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A trip through the Nile River
Posted by Marcel on August 3rd, 2006 | 0 comments | 216 views
by Aitor G.
Since I was a child I always have been attracted to the Egyptology. I love everything which is connected to Egypt. It’s a great country, in fact it was (and it is) the most important culture in the world. So last summer, when I heard that because of a terrorist attack the travel-prices were cheaper, I didn’t think two times. I bought the plane tickets and booked the ship room.
I took the plane and after four hours inside the plane we arrived at the airport in Aswan. I was exited because it was my first travel abroad. When we arrived, although being night, it was very hot. Aswan was nice. But we didn’t have time to see it because we had to go to the ship. We booked a room in a ship which was going from Aswan to Luxor through the Nile River.
The first day we went from Aswan to Abu Sinbel, to see the Hathor’s temple and the Great temple.
Ramses II was the greatest Pharaoh ever known in the history of Egypt. Apart from being the most important king, he will be known for his amazing works like architect.
The both temples were built by him, the Hathor’s one dedicated to his wife, Nefertari and the Great Temple, to honor himself. These temples were firstly situated between the First and the second Cataracts, in the solid rock above the banks of the Nile River but between January 1966 and September 1968, they smashed these temples to hundreds of pieces and moved them 250km upriver because they wanted to build the Aswan reservoir.
The Great Temple was built to honor himself. Outside the temple, the four Ramses II’s statues, which are 20meters high, shows different expressions of the Pharaoh.
But it was not only a temple for honor himself, it was also a temple to venerate the three most important gods: Ra, Amon and Ptah. Inside the temple, these three gods and Ramses II can be perfectly seen. This sculpture is very famous because only two days a year, October 22 (RamsesII’s birthday) and February 22 (His coronation day), the sun shines on them. First, the sunshine enters in the temple and illuminates Ra (The sun’s god). Then RamsesII is also illuminated by the sunshine and finally Amon (the greatest god) is shined, and the sun goes without illuminating Ptah which is the darkness’s god. This phenomenon only happened where the temple used to be, however when the archeologists moved the temple, they try to imitate this curious effect, but they didn’t reach and today after illuminating Amon the sun touches Ptah’s elbow.
The Hathor’s temple shows, on the façade, Nefertari between the statues of her husband. It depicts, in the inside of this temple, Nefertari participating in the divine ritual, in the same capacity as her husband and many holy features, for example a statue of the goddess Hathor, who was the goddess of the beauty, represented as a cow.
This was our first trip and for me the most amazing one. It was extremely hot and I was happy because I reached to take a picture of the four gods.
The next day we went to Luxor. We arrived there after a hard-noisy night inside the ship. When I woke up I went to the little balcony which was near my bed and I saw the most beautiful sunrise that I have ever seen: The Nile River wanted to touch the sky. It was really beautiful and of course, I took a picture.
We saw the Karnak temple, the Luxor temple, the Kings’ Valley and the Hatshepsut’s temple. All of them are so beautiful specially the first one. It’s a great temple with hundreds of columns and a lot of goats’ statues, a really wonderful place.
The people in Luxor were so kind, the waitresses, the receptionist, our guide, people in streets… Just when we arrived we decided to go to the market to see or buy some clothes and things. I couldn’t expect that the salesmen were so hard-headed. They all were on top of us, wanting to sell their clothes “Five euros” he said. “Two!” we replied. “Two?! Are you crazy?... Four!” he answered, “Three” again… “Okay!” and finally you buy a shirt that you will never put on in your town, just like a gift.
From Luxor to Cairo we had to take a plane because the route of the ship ended in Luxor. It cost us one hour to arrive at the airport in Cairo and immediately we all decided to go to the hotel. But the problem was that people in Cairo approached the night to go out on foot or on cars because of the hot weather in mornings, and the road was full of traffic. We get in the hotel at 2:00am… two hours from the airport to the hotel. A real chaos! And after that, sweet dreams to get up energetically next morning.
The first day in Cairo we went to the Mohamed Ali’s mosque which was near the city, in the top of a small hill. It was spectacular. The lights and the colors inside were magical. But later the most exiting thing happened. We went outside the mosque and from a ‘balcony’ we were seeing the Cairo city when suddenly all the city started praying and reading the Koran. It was so exiting although I didn’t understand anything.
Then we went through the Nile River inside a faluca. It was very nice to see those great buildings and the city with another perspective. The hotels looked better and bigger from there. The sun shines hit the hotels’ windows. And suddenly we were witnesses of a wonderful sunset. The sun was going between the great buildings.
At night we rode to an Egyptian restaurant which was in a suburb. The food was good, in spite of the species. While we were eating some people were singing, and suddenly a man appeared with a traditional clothe and he started dancing. This dance’s name was berdiche, a traditional Egyptian dance which consists in spinning (your body) with a skirt, a lot of times, while the music is on. It’s hard because you might finish dazed.
In our last day in Egypt we went to Al Gizah to see the Pyramids in the morning and to the Khan el-Khalili market in the afternoon.
The pyramids were nice, but I personally preferred much more the temples. They had much more histories (like the one of the four statues), drawings, sculptures… But the pyramids also are nice to see and to photograph. They are tombs of the greatest Egyptian kings.
In Al Gizah there are three pyramids (from the left to the right): The pyramid of Keops, the pyramid of Kefren and the pyramid of Mykerinos. The Keops’s pyramid is the biggest one, although in the picture it seems smaller. They are a lot of theories of how the pyramids were built: One is that some kind of UFOs built these pyramids. However the most credible theory is that hundreds of workers built these great buildings using 2.500.000 of rocks. Erich von Däkien in his book called ‘The eyes of the Esfinge’ said that calculating that they built those pyramids in 20 years the result is that they used 125.000 rocks per year. If we know that they worked 300 days (more or less) this means that they put 416,6 rocks per day. And if we know that they worked 12 hours a day it means that they put 34 rocks each hour, a rock per two minutes.
In the afternoon we took a taxi to go to the Khan el-Khalili market, because it was a long distance from the hotel to Cairo. It was a crazy trip. I think that Cairo is the unique city that they have zebra crossings for nothing. A lot of people was crossing the street without caring about cars, cars were foreseeing each other, other cars were standing in the middle of the road speaking with their friends… it was a real chaos. But finally we arrived in Cairo and we went inside the market. All the people were bargaining, including us. There were a lot of nice clothes, jewelry, gifts… and if you don’t bargain the salesman get angry, so you have to.
To conclude this day we went to a restaurant called Cristo, which was next to the pyramids. They cooked seafood, very very very good. After that we went to the hotel and slept. The next day we arrived at the airport early and catched the plane. Again at home.
It was an unforgettable travel and I’m sure that I will go there again.
Since I was a child I always have been attracted to the Egyptology. I love everything which is connected to Egypt. It’s a great country, in fact it was (and it is) the most important culture in the world. So last summer, when I heard that because of a terrorist attack the travel-prices were cheaper, I didn’t think two times. I bought the plane tickets and booked the ship room.
I took the plane and after four hours inside the plane we arrived at the airport in Aswan. I was exited because it was my first travel abroad. When we arrived, although being night, it was very hot. Aswan was nice. But we didn’t have time to see it because we had to go to the ship. We booked a room in a ship which was going from Aswan to Luxor through the Nile River.
The first day we went from Aswan to Abu Sinbel, to see the Hathor’s temple and the Great temple.Ramses II was the greatest Pharaoh ever known in the history of Egypt. Apart from being the most important king, he will be known for his amazing works like architect.
The both temples were built by him, the Hathor’s one dedicated to his wife, Nefertari and the Great Temple, to honor himself. These temples were firstly situated between the First and the second Cataracts, in the solid rock above the banks of the Nile River but between January 1966 and September 1968, they smashed these temples to hundreds of pieces and moved them 250km upriver because they wanted to build the Aswan reservoir.
The Great Temple was built to honor himself. Outside the temple, the four Ramses II’s statues, which are 20meters high, shows different expressions of the Pharaoh.
But it was not only a temple for honor himself, it was also a temple to venerate the three most important gods: Ra, Amon and Ptah. Inside the temple, these three gods and Ramses II can be perfectly seen. This sculpture is very famous because only two days a year, October 22 (RamsesII’s birthday) and February 22 (His coronation day), the sun shines on them. First, the sunshine enters in the temple and illuminates Ra (The sun’s god). Then RamsesII is also illuminated by the sunshine and finally Amon (the greatest god) is shined, and the sun goes without illuminating Ptah which is the darkness’s god. This phenomenon only happened where the temple used to be, however when the archeologists moved the temple, they try to imitate this curious effect, but they didn’t reach and today after illuminating Amon the sun touches Ptah’s elbow.
The Hathor’s temple shows, on the façade, Nefertari between the statues of her husband. It depicts, in the inside of this temple, Nefertari participating in the divine ritual, in the same capacity as her husband and many holy features, for example a statue of the goddess Hathor, who was the goddess of the beauty, represented as a cow.This was our first trip and for me the most amazing one. It was extremely hot and I was happy because I reached to take a picture of the four gods.
The next day we went to Luxor. We arrived there after a hard-noisy night inside the ship. When I woke up I went to the little balcony which was near my bed and I saw the most beautiful sunrise that I have ever seen: The Nile River wanted to touch the sky. It was really beautiful and of course, I took a picture.We saw the Karnak temple, the Luxor temple, the Kings’ Valley and the Hatshepsut’s temple. All of them are so beautiful specially the first one. It’s a great temple with hundreds of columns and a lot of goats’ statues, a really wonderful place.
The people in Luxor were so kind, the waitresses, the receptionist, our guide, people in streets… Just when we arrived we decided to go to the market to see or buy some clothes and things. I couldn’t expect that the salesmen were so hard-headed. They all were on top of us, wanting to sell their clothes “Five euros” he said. “Two!” we replied. “Two?! Are you crazy?... Four!” he answered, “Three” again… “Okay!” and finally you buy a shirt that you will never put on in your town, just like a gift.
From Luxor to Cairo we had to take a plane because the route of the ship ended in Luxor. It cost us one hour to arrive at the airport in Cairo and immediately we all decided to go to the hotel. But the problem was that people in Cairo approached the night to go out on foot or on cars because of the hot weather in mornings, and the road was full of traffic. We get in the hotel at 2:00am… two hours from the airport to the hotel. A real chaos! And after that, sweet dreams to get up energetically next morning.
The first day in Cairo we went to the Mohamed Ali’s mosque which was near the city, in the top of a small hill. It was spectacular. The lights and the colors inside were magical. But later the most exiting thing happened. We went outside the mosque and from a ‘balcony’ we were seeing the Cairo city when suddenly all the city started praying and reading the Koran. It was so exiting although I didn’t understand anything.Then we went through the Nile River inside a faluca. It was very nice to see those great buildings and the city with another perspective. The hotels looked better and bigger from there. The sun shines hit the hotels’ windows. And suddenly we were witnesses of a wonderful sunset. The sun was going between the great buildings.At night we rode to an Egyptian restaurant which was in a suburb. The food was good, in spite of the species. While we were eating some people were singing, and suddenly a man appeared with a traditional clothe and he started dancing. This dance’s name was berdiche, a traditional Egyptian dance which consists in spinning (your body) with a skirt, a lot of times, while the music is on. It’s hard because you might finish dazed.In our last day in Egypt we went to Al Gizah to see the Pyramids in the morning and to the Khan el-Khalili market in the afternoon.The pyramids were nice, but I personally preferred much more the temples. They had much more histories (like the one of the four statues), drawings, sculptures… But the pyramids also are nice to see and to photograph. They are tombs of the greatest Egyptian kings.
In Al Gizah there are three pyramids (from the left to the right): The pyramid of Keops, the pyramid of Kefren and the pyramid of Mykerinos. The Keops’s pyramid is the biggest one, although in the picture it seems smaller. They are a lot of theories of how the pyramids were built: One is that some kind of UFOs built these pyramids. However the most credible theory is that hundreds of workers built these great buildings using 2.500.000 of rocks. Erich von Däkien in his book called ‘The eyes of the Esfinge’ said that calculating that they built those pyramids in 20 years the result is that they used 125.000 rocks per year. If we know that they worked 300 days (more or less) this means that they put 416,6 rocks per day. And if we know that they worked 12 hours a day it means that they put 34 rocks each hour, a rock per two minutes.
In the afternoon we took a taxi to go to the Khan el-Khalili market, because it was a long distance from the hotel to Cairo. It was a crazy trip. I think that Cairo is the unique city that they have zebra crossings for nothing. A lot of people was crossing the street without caring about cars, cars were foreseeing each other, other cars were standing in the middle of the road speaking with their friends… it was a real chaos. But finally we arrived in Cairo and we went inside the market. All the people were bargaining, including us. There were a lot of nice clothes, jewelry, gifts… and if you don’t bargain the salesman get angry, so you have to.
To conclude this day we went to a restaurant called Cristo, which was next to the pyramids. They cooked seafood, very very very good. After that we went to the hotel and slept. The next day we arrived at the airport early and catched the plane. Again at home.It was an unforgettable travel and I’m sure that I will go there again.
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