, Mohammed, came to the boat after 2.30pm. We went to see the Philae temple or temple of Isis on Philae island. You have to hire a small boat reach the island from the town. The Temple of Philae was used by deities Isis, Hathor, Horus. The temples was built next to the Nile for transporting the huge stones used to build it. The statues in the temple are made of black granite.

There are two big statues of lions at the entrance of the temple. During the period of Pharao, 12 huge columns were built for 12 high priests inside the temple and 32 columns for 32 priests in the Greek period. The priests were supposed to stand in front of the columns when the gods, goddesses, kings and queens were in the temple. Common people were not allowed to enter the temples at the time.

Mohammed informed us that the Philae temple was under Nile for 90 years after the Low Dam was built; therefore, all the colours on the temple were washed away, and water marks can be seen. It took the Egyptian government 60 years to move the temple from its original place to its current location through massive renovation work. Three small dams were built to remove the water from the temple and approximately 40,000 pieces were relocated to nearby high ground. The renovation work was assisted by the French Government. The original boat of Isis, which was made of gold and sandstone was taken to Louver Museum in France.

From the temple, Mohammad took us on a Felucca ride in Aswan town around Elephantine Island. Mohammad told us that there are 144 islands in Egypt along the Nile and the biggest one is in Aswan called Elephantine as the rocks on the riversides resemble an elephant's trunk.

We saw the Mausoleum of Aga Khan III. We were told, when Aga Khan III visited Aswan he was almost crippled due to arthritis. He recovered his health and was able to walk again because of the good weather. He built a palace beside Nile and used to spend his winter vacations there. His palace was turned into a luxury hotel later.

Aswan city looked beautiful in the evening from our felucca. Ma loved the journey, especially for the gentle, cool breeze, calmness and the beauty. We brothers did not like the ride because it was too slow to enjoy when we were sleppy and hungry.

The felucca left us just next to our cruise boat after half an hour later of the sunset. We were told dinner would be served after 8:00pm, still two hours to go. Our tummies were growling like hungry tigers! Ma had a great idea then. She hired a horse cart which took us to KFC.

The horse cart driver then proposed to take us to Cornish street. All the streets next to the Nile in Egypt are called Cornish streets which are busy with many activities, restaurants, fruit and souvenir shops, children parks, and boats. Ma said Egyptians do not sleep at night, but we wanted to sleep. Ma asked us whether we wanted to go for a short horse ride, but both of us screamed together that we wanted to go back to our room.

We met Lauren aunty from the US, a mid-wife by profession, and Mohammed uncle from Lebanon who works in Information Technology in Germany at the dinner table. They love visiting places and were on a long holiday in Egypt. I wished to have a long holiday like them as well! They told us they visited the famous temple of Ramses II with the biggest statues in Abu Simble where I really wanted to go. However, our travel agent told ma that we have to travel six hours back and forth and have another two-hours visit at the temple. It was very tiresome according to him. I was a bit sad to come so close and not be able to see the temple of Ramses II.