Walk Like an Egyptian (part 2) – De Nile Time!

(August 7 - 12) Back to Egyptian times. We made it to the Sharm el Sheik airport starving after our overnight hike, so we desperately wanted to eat. We were told there were numerous restaurants in the airport; unfortunately they were only in the international terminal. We could see a Burger King taunting us above, so we asked security with our saddest most pathetic faces if we could go through to eat. Since we looked like desperate US peeps in need of American food they actually entertained the idea for five minutes and talked to the security team. No surprise we were rejected and the airport café won yet another battle.

After the fun times in Sinai we arrived in Luxor and had a very early start to our sightseeing day. Luxor was a much larger city of 500,000 people living near the Nile. It was very green along the river, and as a result farming and sugar cane were the main industries.

We took the only bridge from the east bank of the Nile to the Valley of the Kings in the Theban Hills. The Valley of Kings was one of my favorite sites in Egypt. For 500 years pharos from the New Kingdom (1700 BC) had 63 tombs built below the ground in this limestone valley. The pharaoh would commission the tomb to be built as his eventual burial site to guarantee eternal life. The tombs varied greatly in size as some of them had numerous rooms off of long corridors covered in hieroglyphics. In order to protect the tombs only eleven of them can be viewed any given day, and they rotate which ones are open. One of the tombs was discovered as recently as 2005, and it is believed there may be a few more still hidden since some of the pharos’ tombs have not been found.

King Tut’s tomb was found here and is actually one of the smaller tombs buried below another tomb, which is believed to be the reason tomb raiders did not find it to steal its treasures. King Tut was young at the time of his death and not accomplished pharaoh, so his fame seems to be a result of his well preserved tomb and extravagant gold treasures and sarcophagi.

We started extremely early, but it was still laughably hot, especially as we climbed down into the tombs beneath the ground. We headed into the Ramses I tomb which was the largest we would visit taking about five minutes to reach the end. There were lots of mini coffin sized rooms, including a famous one with a harp painted on the wall. In order to protect the art we were not allowed to photograph the inner tombs, so just try to visualize the historic art by my descriptions…okay just Google it. The hieroglyphics were very impressive and were carved into the walls in many places and then painted in various colors. It was amazing to see all of the work that went into the wall paintings, and it was mind blowing that it has been preserved for over 3,700 years.

We then visited the much smaller Ramses IV tomb which displayed well preserved hieroglyphics with a pretty blue background. The paintings often showed the pharaoh meeting with and making offerings to the gods to gain eternal life. There were hundreds of small hieroglyphics in rows from top to bottom of the walls telling various stories. This tomb also had dark ceilings with stars painted on them.

Finally, we went into the very deep tomb of Ramses IX. There were noticeably many more women representations in this tomb. The very last inner room of the tomb was fascinating since the ceiling and walls depicted the queen and pharaoh making special offerings in large scale.

In general it was amazing to see this huge area of tombs all underground, and there is actually another separate area of the Valley of Kings to go to with three other tombs (we did not have time to visit). There is also a Valley of the Queens that housed the tombs of the queens. One of those tombs is known as the best preserved tomb and some people are willing to pay $20,000 to see it – since I am not Bill Gates we did not go there.

Since there were more old buildings to see, and we like a challenge we went to the Hatshepsut Temple. This temple was part of the New Kingdom during the 15th century BC. Hatshepsut was the only woman to rule Egypt, and she did so for 18 years. She even cross dressed and did what she could to look like previous male pharos to gain respect (wore the fake pharaoh beard etc) – I wonder what Dr. Phil would say about that.

The three story temple blended into the desert mountain behind it and as we approached it two tree stumps from 3,500 years ago marked the base of the impressive stairs leading to the grand entry. The bottom floor did not have much to see so we viewed the colorless hieroglyphics on the second floor. Our pro photographer, Mia, captured the main scenes, and we headed up to the top floor. The top floor had massive statues of Hatshepsut outside the temple, so I felt like I was in Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Sadly all of her heads and faces were “deleted” (aka destroyed by chisel) by Tuthmosis III who was her stepson. He succeeded her but was angry that she kept him from the throne sooner (Jerry Springer called and wants them on the show).



Later we walked to lunch and as Ben and I strolled ahead an aggressive (agro) Egyptian guy yelled to me that I could switch husbands if I wanted. Don’t worry Ben, I would still choose you…hahaha. We had some great shwerma for lunch and in the true spirit of wasting energy the restaurant had a/c blowing outside on us! John and I took a break from ancient sites to bask in technology while Ben and Mia the true Egyptians visited the Karnak Temple.

On day 8 after seeing hot air balloons dot the sky above the Nile we were loaded in our van at 7:15AM for a 3.5 hour ride to Aswan, another city of 500,000. The original Egyptians (Nubians) live in nearby villages and speak their own language and marry each other to perpetuate the culture. Nubians are typically Muslims with darker skin. Some of the younger generation Nubians have moved to other large cities around Egypt.

We went straight to the Aswan Dam (or High Dam), which is the newer of the two large Egyptian dams. The old dam was built by the British to save the Egyptians from the floods while the High Dam generates a great deal of electricity. Money from the Suez Canal was used to fund the Soviet designed, Egypt built dam (built from 1960-71). A Friendship Tower was erected with a Lotus Flower like shape to represent the Russian and Egyptian collaboration. The dam created the largest artificial lake in the world – Nassar Lake. This dam generates electricity from the Nile River which is the longest river in the world at 6,600 km (4,026 miles) and flows north from Ethiopia (Blue Nile) and Lake Victoria (White Nile). 15% of the energy is used by all of Egypt and the rest is exported to Sudan, Iran and other neighbors. The dam is 111m (367 ft) high and 1 km (0.61 miles) from one side to the other.

It’s not all sunshine roses though; the dam has caused its share of problems. 15,000 Nubians had to be displaced since they lived where Nassar Lake would eventually develop. Also, an ancient temple had to be relocated, so it would not end up under water. Finally, the lake water behind the dam is causing the soil to become more like silt, destroying the crop yields.

After learning about the dams we got on a boat to visit the Isis Temple on Philae Island which is between the two dams. This temple was actually built by the Greeks and Romans because Isis reminded them of their love/fertility goddess Aphrodite. The story of Isis makes soap operas and Desperate Housewives seem dull, so I could not keep up with it all. Ultimately, Isis’ husband was her older brother and was killed twice by the jealous younger brother (yes, twice - clearly Isis brought him back to life after the first time). We were the only people on the island at first, which was awesome since it felt more mysterious.

The temple had Greek columns and nice hieroglyphics that the Greeks created, so the Egyptians could understand and pray there. It was built between 300 and 150 BC. Eventually Christians and Napoleon’s troops came to the temple and defaced many of the gods since they represented idols. They left behind carvings of Celtic crosses and a note from Napoleon etched into the stone. UNESCO helped fund the temple move, which took eight years to dismantle and recreate on a higher island in 1972.

We spent our last time with John and Ben exploring the Aswan bazaar where we got lost in the huge maze of covered streets with a mix of legitimate stores and small stands. We happened to go during prayer time, so the market was calmer with many shops closed (thankfully). Mia was on an all out mission to obtain hibiscus tea and other spices for her boyfriend Dan. We wandered along as she methodically spoke to the various spice kings of the market. I was about ready to collapse, so I asked Mia to use her negotiation skills to get a deal done. This would prove to take at least 30 minutes since Mia is tough and always ready to get a bargain. She put her Kellogg skills to the test as Ben stood by patiently as her bodyguard. I watched at times and other times would check in on John as he was also attempting to buy tea. Eventually a deal was struck and Mia had her spices. Ben and John also nabbed hibiscus tea which looks like dark red dried up little flowers the size of a silver dollar.

We needed a quick dinner for John and Ben so that meant only one nearby option…just try and guess what their last Egyptian meal was…that’s right KFC! Hahaha. It was a fancy location on the Nile with similar food and pricing to the USA. It was sad to say goodbye to them both after three weeks together, luckily I still had Mia who never disappoints in the entertainment department.

The next day Mia and I had yet another crazy wakeup schedule as we got up at 3:30AM for our 4AM pickup. We caravanned south for 3.5 hours to Abu Simbel (in case of a desert breakdown – sound familiar?) which is on the border of Sudan. Abu Simbel is a very small town of 15,000 people on the water. The city’s big highlights are the Sun and Hathor temples. These temples were moved in the 1960s to protect them from the High Dam flooding. It took five years and $42 million dollars to move and re-erect the temples. It was not noticeable to the casual observer unless it was pointed out.

Ramses II (believed to be the Ramses of the Old Testament) was trying to move the border of Egypt further south to expand the kingdom, and he also wanted to portray himself as a god in his temple so he had the Nubians build it in Abu Simbel around 1300 BC. He was the only king to portray himself as a god, so he feared an uproar of the people in the north. Ramses ruled successfully for 67 years and won wars that expanded his kingdom. He had numerous wives, but Nefertari was the first and most prominent.

The Sun Temple honored Ramses II with its four 30 foot statues of him surrounding the entrance, one of which cracked and lay before it due to an ancient earthquake. The scary staring statues were meant to frighten enemies. Once inside the huge temple various smaller rooms were created for his sons. I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones film and a boulder could come hurling after me at any moment. The inner most part of the temple has a sanctuary which was cleverly built to be sunlit on Ramses’ birthday and coronation day. There were huge columns inside the temple and various carvings that must have taken years to perfect. Cartouches were used throughout to identify the various kings and gods in the hieroglyphics. It was humbling to stand before all of these monuments created thousands of years ago without modern machinery. At times it felt like I was a movie set; it was so surreal.

Ramses II had the Hathor Temple erected for Queen Nefertari. It also had huge statues near the entrance, although the inner temple was considerably smaller. The carvings were equally impressive and detailed. It was great exploring the ancient tombs, pyramids, and temples but it was time to move on yet again.

Back in Aswan we enjoyed more shish twaok (chicken kebabs) and prepared for our felucca sailboat ride on the Nile. The wooden felucca was about 15 feet long and had one big sail that powered it. An older man navigated the boat with a basic rudder and his ten year old son worked the sail when necessary. The water was calm and there were a few other boats out for a sail. We zig-zagged against the current using the wind. I was even allowed to drive the boat for awhile and received an adequate number of stares and chuckles from the locals. As always, I loved being on water! We sailed by the fancy riverside KFC and McDonalds (amusing Egyptian scenery). We circled the Elephantine Island to the east and had nice views of tombs for the former nobles before docking once again near our hotel.

On Wednesday we had a flight to Cairo and given that Ramadan started that day we had to eat at the airport. Ramadan is the month when Muslims fast from dawn until sunset; they do not eat or drink anything (even water), so most of the restaurants are closed. Once again we had fine USA cuisine at Sabarros since it was the only option – funny but unappealing and more expensive than the US!

Mia and I were excited to be back in Cairo, especially since Drew Weightman and Parker Burke (Kellogg classmates) happened to be there that day only. We were able to meet up with them to swap travel stories. They had great times across Europe (including partying in Spain and sailing their own boat in the Mediterranean Sea), northern Africa, and the Middle East. We all went to Sequoia (a NY Times favorite) on the Nile, but sadly Drew and Parker could only have a drink before they caught their flights to the US. Mia and I ate at Sequoia which was decorated in celebration of the first night of Ramadan. It felt like we were in a restaurant at the Luxor in Vegas with its outdoor tables and canopies near the water. There was also colorful seating and the food was good, so we lasted until midnight.


The next morning Mia and I said our goodbyes at the airport as she headed to London for a visit with our Kellogg pal Damayante and I hopped my flight to Istanbul to meet my next travel pal, Becky Mitchell. As a side note Mia and I searched the giant Cairo airport for books and magazines and could not find any! No joke – very bizarre. Thanks to anyone who had the patience to read all of the Egypt blog and a extra big thanks to Sarah Clabby for her advice and Egypt expertise! I promise the next ones will be shorter and have less ancient stuff! The next adventure begins with two weeks in Turkey! Until then…Sarah.