Cruise on the Upper Nile

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This is not our first trip to Egypt. We’d visited Cairo several times in the past ten years, and floated down the Nile a couple of times: the first time, in 2004, we traveled from Luxor to Aswan on a barge, stopping at breath-stealing ancient monuments along the way. This is a very popular way to experience those places, and there are over 300 big boats, more like floating hotels, taking tourists back and forth between Aswan and Luxor.

We plied the Nile for the second time a couple of years ago on a dahabeyah, a 75 foot long sailboat that only holds four to six travelers. I should write more about that in a future post, because it was such a wonderful and unique experience. The company we used was Museum Tours.

Getting south

I was still aching to travel south, on the high side of the Aswan Dam, to see the temple at Abu Simbel. The place has excited my imagination ever since I read how the Swiss traveler J.J. Burckhardt accidentally discovered one of the  gigantic heads of Abu Simbel buried in the sand on his travels in 1813. What must it be like to find yourself camping on the head of an ancient Pharoah?

So for the Eid Al-Fitr holiday Paul and I were lucky enough to book onto the Kasr Ibrm, a boat travelling between Aswan to the Nubian town of Abu Simbel.  (I suspect that we were able to get a cabin at the last minute because of Egypt’s recent decline in tourism.) As opposed to the great number on the other side of the dam, only six tourist boats operate on Lake Nasser, the 289 mile long lake formed by the Aswan Dam. We chose Kasr Abrim because it was recommended by the Lonely Planet, and I’m glad we did.

An amazing ship

The Kasr Ibrm looks like a loving restoration of a paddlewheel boat from the 40’s. For example, try to find plastic on the Kasr Ibrm. You can’t (except in the tub enclosures); almost everything you see is made of wood, including some gorgeous African hardwoods. Exquisite alabaster shades in the lounge ceiling create a lovely golden glow. The wide spiral staircases are lined with painted hanging canvas panels and supported by metal rails. A large Art Deco mirror hangs in our room, and the brass door pulls, light fixtures, and authentic era lamps complete the aesthetic experience. We felt like we were living on an Agatha Christy set – Death on the Nile, or The Orient Express, if it was a boat. Everything is authentic 1930’s or 40’s, except that the boat was built in 1998!

Time to kick back

The pace of the four days and nights on this tour was uniquely tranquil. We visited a monument every day for a couple of hours, but the rest of the time we just slowly chugged along Lake Nasser, lounging around the deck, paddling in the crocodile mosaic pool, and watching the lonely and lovely desert slide by.  I’ll be honest: not having internet and a long to-do list was challenging at first. But within 42 minutes I had forgotten all about projects at school and for my master’s capstone project.  And for the first time in years I was  around people who didn’t have eyes glued to tiny screens. That was somehow comforting.

The staff was wonderfully friendly, our guide knowledgeable and interesting, and we enjoyed getting to know some of the guests: New Zealanders Angela and Owen and their great kids, Nathan and Rebecca (I wish I could teach them both!) and three great American women – Kathie, Gayle and Tish — teaching at Cairo American College. Gayle was a fellow “technology integrator”, so we immediately had lots to share about our respective jobs and how to use Moodle to keep students learning through emergency school shut-downs.

And then there’s Abu Simbel

All the temples we visited –  Kalabsha, Wadi El Seboua, Dakka, Amada, and more — were fascinating, but Abu Simbel was spectacular. We approached from the water after nightfall to see the four massive figures of Ramses gradually take form in the spot lights installed at ground level. The effect was thrilling.

We were awake before dawn and transported on skiffs from the Kasr Ibrm to the shore where, as the first visitors to the site, we were able to watch the rising sun gradually bring these 60 foot high figures to life again, their gentle Buddha-like expressions changing with the light. As I wandered interior sanctuaries I was blown away by the astonishing carvings and paintings. They told the story of Ramses II’s victories in battle in such exquisite naturalistic detail that my thoughts turned to the eternal horror of war. Ramses is presented as a huge implacable conquering force; his victims die in agony beneath his chariot or at his hand. The conquered are recognizable as Africans of the Upper Nile, or the Hittites in Syria, and the defeated look miserable lashed together by their necks, led off to a life of slavery in Egypt.

I asked our guide, Ahmad, about how one is to “read” the story represented on the 40 foot high wall: left to right? top to bottom?  Apparently, there is no order in this stone tapestry and so I leave the temple filled with images of Ramses’ triumph, but also with thoughts about the hideous chaos of war. Don’t think that I didn’t like the walls of the temple at Abu Simbel; the fact that it affected me so  attests to its artistic energy. I also wonder why the bas relief sculptures and paintings are considered necessary to include, considering that the hieroglyphic account of the battle seems to comprise a complete text. I know the answer: the addition of a visual representation of the story completes the viewer’s understanding and helps us “see” it in all its glory and gore, just like a graphic novel.

On the last day of our trip the Kasr Ibrm docked at the shore near a communications tower and the group lounging next to me on the deck immediately began a loud iPhone conversation in French. Back to civilization. Sigh.

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