Friday in a Muslim country is lazy. It is a European Sunday. Nothing happens if you happen to be a non-muslim. Aswan was no exception. My hotel was a rudimentary venue in the middle of this little town (still 1.5 million inhabitants), not a pleasant place to spend this Friday. So I took the ferry to Elephantine Island. Aswan is situated at the first cataract of the Nile. The stretch of Nile with the rapids is dotted with small islands and enormous granite boulders, of which Elephantine is the largest and only inhabited one. As mentioned it was Friday, so less than nothing was happening on the island. That was fine with me; I just found myself a spot in the shade and enjoyed a ripe melon. Sometimes life is just that simple.
As I watching the village kids splash about in the water and the women lazily doing some laundry, a couple of curious boys came to check me out. They were most interested in my sunglasses and my camera and before I knew it one was taking pictures of the other one wearing my glasses. It was good fun and the most sane thing someone could do under the midday heat. After a while they took me back to their village. There is a small Nubian village on the Island. The father of one of the boys is kind of an unofficial guide who loves to show strangers around Island. The small village consists of colorful houses clustered together and you have to search your way through tiny small streets. Although Aswan is a modern city, this village was little affected by modern life. But don’t get me wrong, in the end I still had to pay some baksheesh to show my appreciation. In the end you are always stripped down as a walking ATM machine. After all it was still Egypt.
The rest of the afternoon I spend with a local guy. He owned a boat and took me around for a three hour tour of the first cataracts, delivered to the rapids and the slow pace of life of the Nubians. The Nubians lost their land to the controversial Nasser dam. This dam was build just above the first cataract to control the sudden floods of the Nile. It allows regulating the flow of precious water and thus the irrigation along the Nile, which increased the agricultural production in the Nile valley by 30 percent and doubled Egypt’s power supply. Lake Nasser is the largest artificial lake in the world and flooded the homeland of the Nubians. The flooding endangered countless historical sites of major archeological and cultural importance, which would disappear forever under the blue water of the Nile. To prevent this Unesco sponsored a twenty year project, to save 22 major sites from flooding. International teams dismantled the temples piece by piece, labeled them and reconstructed most of them on higher grounds. Some temples were donated to museums of the participating countries; the Temple of Dendur can now be admired in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The salvation of the temples of Abu Simbel is without doubt the most impressing of this operation. The magnificent rock hewn temples of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari were cut out of the rocks. Both were reconstructed on more elevated grounds, 65 meters higher, out of harm’s way. The orientation of the temples was meticulously reconstructed to ensure that twice a year, on February 22 and on October 22 the first rays of sun will penetrate the temple and illuminate the holy statues in the sanctuary of the temple. In spite of this huge effort many Nubians still mourn the loss of their beloved land, even today.
The next morning I went to the Nasser dam. Do not go there it is big, ugly and disappointing. That could not be said about the Nubian museum. A huge modern museum, recording and keeping a multitude of Nubian artifacts for the eager tourist and for future generations. The rest of the afternoon I spent reading and writing on Kitchener Island. The architect of the dam had his house there and created an amazing botanical garden. Where are the times that you could own you own Island in the middle of the Nile, I would have signed up. As I had no boat to take me back to Aswan, I asked this Belgian couple if I could join their felucca back to Aswan. It turned out that this family was travelling along the Nile with their five year old son, prospecting interesting hotels and sites for organized diving holidays they offered. The man owned/works for ‘timetodive’ (www.timetodive.be), a professional diving organization. Travelling while making money, not a bad concept. After the felucca dropped them at the five star Movepick on elephantine Island, I rejoined my hotel. Early bedtime today as I had an Abu Simbel convoy to catch at 4:00am the next morning.
As I watching the village kids splash about in the water and the women lazily doing some laundry, a couple of curious boys came to check me out. They were most interested in my sunglasses and my camera and before I knew it one was taking pictures of the other one wearing my glasses. It was good fun and the most sane thing someone could do under the midday heat. After a while they took me back to their village. There is a small Nubian village on the Island. The father of one of the boys is kind of an unofficial guide who loves to show strangers around Island. The small village consists of colorful houses clustered together and you have to search your way through tiny small streets. Although Aswan is a modern city, this village was little affected by modern life. But don’t get me wrong, in the end I still had to pay some baksheesh to show my appreciation. In the end you are always stripped down as a walking ATM machine. After all it was still Egypt.
The rest of the afternoon I spend with a local guy. He owned a boat and took me around for a three hour tour of the first cataracts, delivered to the rapids and the slow pace of life of the Nubians. The Nubians lost their land to the controversial Nasser dam. This dam was build just above the first cataract to control the sudden floods of the Nile. It allows regulating the flow of precious water and thus the irrigation along the Nile, which increased the agricultural production in the Nile valley by 30 percent and doubled Egypt’s power supply. Lake Nasser is the largest artificial lake in the world and flooded the homeland of the Nubians. The flooding endangered countless historical sites of major archeological and cultural importance, which would disappear forever under the blue water of the Nile. To prevent this Unesco sponsored a twenty year project, to save 22 major sites from flooding. International teams dismantled the temples piece by piece, labeled them and reconstructed most of them on higher grounds. Some temples were donated to museums of the participating countries; the Temple of Dendur can now be admired in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The salvation of the temples of Abu Simbel is without doubt the most impressing of this operation. The magnificent rock hewn temples of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari were cut out of the rocks. Both were reconstructed on more elevated grounds, 65 meters higher, out of harm’s way. The orientation of the temples was meticulously reconstructed to ensure that twice a year, on February 22 and on October 22 the first rays of sun will penetrate the temple and illuminate the holy statues in the sanctuary of the temple. In spite of this huge effort many Nubians still mourn the loss of their beloved land, even today.
The next morning I went to the Nasser dam. Do not go there it is big, ugly and disappointing. That could not be said about the Nubian museum. A huge modern museum, recording and keeping a multitude of Nubian artifacts for the eager tourist and for future generations. The rest of the afternoon I spent reading and writing on Kitchener Island. The architect of the dam had his house there and created an amazing botanical garden. Where are the times that you could own you own Island in the middle of the Nile, I would have signed up. As I had no boat to take me back to Aswan, I asked this Belgian couple if I could join their felucca back to Aswan. It turned out that this family was travelling along the Nile with their five year old son, prospecting interesting hotels and sites for organized diving holidays they offered. The man owned/works for ‘timetodive’ (www.timetodive.be), a professional diving organization. Travelling while making money, not a bad concept. After the felucca dropped them at the five star Movepick on elephantine Island, I rejoined my hotel. Early bedtime today as I had an Abu Simbel convoy to catch at 4:00am the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment