Through the Lock at Esna

Its been a while since we last "chatted". Its been a hectic fall at university; papers, exams, etc. THIS IS A WARNING TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS............... Don't pass your students if they can't write a simple sentence!!! Although I'm not an English professor (actually, American...... ok, bad joke ;-O ), I would like to be able to read an essay that believes in the notion of full sentences with subjects and verbs.... what a concept! This 21st century world of text messaging will ensure that Vanna White has a job for eternity. Tell you students to "kp b-i-ing vowels!" Or, as they say, OMG, those letters DO have a use.

OK, I went away..... but I'm back now. And on to Esna.

Although the Nile gently and effortlessly flows north to the Med without disruption from Aswan, shipping needs a little assistance around the small town of Esna. It is located about 35 miles south of Luxor. Esna's history is long, although not so glamorous. At first, its main function was to service that great Trans-Nile Highway that ran from Er-Rashid over 2000 km to the Sudan. It would become the capital of the 3rd Province (Nome) of Egypt during the Greek and Roman Eras, and a major Ptolemaic Temple would be built here to the Goddess Khnum.


The great French novelist, Flaubert, who wrote Madame Bovary, visited Esna was propositioned by an "almah" who "danced" for him " somewhat not so virtuously"! Wild times indeed.






The barrage, holding lake, and lock were first constructed in 1906, with constant expanding and remodeling to accomodate larger and larger vessels. The Egyptian Dam Authority has been building a second "twin lock" adjacent to the first, for the last ten years. Each year, I am told, it will be finished. As we say, "from your mouth to God's ears!".


It is essential to complete this lock, because travel has swollen incredibly over the past 2 decades- mostly due to the fact that there are nearly 100 cruise ships today on the Nile! Each has to pass through the lock- FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS. The 405 in LA at rush hour is a piece of cake compared to Esna.


At times, the queue can back you up for 5 hrs, as you patiently wait your turn. However, take heart..... there are ways to amuse yourself. If you are lucky, your ship's "Rais", or captain, can tie up along the dock for a bit and allow you to disembark to visit the town. Here, you may find a traditional coffee house and get buzzed with the thick "mud" or smoke some Sheeshah, molasses and tobacco. Or, you may choose something a bit tamer, like getting up close and personal with a snake charmer in the Suq!



But for those who wish to stay onboard and think that they can just relax on the upper deck, read, sun or nap..... as a New Yorker once said- "fuggedaboutit". In the holding lake dozens of hawkers have discovered that they have a captive audience. So, they brazenly paddle out to your ship and their cries pierce the air as they try to peddle their goods. If you can forget the distracting side, and vow not to buy anything, the "show" is quite funny. They will even toss goods up to the boat deck for you to examine, hoping that you either buy or throw it back down. Of course, don't forget, there's WATER all around; so goods get wet, money gets wet, money gets lost, goods get lost. All in all, its an INTERACTIVE BUYING/COMEDY SHOW to help while away the hours.


At last, after hours of waiting in line, the lock can be entered and passed through. Sometimes this occurs during the day; at other times, late at night. Either way, its an adventure that everyone enjoys seeing from the upper deck. Today's cruise ships may be small by ocean liner standards, but there is only about 1 metre's space between the wall of the lock and the typical Nile cruiser- tight quarters to say the least. In these photos, you can see what I mean.

Once you're through the lock at Esna, its smooth sailing til Luxor, just to the north. For generations, the only way to get across the Nile at Luxor was by using a local ferry. These old, leakey, noisy and smelly diesel ferries were a nightmare to take to the West Bank and Qurna. However, they were local, and colorful to say the least.

About 8 years ago, a new bridge was constructed about 7 km south of town, to facilitate travel between the 2 banks of the Nile. The transportation authority deemed it essential to maintain the visual integrity of Luxor and the West Bank; so they opted for the new bridge that far south of town. Today, passing under it marks your entry and approach into this fabulous archaeological community- containing the world's largest open air museum, the Karnak Temple.

This is entering town in style! Next----- Luxor!

Up North, down the Nile

Leaving Aswan, we head north, downstream, on our cruise to Luxor. Its no mystery why the Nile flows "upside down". It doesn't is simply a matter of gravity, as the headwaters from Lake Victoria and snowmelt of Mt. Kilimanjaro flows downhill to the Mediterannean Sea.

This gives everyone a chance to take a deep breath, relax, and ponder the incredible sites seen so far on the journey. The weather is wonderful, although a bit breezy, as you're heading into the breeze as you move north- thus doubling the windspeed and "windchill factor". However, the sun warms things pleasantly. As Egypt slowly streams past you, the ever-changing views of the countryside are marvelous.

In addition, people have a chance to roam the boat, visit the bridge and learn about how to navigate on the river.

Our first stop is Kom Ombo. Right along the eastern bank of the Nile, it is a unique temple of the Ptolemaic Era.

The Ptolemies were the descendants of Alexander the Great's Greek general, Ptolemy, who would then create his own kingdom after Alex's death. There would be 13 Ptolemies, and several Cleopatras- including Elizabeth Taylor! She would also be known as Cleopatra VII.

This temple, dated to the 3rd Century BCE., would be designed as a dual temple- with worship of the Nile crocodile god, Sobek, and the falcon protector of the pharoah, Horus, taking place side by side.

In essence, the central axis splits the temple down the middle, with courts, hypostyle halls, holy of holies.... all duplicated.

Sometimes we arrive during the day, and at other times in early evening. However, since 2004, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has created a lighting system that makes this visit even more stunning just after sunset!

We'll walk through it next.

The Glory of Ramses II

One of the most famous of all Ancient Egyptian Royalty was Ramses II. Here is a pharoah who lived nearly a century, ruled for 67 years, and sired over 100 sons and countless daughters! (sorry ladies, but they just didn't count in those sexist days!). Here was a pharoah that, when you looked up "Pharoah of the Oppression and Exodus" in Wikipedia, his picture would appear. And no, not Yul Brynner's!

The longevity of his rule, the massive building programs that characterized the New Kingdom, all lend weight and credence to his fitting of the bill for the period of Israelite enslavement followed by freedom and redemption as outlined in the biblical book of Exodus. Ramses would rule from around 1292-1225 BCE. He ruled longer than 75% of his constituents even lived!

And although the period of enslavement would last several centuries, his rule could easily epitomize the plight of Ancient Israel in Egypt that started with the Joseph narratives of Genesis.

He would build marvelous structures, palaces, store-cities, up and down the length of the Nile Valley. One of his most famous monuments would be that of Abu Simbel- his mortuary temple built only 25 km from the Wadi Halfa and the border with modern Sudan. Actually, we are talking about a twin temple complex, with a lesser, though no less magnificent, temple dedicated to his queen, Nefertari.

Its been known for a couple of centuries, with travellers like David Roberts visiting in the first part of the 19th Century. The Saharan sands had filtered the gap in the Red Nubian Sandstone ridge that separated the the twin temples. And remember, these temples were also subject to the annual Nile floods. As Roberts explored this monument, he would marvel at the size and scope of this building project... much in the same way that we do today!

But with the temples threatened by the rising waters of the Nile, and the creation of Lake Nasser, they, along with 15 other Nubian temples, might disappear from the face of the earth.

As a result, UNESCO would mount an incredible campaign that was destined to save Abu Simbel and 2 other major Ptolemaic temples (about 1000 years younger) than ABS- Philae, that we've seen, and Kalabsha.

Many plans were submitted, including one by the French that would "dome" these temples under 250' of water; with tourists viewing them from glass-bottomed boats. Thank the UN for the veto of this incredibly "shallow" idea!

The end result? The monuments would be dismantled and transported 250' above the floodwaters and reconstructed in an artificial mountain. This unbelievable feat would take several years, but be the most sensitive and proper way to preserve these fabulous structures.

Its been one of the few times that UNESCO has done something right, in my opinion. It then served as the model for the other rescue missions along the Nile Valley.

Today, the glory of Ramses II is fully evident once again. His statues, over 55' tall, gaze serenely over Lake Nasser- impervious to the lake's waters, at times reaching their maximum depth of 250'. The care taken to meticulously restore the temple is in evidence, with the cut seams invisible to the eye.

The interior passages, treasuries and shrines are all beautifully lit as well, giving a sense of majesty and wonder.

However, this is one "fatal flaw". Fatal, that is, to an archaeologist. The original angle of the temple's construction was to allow the sun to shine directly into the holy of holies twice a year: the king's coronation day and birthday. These were 23 Feb and 23 Oct.

Today, in spite of all our calculating and care, the reconstruction is 1 DAY OFF!!!!! ( the engineers jokingly said that the earth changed on its axis!)

A short flight back to Aswan, and we sail north.

On to Old" Aswan

From the High Dam, we move back 3500 years in history, to the reign of the "Queen who would be King"- Hatshepsut. Her name's quite a mouthful, but here's an easy way to remember it. I have found that, in teaching, when something seemingly "Stupid" is presented to students, they have a tendancy to recall it, in part due to its "stupidity". So, here we go.

What do you get, when you go to Walmart in July and buy a wool suit?

Give up? How about a "Hot- Cheap- Suit"? Pretty dumb, eh? But you then have drilled into your head something "stupid" regarding Hatshepsut. Trust me, it works.

During her rule, and in general during the New Kingdom of Egypt (1550-1000 BCE), Aswan was the center of granite stone masonry. All of the granite deposits in Egypt come from this area, and there must have been several major quarries. Just outside Aswan, the southern neighborhood, one can find a granite quarry. Here we can readily see the techniques incorporated into cutting and working of stone thousands of years ago. Once discovered, this amazing quarry has been preserved by the Supreme Council of Antiquities. But here's the most incredible thing, in the quarry there was discovered an unfinished obelisk, dating to the reign of Hatshepsut.

So, what exactly is an obelisk? Well, when the Greeks came to this incredible land during the invasion by Alexander the Great in the late 4th Century BCE, they found in the various temples these tall, needle-shaped stone spires. They thought that they looked like petrified rays of the sun- so they called them obeliskos. Hence our term today.

Apparently, Hatshepsut suffered from penis envy perhaps! She ordered her sculptors to carve the largest obelisk in Egypt at that time. It was to be 42m long, 4 m wide and over 1200 tons in weight. This would be an unbelievable feat in the annals of stoenmasonry. So...... all was proceeding well, the masons followed directions, and were about 3/4 of the way through cutting the block. They started to work on shaping and finishing the pyramid-shaped point before removing the block from the bedrock. One night, there must have been an incredible CRAAAACK like thunder and lightning combined. No one knew where the sound came from. The next morning, as they came to the quarry, they discovered that their precious obelisk's granite had a flaw in it, and it cracked straight down its length for over 10 m.!

But Hatshepsut was not fazed in the least bit..... after all, she was Pharoah! So she ordered the masons to simply leave it! She then ordered them to cut another one.

Its our gain.......... since the unfinished obelisk is still lying in the quarry for us all to see, and imagine the techniques involved in ancient stone masonry!

PHILAE ISLAND

From the quarry, its a short hop to a small landing area adjacent to the "holding lake" between the Old and High Dams. There are a few islands in this area. One of them in antiquity was called Philae. A traditional burial place of the god Osiris, it would become the home for a temple complex dedicated to the goddess Isis during the Ptolemaic Greek Era during the 3rd Century BCE. Late, the Roman Emperor Trajan would build a small kiosk there in the end of the 1st Century-early 2nd Century CE.

However, the island would be in constant jeopardy due to the annual floodwaters of the Nile. This would become increasingly a problem after the building of the Old Aswan Dam at the start of the 20th Century. with this temple underwater much of the year. The problem would then be exacerbated by the new High Dam creating this "in-between" lake. The site would be threatened with total inundation and destruction.

The UNESCO Project that would save Abu Simbel would also save the monuments of Philae. But because it was an island, the unique situation called for an equally unique solution. The answer, move the monuments to another island! Adjacent to Philae was another island, substantially higher in elevation, called Agilkia Island. The engineers, architects and restorers would literlly blast the surface of this new island to match the topography of the original. They then would cut the monuments into millions of blocks and re-create the island a few hundred meters away! A massive cofferdam would surround the original island, protecting it from the waters, as this project was carried out. The end result, an incredibly beautiful reconstruction and restoration, as precise as one could imagine.

Upper Egypt from modern to ancient, part 1

After settling in on the Tulip, its time to head out and see what Upper Egypt has to offer. Our first visits take us to one of the modern wonders of the engineering world, the Aswan High Dam. This is not to be confused with the old Aswan Dam. That one was originally built by the British and inaugurated in 1902. It would serve for decades, being raised twice in engineering feats- in 1912 and again 1932 due to structural inadequacy. This lower gravity dam would generate a small amount of electricity for over a generation. The locks in the dam would be replaced by Tito's Yugoslav government in the 1970's and early 80's. Today, it serves vehicles as the only non-military thoroughfare across the Nile in Aswan.



Once across it, the landscape radically changes. You are truly in the heart of the Saharan Desert now. There's really nothing between you and the Libyan border to the west except sand! This broad expanse of land contains a combination of both sandy dunes and red Nubian sandstone ridges. It is here that the Egyptian government chose to build both the more modern Aswan High Dam and the Aswan Int'l Airport. There's plenty of room for expansion, with no need to worry about airplane noise bothering nearby residents! This view from our plane, looking north as it is coming into the Aswan airport shows the High Dam in the background, Lake Nasser immediately to the south, and the dunes of the Sahara adjacent.


The High Dam itself is called "that thing over there!" by the Egyptians. Today, mainly have nothing but disdain for it, as promises kept never lived up to their expectations and promises made were never fulfilled. In essence, today engineers see it as a mistake, a costly failure. Conventional wisdom now says that a series of smaller dams, staggered downstream in the Nile, would have been considerably smarter and more profitable. But again, this was 1950s technology as built in the 60s with the aid of the Soviet Union. This allowed them to get their foot into the door of the Middle East in an effort to counteract the US influence as it backed Israel.


This style of dam is what is refered to as an Embankment Dam, and was finished in 1970. It is over 3800 m. long and 111 m high. At its base it is 980 m and tapers to only 40 m; with an observation parking plaza on it overlooking both Lake Nasser to the south and the holding lake and hydroelectric turbines to the north. Lake Nasser, formed by backing up the Nile waters, is over 550 km long, 50 km wide and over 80 m deep! Here you can see the slope and, in the distance, the Soviet-Egyptian Friendship Monument. To me, it still looks like a Soviet missile silo!



The dam's 12 turbines produce about 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, and supplies Egypt with over 15% of the national need. The dam also regulates the rising and falling floodwaters of the Nile, preserving village life and the abundant antiquities in the Nile Valley.



But the disastrous effects were not properly calculated! Over 700 Nubian villages would be flooded by the rising lake's waters, with nearly 700,000 Nubians being relocated to new villages in the Nile Valley between Aswan and Luxor. 16 ancient Egyptian temples would be flooded as well. Were it not for the international efforts of UNESCO, 3 would be physically moved and restored and reconstructed- Abu Simbel, Kalabsha, and Philae Island. The others would perish. And although the annual floods were no longer occuring, destroying villages and lifestyles on an annual basis, there no longer was the deposit of life-giving silt on the fertile farmland of the Nile Valley. This was call for the construction of 5 artificial fertilizer plants in Egypt. Artifical fertilizer means more chemicals in the ground and groundwater. The Dam has caused the river to slow down, creating stagnant areas where the parasites cause Bilharzia, an eye-disease. The dam has seriously damaged river life, limiting one of the major food sources for Egypt. And finally, the slowing of the river has greatly modifed the Nile Delta far to the north, and influenced the shape and nature of the estuary at the mouth of the river- affecting the Mediterannean.



That thing over there..... a good idea with disastrous consequences of execution.

Home on the Nile

So, welcome "home" for the next 7 nights, the MS Tulip. This ship will take us to Upper Egypt, and bring the wonders of this ancient land to us, as we sail between Aswan and Luxor and return. This will allow us the luxury of onboard informal lectures and discussions, as well as give some well-earned "down time" after the hectic rush of arrival in Cairo and a full-day's touring.

I have to tell you, though, I wasn't always "sold" on the concept of cruises. For 30 trips, I worried about time, connections, "down time" on the cruise. I also had the misconception based on the "Carnival Cruise Lines" models that we see constantly on TV commercials. All of this changed when I was convinced to "try it, you'll like it" by the people at Wings Tours and Nile Cruises- the agency I have used in Egypt for a couple of decades.

Don't start thinking "Carnival Cruise Lines" when you think of the Tulip. It holds only about 100 passengers total. It's a small, intimate ship that was built in 2001, and refurbished just a couple of years ago. It's design is unique to Nile cruisers as well, in that all of the cabins are on the 2nd and 3rd deck, well away from engine room noise, and are very spacious. The large windows afford an incredible view of the Nile and the landscape of Upper Egypt as well.


The crew and staff are wonderful folks and are tuned in to your every need. They truly enjoy working (and having a good time!) with their guests while on the Tulip.

This intimate setting allows for Egypt to "come to you", rather than you traveling around on buses all the time to it. We are able to dock, offload and visit sites, and then return to our "home" to continue on our way. In between times can afford the luxury of study and watching the Nile pass by. But sometimes it can get REALLY CROWDED on the river, with nearly 90 boats afloat! Thanks to the British, on days that we are sailing between ports of call, there is a 4pm Tea Time... complete with tea and scones!
Coming up............. first visits in Aswan!