When your daily summary starts with – Luggage outside the cabins at 7:30 AM – you know it’s a travel day!

Today the plan is simple – put luggage out – visit a temple – go back to the ship to grab luggage – visit the High Dam – take a bus to the other side of the High Dam – get on a new ship – eat lunch (whew – right!), then ride in a felucca, cocktail party and dinner.

Sure – simple. Ok – moral – not so simple, but so much fun!

Let’s start with the luggage outside the cabin. That means getting up, eating breakfast (Eggs in Egypt are amazingly delicous. How come our eggs have so little flavor and these taste dipped in Sunshine?), and then packing.

But no – Victor insists we pack before breakfast. Sigh. Good news – I never unpacked, so I’m tossing stuff in quickly and I’m ready to go. Victor rolls the luggage outside our door – I discover something that I forgot – but the luggage is already gone. Those porter are FAST!

Ok – everything packed – down stairs to breakfast (I have long since decided that the elevator on the ship is cursed and dangerous – so I’m walking up and down the staircase. You do meet more people that way for sure.)

Yummy eggs, bit of toast, 2 cups of coffee and we are off.

The ship is tied up above the Aswan High Dam – so all that is visible is the top 6 feet of the dam. Hassien explains that the High Dam was built with Russian help. They suggested instead of building a ‘proper’ dam, they would just explode mountains of rock on either side of the Nile and create a triangle of rock – 1/2 mile wide at the bottom and only about 200 feet wide at the top. On the high water side – Lake Nasser, on the low water side, just 240 feet lower would be the lake with no name. And further downsteam (North if you need to know) is the Low Dam – built in 1902 by the British. And to generate electricity from the High Dam – they put large tunnels below the Dam with the turbines. And to keep the Nile Crocodiles from the ‘high side’ going into the tunnels and becoming Crocodile Jam – they add huge nets.

The High Dam and Low Dam combined produce 10% of Egypt’s electricity. But geography is against them – the drop of only 240 feet isn’t enough to generate a lot of water motion – which is why I suspect that the amount of hydroelectric power produced is relatively low. But that’s just a guess.

Anyway – we are tied up with another ship between us and the shore, but that doesn’t matter right now because we are going to be using the skiff to get the the Kalabsha Temple.

I’m getting a lot better at going down the movable steps to the skiff – but I’m still very happy to be able to grab hands and arms of the crew as I move myself carefully down to the skiff.

A very short boat ride later and we’re pulling up to the landing area for the Kalabsha Temple. I will simply never get enough of these incredible Nubian monuments. Like the rest – it has been moved up to avoid being submerged by the rising waters of Lake Nasser.

I sneak a picture of the gun on the hip of our ‘security’ officier. He’s been very nice to me – and he’s quite young and cute – but he does take his job somewhat seriously. I think he’s been traveling with us on the ship because he always appears when we get ready to board the skiff.

Hassien explains that the government is trying to protect tourists after an unfortuante incident several years ago at Luxor – but I’m reminded of our trip to the Artic and the guys with guns who were ‘protecting’ us from Polar bears.

Moving on – First stop is the Temple of Beit El Wally. It’s also done for Ramses II (that guy was amazing – he had 4 kids when he was first crowned King at age 25, and over his life had over 100 kids – 52 Girls, 49 Boys. I guess he did it because he could.

Again we admire the magnificant carvings – and like the others – it too was used by the Christians as a church – and like the others – some of the carvings have been ‘scratched’ out. The faces of the Female Gods and the ‘wallets’ as Hassien like to call them of the male carvings are the most notable ‘erasures’.

The image of Ramses II offering food to Horus – the son of Isis is remarkable for both it’s detail and it’s coloring.

Yet again I’m amazed by Hassien’s ability to read the Hieroglyphs – I think he thinks if he keeps repeating the relationship between the symbols and the words – we’ll start to remember them. But the only symbol and word relations I remember are the triangle for Give, and the Anka for Life. Given the number of times that folks do something for the Gods in return for Life – well – it’s not surprising I’ve learned those two!

Hassien uses his flashlight to draw our attention to specific carvings. Remembering that this is a Nubian Temple, it’s not a surprise to see Nubian figures – identified by the features – kneeling and offering thanks to Ramses II. They are also protrayed losing a rather brutal battle.

The battle scene starts with a woman cooking under a tree when a young boy (no clothes – that’s how we know) comes running towards her. As we move along the carving – we see more and more Nubians running away until finally there are carvings of Nubians being injured (falling down) or dying (carved upside down). Eventually there is the chariot of Ramses II followed by two smaller chariots of his sons who were included in this foray.

In the end, the Nubians are shown bringing Elephant tusks, an Ostrich, and Food to Ramses II as tribute. He accepts the offerings of course.

In a scene on another wall of the temple, Ramses II is shown killing the leader of the Hittites – identified by his uniquely non- Nubian features.

In the Santuary which is more protected from the elements, some of the color has survived for 4000 years (ok – that’s amazing), and Ramses II is shown ‘smiting’ his enemies.

There is also a Doric Column – proof positive that Doric Columns were NOT invented by the Greeks – nope – these columns have been carbon dated back 4000 years.

In another colored painting – Ramses II is shown with two containers of wine – offering them in thanks to one of the God’s for his victories.

I am left feeling so so glad that these Temples were saved from the waters of Lake Nasser. And I again am reminded how fortunate I am to include these temple visits in our tour. I’ve always wondered how close one could get to the temple paintings – and I know the answer for the Nubian Tembels. Within touching distance.

This particular location, very close to the Aswan High Dam was choosen to house not only the Beit El Wally Temple – but several other’s as well.

But the most striking visual is the ‘open air museum’. Here they have gathered blocks that they couldn’t quite place. And about 10 of these contain drawings from 6000 BC – that’s 8000 years ago! Yes – they used carbon dating to figure that out. The blocks are huge – 6’ high, 6’ wide. There’s an elephant that can clearly be seen, and a herd of deer, I’m not making this up – these images are obvious – and 8000 years old.

On a smaller block there is either a hunter or a herdsman that can clearly be seen along with his charges. One of which appears to be an Ostrich. Remeber that this is Nubia – very very close to the Sudan – so we’re taking Africa wildlife. Wow.

Remember that the temples here were not all orginally in the same physical location, so the fact that they are from different periods showing different parts of the story shouldn’t be a surprise.

In one of the other temples there is even a Greek inscrption – memoralizing another battle. This temple has a lot of graffiti – interesting to see that ‘Killroy was here’ didn’t orginate in the WW’s.

We head back to the skiff, board and return to our ship. Identify our luggage to be taken by the Porters to our next mode of transport – a Bus.

A few minutes later – we’re at the High Dam Memorial and overlook. Rather disappointing after the glories of the Kalabsha Temple complex.

We avoid the vendors, reboard the bus and head down the relatively short ride to the city of Aswan and our next Ship – the Livingstone.

Our stop here is short – just drop luggage and join Hussien for our trip to the Philae Temple by a bit larger covered skiff.

Unlike the Nubian Temples – which were often gathered together from a variety of places to be carefully placed on a high and dry spot, the Philae Temple was originally located not far from the Low Dam on a nearby island. But the Nile floods frequently swamped it – and the decision was made to move it. Because this Temple is below the High Dam – it gets a LOT more visitors than the Temples above (South) of the High Dam.

It’s worth visiting – but it’s exposed position means more erasures have happened, and there is less color to be seen even in the inner santuaries. But it’s huge, beautiful, and impressive.

My favorite few minues had nothing to do with the temple. I need to take a rest, so I sit down in the shade. Behind me there is a man unrolling a huge carpet, and then putting out the famous in Montreal – Orange Cones. Soon afterwards a man comes to do the call to prayer – totally mystical in this very old, historical, and exposed location. Soon he is joined by 12 other men who perform the noon prayer. I relax and enjoy the mystery and joy of this unexpected event.

We reboard our skiff and head back to Livingstone. I’m done it – but I do manage to eat lunch before both of us crash and burn.

Victor and I take a quick nap before it’s time to head out for our Felucca ride. This s the traditional sail boat on the Nile, but in comparison to the mystical nature of our visit to Philae and the glory of the Kalabsha Temple – a bit of a let down.

We are not blessed with wind – it happens – and it’s more of a tow by smaller boat – but who cares – it’s great to be on the water.

At 5:00 there’s a quick trip planned to a ‘Egyptian Cotton’ house – and I join Nancy, Muriel, Christy and Andrea on the trip. We are escorted by Hussien to a van – and introduced to the owner of the shop – he’s to take us to the shop and bring us back to the ship.

The advantage of the shop is that there’s no pressure – no vendors shoving and trying to bargain with themselves to get you to buy their wares. And the goods are lovely. But it’s Egyptian Cotton which requires ironing. So I just feel the materials (lovely) and sit and watch the other’s shop. Christy buys 7 Egyptian dresses – she’s thrilled and everyone else makes the shop owner happy. I’m the only hold-out. But as we leave he hands each of us a pillow cover – so I will have a reminder of Egypt when I get home.

On the ride home – which is after dark and the lights of the city are on, and the folks that live here (over 1.5 million) are doing their shopping. It’s a busy busy place. There are horse drawn carriages, folks on scooters, families walking and shopping – and for the first time I see Egypt as more than a tourist destination.

We get back to our ship, and join a cocktail party in the lounge – I have this awesome Mocktail with Mango Juice topped by Lime Juice (very refreshing). Then dinner during which I mention how lively the city seemed now – and how I hope someone (maybe Ed and Todd?) will venture out to enjoy – and then Victor and I go back to our room. Victor is soon asleep – I work on my blog (has to be written sometime) – and then to bed.

Tomorrow will be another busy day.

Signing off – The Soup Lady