We had breakfast on the boat after visiting Edfu. Surprisingly the area was only half full. Turns out we were going to Luxor from Edfu but through the Locks at Esna.
There is a 30 foot height difference(?) in the water levels of the Nile on either side of the locks. So only two boats go at one time through the locks to the other side. There is a long queue. Each set of boats takes almost 15 minutes to go through the locks. So all the boats race to the locks from Edfu temple.
So did our boat!
We saw a bunch of vendors hitch their small boats to ours and throw towels and shawls to the people on the deck to sell it. It was intersting. The curiosity of buying something with this method alone got them some business from our group! They were selling what was a table cloth? shawl? towel? for 3-4 dollars depending on the size and bargainer.
we did have fun in the rooms where our cleaning crew did more towel decorations. The king Tut one was hilarious! We spent a lot of time on the rooftop. They were selling full body massages for 25$ for 50 minutes. So I did go for the massage. It was pretty good and relaxing.
A video highlight reel including a timelapse of the ship going through the locks. My hands hurt after holding the phone in the same place for the entire duration.. but you can see the whole process..
We did go dock at Luxor 30 minutes earlier than the 4:30 PM estimate. We waited for the boat to clear before getting down and walking to the Luxor temple..
Our entire group was ready at 4:30 AM and outside on the street adjoining the dock. The original plan was to have a van ready to take us to Edfu Temple before Sunrise! Given every ship was sending its people there, we were to go early to clear the security check and ticket counter and get in.
There was a snag. The van never showed. We tried to change plans to go in two horse carts (originally abandoned by our guide Walid as too risky) but others kept getting the horses and we were just waiting for 30 mintues. Walid had to feel the fury of 3 women and two girls who burnt him with their eyes just like those sages in the Amar Chitra Katha cartoons. He apologized profusely and we finally got our van after 25 minutes of waiting. When we went to the temple entrance, the line was a few hundred meters long and I counted ~ 600 people in the line in front of us!
We made it to the temple after security checks and were amazed by what we saw! This temple reminded me of Uttarakosamangai. Same layout.. a long hallway that takes you to the main sanctum with a lot of pillars and chambers on the way!
A must see highlight video of Edfu temple.. it took me a long time to edit this to under 10 minutes from 56 video clips!
It is one of the most well preserved temples in Egypt. The murals on the large temple walls tell a story just like a cartoon in panels. The fight between a hippo god and a crocodile god and the crocodile emerging victorious is amazing.
Inside the temple the walls still retain some of the color. If the plain murals look this awesome, imagine how they would have been 2300 years go when every bit of it was painted!! It would have been spellbinding!
this one reminded me of Ravana..
the unifier being confered the crowns of the north and south with different crests ! this theme is repeated across a lot of temples. The kings support the gods, the gods support the kings. eventually the kings take over for the gods..
the detail on the boat including the little chains was amazing! Probably why it took a 100 years to finish this temple!
No wonder people came there and donated to the temples and they were the big social and economic centers.
These pictures do not do justice to this temple. It happened to be preserved only because it was buried in the sand and folks used to tunnel into some of these chambers and used it as hideouts.
tried a pano but again, this is at a scale where pano's don't work..
This one doubled up as a hospital and maternity ward as well apparently. When we first went to the main sanctum, there was a 100 strong crowd and given my height, simply couldn't see or capture photos or videos. Was disappointed with that and walked out to the entrance with the group. Then I asked Walid how much time we had? He said 10 minutes. So I ran 1/2 a mile back and forth to the sanctum. Given all boats were leaving at more or less the same time, the crowd was gone. There were 4 people in the sanctum.
Ran there, took pictures and videos and captured my running back to the entrance.
The golden idols all gone!
Then there was more drama. The van driver locked the van with the keys inside! We waited another 15 minutes for a backup van. The ladies burnt him with their eyes again like the sages of folklore! Before they started painting some new murals in Edfu temple on the vanquishing of Walid at Edfu in Etchachrome colors, we got into the new van and drove back to the ship in time for breakfast.
we were in for a surprise at the breakfast area as three large tables were empty. The entire Chinese and Korean gang was gone! Walid told us that they took a bus to save time and were going to see everything in our next stop ahead of time and fly out. We had more time, so we were going to spend it on the ship the rest of the afternoon!
More on that in the next post..
If you do the river cruise or not, do not miss Edfu temple! It is just fantastic!
We slept on the boat overnight and woke up at 3:30 AM. The group including kids were all assembled at 4 in the van and the drive started to Abu Simbel from Aswan docks.
Most of us dozed off in the first hour of the drive as it was still dark outside. A little past 6AM the van slowed down for a tea and restroom stop in the middle of the desert! It was good we had some local currency. Restrooms also need local currency for the two sheets of toilet paper they hand you. The restrooms themselves were well maintained but the cigarette smoke was difficult to deal with. Wanted to come home and check what percent of the population smoked and what lung cancer rates were in Egypt. A healthy population is a good idea for any country. With kids (who looked 10 or under) smoking everywhere, it cannot be a good thing!
Enough with the vent. We came out of the shack, ate a packed breakfast that was given to us at the boat, took pictures of a glorious sunrise and kept driving.
lens flares on iPhones are tricky. was trying to teach a class to the group on how to avoid them.. this is as good as it got. More lessons are required!
We went past a small city which was mostly engineers supporting local agriculture in the desert. It was a massive project covering acres growing everything from basic vegetables to maize.
Eventually after 4 hours we made it to Abu Simbel. We got an explanation of how the temple was going to go underwater with the new dam and it took 10 years to literally cut the original temple block by block and reassemble it above the same hill.
The original temple was perfectly oriented to have the sun come through and shine on the main shrine on two days of the year. The new moved temple up the hill still had that going for it. The original temple was a marvel. Moving something like that in the 70's within a 10 year span with global support was impressive!
The minute you walk around the hill and come across the gigantic statues, it just takes your breath away!
There was still color in the murals on the walls and ceiling. Given we were close to Dec 21st, the sun was angling in and lighting up the entire temple in a golden glow inside!
A few pictures of the insides of two temples here..
A video highlight of the Abu Simbel visit.. the video captures both the sunrise and the beauty and scale of the temples!
We had spent a litle over two hours at the temple including a restroom stop and some time at the gift shop buying magnets. Then it was time to start the 4 hour drive back.
It was a race and there were no stops on the way. We had to be back at the boat before 2. Lunch was at 1:30 but the boat was finally going to start moving at 2PM.
We made it at 1:30! I had enough time to run to the market across the docks with Walid and grab some more large water bottles before we started sailing..
We were surprisingly refreshed and were not as tired as we thought we would be! We were all looking forward to moving in the boat on the Nile!
