Busy Day in Aswan
Aswan, Nile River Valley, Egypt
June 13, 2013
The population of Aswan prior to 1960 was 39,000 people. It is now 1,000,000 since the construction of the high dam. The city used to be called Swano meaning Market, they sold ivory on the island of the elephant. The markets also sold granite and gold. Nub used to mean gold and the people from this area were known as Nubians.
We drove over the old dam that was built by the British and was completed in 1902 for hyrdo and water control - irrigation and navigation.
It took more than 10 years to complete the High Dam project. Russians financed the construction and French and Egyptians engineers and workers built the dam from 1960 - 1971 Philae Temple. The Friendship Monument at the dam was a lotus, a gear, a hammer, and a sickle representing Egypt and Russia.
The high dam was constructed to look like a pyramid. It was 3,600 metres long and 980 metres wide at the base, 42 metres wide at the top and 111 metres high. The new lake, Nasser, is 500 km long and at some points 25 km wide. You can now sail South to Abu Simbel over 4 days and see 17 temples (we heard that they do not have any vendors there to haggle with). You could also sail north on the River Nile all the way to Cairo.
The benefits of the new dam were irrigation, fishing in the lake (perch, catfish and tiger fish) and hydro. Side effects were the rising of the water table and flooding on islands, so they moved some of the temples to different islands.
We took a short boat cruise to the new location of the Philae temple Negotiating on the Boat. Hassan selected three Nubian boys to join our cruise to try to sell us their goods - the youngest boy sold hats that his grandmother made. Bill overpaid for the hats and made the young boy very happy. He came over and shook our hands. I bought some wood bracelets from one Mohammed and three necklaces (two camel bone) from the other Mohammed. They were really nice young men and they had good quality items.
Philae Island temple was dedicated to Isis. Philae meant The Beginning. Primarily she was represented as a teacher of mankind (wisdom) and the weaver of magic. Her temple was located here because this is where she started looking for Osiris. She found his blood here which had caused a flood and her tears added to the flood. The temple was relocated to the new island of Philae post-damn construction by a team of Egyptians and Italians over 10 years.
The stories we saw here were: The temple will teach you time and show you direction Philae from the shore. There were two lions outside the gate. The lion on the right (east) was yesterday and the lion on the left (west) was called tomorrow. We walked up the stairs to heaven between the lions "today".
We walked through the gates and saw graffiti that the French left in 1798. On the left there was the birthing room with 6 midwives. The seven columns with the seven notes of music to helped women to give birth.
In the temple there was a Christian alter, they did not destroy the temple, but converted it to a church. It demonstrated tolerance and harmony. But, we also saw the destroyed faces of the gods by the Romans from another period.
We saw many beautiful and detailed carvings:
Horace as a child which was illustrated with an index finger in his mouth. This symbolized the link of mother and son Fascinating.
The king presenting the bread of rememance. Isis (cow, vulture and falcon) and the resurrected Osiris. Anointing and healing was illustrated. The gazelle was the to indicate swiftness required for healing.
A carving of Isis breast feeding Horace.
The king in adoration before Hathor, Isis and Osiris; illustrating peace.
There was a music room outside of the temple. The god was a dwarf man, monkey and lion. He was on a stage and plays a harp. You laugh with him, not at him to gain joy. We saw carvings of a floutist, a drummer, a harpist, a guitarist and a dancer. The purpose of the room was to remind you to realign your body balance with the cosmos.
Beside the music room was the conference room of the pharaoh called Pharaoh's Tent. It was located east of the temple. This temple was very beautiful and we enjoyed meeting the Nubian boys and the boat ride Shops at the Market.
On the way back to the boat I did more bartering and purchased a camel bracelet and shell ring that turned out to be plastic. My haggling skills have returned despite Bill's intervention! He likes to pay more or not haggle at all!
We had a few minutes before the van arrived once we disembarked, so we had Maxibon ice creams.
We drove to the site of the unfinished obelisk at the quarry. The arictects had to select a good slab of granite. Then you draw the pattern on the block and then made holes, insert cedar and add water to split the granite. Once the carving was completed the granite was placed on one large boat and pulled by many small boats in the Nile to take it to tomb and temple sites.
The Canadians, New Zealanders and Scottish braved the heat and the vendors to see the granite up close Our Captain. The obelisk project was abandoned fairly early on. It was massive, this one single block was 42 meters long and 1,200 tons.
We returned to the cruiser before lunch and had lots of free time. We sat on the sun deck, had lunch, had naps and tried to catch up on the blog, but their internet connection would not work to sync the notes from my iPad.
Later in the afternoon Bill and I decided to walk through the market that was a few blocks from the boat. It was really good and not completely touristy. Many men called to us, but did not hassle us or chase us for the most part. We enjoyed walking around with some locals and seeing the food, clothing, spices (indigo powder, pomegranate, huge cinnamon sticks, pumice, loofa, teas,...), lamps and many other souvenirs. We really enjoyed the walk to the end of the market, then headed along a street back toward the boat Cruising on our Felucca.
We crossed through a park and were just about to cross the street when three boys with papyruses swarmed us. I was ignoring them and started to cross the street. The one boy was holding the papyrus against Bill, he reached into his pocket and knocked the boy's hand coming out with our money that was in the midst of being stolen, causing the money to go falling onto the street. I heard the boy say "it's my money" and saw Bill gathering the money up and putting it in his pocket. We crossed the street and boulevard when he started counting his money he realized that there was some missing. I could see the three boys across the street laughing and joking. We crossed back to the boulevard and I was shouting at them to return our money. Two of the boys met us and gave back a small portion of money. When it was all said and done, they stole $35 Canadian, which is a lot of money to them High Dam and Power Plant. To put it into perpective, I have spent between less than a dollar to $10 for bracelets, hats and necklaces while on the cruise.
At 5:00 we went for a sail with the Kiwis, the Scottish flew back to Cairo and the Indians did not join us. The sail boat was a felucca and her name was The Love Boat. Jimmy sailed us around Elephantine Island. On our quiet and delightful tour as the sun was slowly going down.
On the west bank we saw the tombs of the former Aswan governors and their families and Lord Kitchener's botanical garden.
On the island we saw the Movenpick resort, the south end of the island rocks looked like herds of elephants, homes of German archeologists, former homes of the dam engineers and dam architect. We saw lots of egrets, a blue heron, terns, goats and donkeys Nubian Show. It was a very pleasant and peaceful way to spend the afternoon. I also purchased a basket and a necklace from Jimmy. He was really sweet and very grateful.
We headed to the sun deck after the cruise for beers and had a nice chat with Brian, Barbara and Crisian. As it became dark, we had a nice view of the lighted tombs. Our dinner was really good and we found another decent bottle(s) of wine.
After dinner we all went to the lounge and thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. We had musicians and three male dancers and one belly dancer. They were all very good and did a great job of getting lots of audience participation! It was a great way to have our last evening on the boat on Aswan.
