Aswan

So Aswan. Aswan was our next stop after Cairo, and I think it has been my favorite destination so far. It's not a huge, slightly scary, metropolis like Cairo, and it's not a uber touristy hassel capital like Luxor.

Aswan was laid back with beautiful scenery and tons of old temples to go poking around in. We ate practically every meal in restaurants overlooking the Nile, and our hotel was close enough to the center of town so that we didn't have to haggle for a taxi every time we wanted to go somewhere. As with every city we've been to so far our activities have included a mixture of living and dead Egypt. In Aswan dead Egypt was represented by an amazing temple of Isis at Phyllae and Abu Simbel--a huge temple dedicated to Ramses II. The temple of Isis was lovely. It was located on an island in the middle of the nile, so we had to take a ferry over. The whole complex was huge, covered with ornate hieroglyphs and had large statues lining its walks. Apparently the entire complex had been moved because after they built the Aswan dam it was submerged in water for half the year. Visitors used to hire ferries to take them to the temple and then would paddle or swim around the ruins. I think it would have been neat to swim around an ancient Egyptian temple, but as I forgot my bathing suit it probably would not have been such a good idea. There was also a shocking amount of graffitti on the temple, but I've noticed that there's a shocking amount of graffitti on all of the ancient temples. The thing is the graffitti is almost as interesting as the actual temple--it's in all different languages, not just European and arabic names, but phrases in greek and latin as well. I can't imagine the ego it would take to carve your name into a centuries old monument, but it was cool to see the fingerprints of so many different periods in history.

Abu Simbel was a more elaborate production than the temple of Isis. It was rated the number one must see attraction by one of the many guide books we are carrying, and I can understand why. The temple is located in the middle of the desert and is huge--four giant statues of Ramses are seated outside the temple which is built into a cliff face. The temple itself goes into the cliff face and contains some reliefs with their original paint still in tact. Abu Simbel was also moved from its original location because of the dam, but it was a much more elaborate production because they had to dig it out of one cliff face and implant it in another. I can't even imagine the labor that must have entailed. Getting to Abu Simbel is also a huge production in  and of itself. When I announced that I was going to Egypt my parents flipped out, and for weeks before I left I kept getting state advisory warnings about Egypt, detailing everything from terrorist threats to landmines. Everything has been beyond safe here (one of my traveling companions, Katie, whose French says the crime is much much worse in the south of France, which I find funny.) But Abu Simbel is in the middle of the desert, and very close to the border with Sudan. The Egyptian government is concerned about toursist busses getting there and back,as if they break down there is nothing to help them for miles. In order to combat that Abu Simbel is only reachable by road from Aswan in a state convoy which leaves at four in the morning from Aswan and then gets back at noon. This means we had to wake up at three in order to get to our bus by three thirty am, and then face a three hour drive to get there, and then spend two hours there before getting in the bus and driving three hours back. The fact that I don't regret the whole experience speaks to the magnificence of the temple.

That was dead Aswan. Living Aswan was represented by amazing meals with friendly waitors who did magic tricks for us, a bazaar to rival Cairo's and an unforgettable falucca trip down the Nile. Falucca's are Egyptian sail boats, and you can't throw a stone in Aswan without coming across somebody who wants to sail you a falucca tour. Our original plan was to take an overnight falucca trip to Luxor, but that turned out to be too expensive, so we settled for a three hour cruise up the Nile. The whole thing was absolutely surreal, sailing up the Nile is something that I never dreamed I would ever do, but I did. I'm still in awe.

The sailboat was really relaxing and the weather was gorgeous. We split up the trip by stopping off at Kitchners island, an Island in the middle of the Nile that has been turned into a botanical garden and bird sanctuary. The entire island was covered with flowers and cactuses, and the bird song was nearly deafening. I kept wondering when I was going to wake up.