The travels of Tim and Megan: Egypt - Part 2: Aswan to Luxor

Tuesday

We were woken at 2.30am Tuesday morning and we left our cruise ship (still docked in Aswan at this point) around 3.15am to set off for Abu Simbel. It was a relatively painless bus/plane/bus ride to Abu Simbel and we arrived at the Abu Simbel temple around 5am.

The Great Temple of Abu Simbel (65m long and 38m wide) and the smaller Temple of Hathor were each carved out of a single solid piece of rock in the 13th century BC. Although dedicated to the patron deities of Egypt's great cities - Amun of Thebes, Ptah of Memphis and Ra-Harakhty of Heliopolis - the Great Temple was built to honour King Ramses II. Its 33m high facade, with four colossal enthroned statues of Ramses II was intended to impress and intimidate the enemy Nubians, while the interior revealed the union of god and king. Each of the statues of Ramses II is 20m high and measures 4m from ear to ear. The Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, was built by Ramses II to honour his favourite wife (he had more than 40 wives), Nefertari.

Deep inside the Great Temple sits the sanctuary where formerly there stood statues of the triad to whom the temple was dedicated, along with one of King Ramses II himself. It was here that what was called the 'miracle of the sun' took place. Twice a year, on 21 March and 21 September, at 5.58am, a ray of sunlight would penetrate the 65m between the entrance and the shrine and bathe Amun and Ramses II in light. A few minutes later the ray would move on and fall on Ra-Harakhty. After about 20 minutes the light disappeared and it is quite remarkable that the rays of light never struck Ptah, as Ptah is the god of darkness.

The temples were buried beneath sand for centuries until it was re-discovered in 1813 by Swiss explorer Jean-Louis Burckhardt. In the 1960s, as Lake Nasser threatened to engulf the temples, UNESCO cut them from the mountain into small blocks, moved the blocks about 150m further back and about 90m higher up, and completely rebuilt the entire temples on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above Lake Nasser.

While we stood in front of the Great Temple, the sun rose behind us in the distance above Lake Nasser and bathed the temples in sunlight. It was definitely worth getting up early to see the sunrise and the amazing temples in the early morning light, not to mention beating the masses of tourists who were arriving in their droves as we left again! We had plenty of time to explore inside the temples, and we loved seeing the paintings, carvings and hieroglyphics on the walls and the magnificent row of statues of, you guessed it, Ramses II, on each side of the main passageway. The remarkable temples were definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Another bus/plane/bus combo and we were back in Aswan before 9am! Megan retired to bed to get a few much needed hours of sleep, while Tim returned to the Aswan markets with Tim, Tania and Steve to hunt for souvenirs and soak up some of the daily goings-on in Aswan. It was a successful trip, as Tim managed to find a couple of small souvenir ornaments - a camel and a figurine of the Egyptian jackal-headed god of embalming, Anubis! Tim also enjoyed a cold drink at a "cafe" with Tim and Tania. As other Tim puffed on his apple flavoured sheesha pipe, we watched the locals pass by, some riding donkeys, some carrying enormous baskets on their heads, but most clutching a mobile phone.

Back on the cruise ship, we had a magnificent lunch and finally the Samiramis set sail down the Nile. We had a fantastic afternoon up on the sun deck sitting in the pool sipping cold drinks and chatting about stuff. It was very hot and we all got touch of sunburn, but luckily there was a gentle breeze to cool us down slightly. The views from the ship were stunning - old fashioned feluccas (Egyptian sail boats) coasting down the Nile, a thick green band on either river bank of palm trees, grass and crops going back about 50-100m from the river and then barren sandy and rocky desert behind that as far as we could see. We were all amazed at the stark contrast in landscape within a matter of metres.

Late in the afternoon, we docked briefly at Kom Ombo to visit the Kom Ombo Temple. This temple is an unusual "double temple" split down the middle and is perfectly symmetrical with halls, rooms and sanctuaries on either side. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, as well as Hathor and Khonsu, while the northern half of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Horus. Our tour guide Sobhy pointed out some carvings on the walls of the temple, which had recorded what type and quantity of sacrifices had been brought to the temple by the people and the dates they were brought...like an early form of book-keeping.

As we wandered around the outside of the temple, the sun was setting and there was a surreal light, which made for good photo opportunities amongst the temple ruins. Back on the ship, we all got dressed up in our Egyptian themed costumes and enjoyed another brilliant meal before our dress-up party in the lounge bar. The ship continued north down the Nile and docked for the night in Edfu.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning we had the luxury of a sleep-in...well, relatively speaking, until the 5.45am wake-up call. We took a short bus ride through the town of Edfu to the Edfu Temple and we were the first group there when the gates opened at 7am. This was once again well worth the effort, as by the time we left the temple less than an hour later, the crowds queuing to get in were massive!

The Temple of Edfu is the second largest temple in Egypt after the Temple of Karnak and it is one of the best preserved - it is nearly fully intact. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Graeco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. The size of the temple reflects the relative prosperity of the time.

On our bus ride back through the town of Edfu, our bus took a corner too sharply and the back wheels slammed into the unnecessarily high traffic median in the centre of the road, puncturing one of the tyres. However, the bus driver soldiered on all the way back to where our cruise ship was docked without stopping, although we were a little lop-sided!

After breakfast we had a sleep for a couple of hours and then made our way up to the sun deck, where we remained for the rest of a very relaxing day, catching some rays, cooling off in the pool and sharing in the hilarity of the jokes and stories from Trevor's 'Zoo' magazine. We arrived in Luxor in the evening, just in time to enjoy an amazing sunset over the Nile.

Everyone in our group was knackered by Wednesday night so after dinner it was a fairly quiet night, as we packed up our things and prepared to leave behind our beloved cruise ship the following morning. The cleaners on the boat had been amusing us during our stay by folding the towels into various animal shapes and in our case they liked to use Bear as a prop. During our stay we had a beautiful swan, a baby (that they had dressed in Tim's cap and was clutching Bear), a crocodile (that Bear was riding - see photo below) and a monkey that they had carefully hung from the ceiling of our rooms just inside the doorway, which gave us all a big fright as we entered our rooms!

Thursday

On Thursday morning we left the cruise ship and were taken into the centre of Luxor, where we checked into another stunning 5-star hotel, the Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel. Thursday was pretty much a free day. After checking out our massive luxury hotel - see photo of huge swimming pool below - we set off for the Luxor markets along with Steve and Carla.

We got a taxi from outside the hotel, only it wouldn't start! It looked like it should have been in a transport museum. Three or four locals emerged like ninjas from the shadows and managed to push start the rusty beast and we went about two blocks before we pulled over and the driver explained to us that he had a fleet of six taxis, five of which were actually new and worked fine! So we got into one of the newer taxis and continued on our merry way to the markets. The driver was a hard case - he informed us that his name was Mr Fish and he even produced business cards for us, with him posing in dark shades leaning against a taxi under the bright lettering of MR FISH. Quality.

The markets in Luxor had a much more relaxed atmosphere - the salesmen were not quite as aggressive, in fact some of them were quite funny and chatty. The four of us enjoyed some che (Egyptian tea) at a cafe and wandered through the markets looking for something pretty. Megan bought a little ornamental scarab beetle (scarab beetles are good luck in Egypt) and Tim bought a little Tutankhamen coffin that opens up to show a little mummy lying inside. The prices were a lot lower than in Aswan too. The highlight of this market experience, however, was an Egyptian man wandering around holding two live chickens by the legs, which we assume he was trying to sell. Tim and Tania joined us at the markets before we all headed back to the hotel for some lunch.

The afternoon was about lying in the sun down by the pool, watching feluccas sail past on the Nile. In the evening there was an optional tour of Luxor Temple, which pretty much the whole group decided to go on. It was a nice change to see a temple all lit up at night.

The Luxor Temple sits on the bank of the Nile, dominating the centre of town. It was dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu and it was largely completed by the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III and added to by Ramses II in the 19th Dynasty. The temple is approached by an avenue of sphinxes, which once stretched all the way from Luxor to Karnak, 2km away. The gigantic front pylon of the temple is decorated with scenes of Ramses II's victory over the Hittites in the battle of Qadesh.

Two enormous seated colossi of Ramses II and a huge 25m high pink granite obelisk flank the gateway to the temple. There was once two matching obelisks in front of the temple, however, the other one was gifted to the French in the early 19th century and now sits proudly in the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris (which we have also seen)!

Our group then went out for dinner, which was a good chance to catch up with those who had opted for the felucca cruise up the Nile instead of the cruise ship. There were a few tales exchanged and we had another solid dinner, with a mysterious yellow goo for dessert. We had seen this yellow goo before on the cruise ship and it was delicious. It was a bit like custard, but not quite. It sometimes appeared with coconut or chocolate sprinkles on top, but it was always good.