Egypt -Nile Cruising
The best way to see Egypt is by taking a Cruise along the River Nile
Nile Cruising is a luxurious way to travel and surprisingly economical. By combining transport and accommodation you can get very good value for your money.
My cruise along the Nile from Luxor to Aswan was on board the Nile Monarch. Nile cruisers are more like a Mississippi Paddle Steamers than the classic ocean going liners but are every bit as comfortable. It was a splendid trip, sitting on deck with a long cool drink as Egypt slipped slowly past in a panorama of history. The mud coloured flat-roofed villages, the bright strip of fertile green, worked by peasant farmers, the glimpses of the desert beyond would have been the same as seen from the royal barges of the pharaohs. The Nile is still busy with boats from the timeless feluccas to modern cruise ships.
Nile cruises usually have qualified Egyptologists leading their on shore tours. Our guide, Mousheera, was a graduate of the University of Cairo. I learned more from her in a week than I would from years of self guided visits.
At Esna, she explained that the temple there is dedicated to two gods - Neet, the Lioness headed goddess of weaving and Khnum the ram headed god of creation who fashioned all of humankind from his potter’s wheel. The great Hypostyle Hall is the only part that has been excavated and to reach it we descended into a pit. Mousheera explained that the rest of the temple lies underneath the modern town.
Heading back to the ship the stallholders in the bazaar crowded in urging us to haggle for genuine damask table covers, Arab dress or soap stone scarabs. An old man sat cross-legged at the entrance to the main souk with a wicker basket containing a couple of sleepy looking cobras. I expected him to pick up a flute and start charming but all he did was poke the poor creatures with a stick until they reared up in the classic flat headed pose. Mousheera reassured us that they had probably had their fangs removed.
We sailed on up the Nile stopping at Edfu to view the temple of Horus, one of the last of the great monuments built in Upper Egypt. We picked our way around ongoing excavations to the front of the temple where two carved granite statues of the falcon-headed god Horus stand guard at the entrance.
In the next part I’ll continue the trip to Aswan.
My trip was organised by Libra Holidays
Egypt Nile Cruising Aswan - Part II
EgyptNile Cruising Luxor - Part III
Egypt -Nile Cruising Thebes - Part IV
