Thursday, June 15, 2023

 

Ancient Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs!

Part B: On the banks of the Nile  

Travelogue 26

 

The Nile, forever new and old,

Among the living and the dead,

Its mighty, mystic stream has rolled.

                                                                -        H W Longfellow

  

No trip to Egypt can be complete without

witnessing the Nile river’s glory

 

[This is the concluding part of my two-part travelogue on Ancient Egypt, the first one, on the great Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Museum of antiquities in Cairo, and the historic city of Alexandria, having appeared earlier (see here). This part describes what I saw of the Nile and various points of historical interest in Upper Egypt.]

 


Overview

 

No country in the world, at any time in its history, the distant past or the immediate present, depended for nearly all facets of its economy so much on a single major river flowing through its land as heavily as Egypt has, for as long as it has.  In the last part of this travelogue, I presented a picture of ancient Egypt as one of the greatest civilizations in the world, flourishing for about 45 centuries on the banks of this omnipresent river, leaving its imprint in the form of the great Pyramids and other civilizational treasures. In this part, I wish to complete the picture, focusing on the pockets of civilization that developed and flourished in a somewhat narrow stretch of the river highlighted in the map below, with the places of interest on either side circled out as well.  Also indicated are the three places explored in Part A.

 
Our sightseeing trip first took us from Cairo to Aswan city by flight, and from there on to each one of the places indicated, mostly by ferry on the river. These places were, in chronological order: Aswan High Dam, Philae, Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Edna Lock while on River Nile Cruise, Edfu, Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Karnak and Luxor. In the process, we lived for four days in what was, for all practical purposes, a floating luxury hotel, reminding me of the 1978 Agatha Christie book-based movie ‘Death on the Nile’.

 

Aswan High Dam

 

Aswan is a strategically important city in southern Egypt, just north of the iconic Aswan High Dam built during 1960-76 across the river Nile. The High Dam is one of the world’s largest embankment dams.  Construction of the High Dam became a key objective of the Egyptian government of president Gamal Abdel Nasser following the revolution of 1952 that overthrew King Farouk.  With its ability to control flooding of the Nile, provide increased water storage for irrigation, better management of water resources and generation of large amounts of inexpensive hydroelectricity, the dam was a key element of Egypt's thrust on industrialization, but with a controversial environmental impact. The High Dam was largely built with huge economic and technical inputs from the then Soviet Union.

 

The Aswan High Dam is 111 m high, 3.8 km long, 40 m wide at the crest and almost a km wide at its base. Lake Nasser, the reservoir impounded by it can hold about 1.7 billion cubic meters of water. The hydroelectric capacity is 2.1 million kW.

 

Upon our arrival at Aswan airport on 1 Apr 16, we were taken straight to the top of the dam which resembled a picnic spot rather than the top of such an engineering marvel. Because of its enormous width we never got the feeling of being at the highest point.  There was no looking down like what one is used to on most other large dams, one could look only sideways!  Here is one such view:

 

 

Here is another view, looking at the enormous Lake Nasser formed by the stored water that flooded a vast area of land, requiring not just the relocation of over 100,00 people, but also of a number of ancient Egypt’s greatest monuments, as we shall see later:


A large monument to commemorate Arab-Soviet friendship in the building of the dam is a prominent landmark visible over a large area of the dam site. Here is a view of this:


The vastness of the top of the dam, accentuated by a gradually sloping landfill, is apparent from the following picture taken from a considerable distance, with the friendship monument on the left.  We were not taken to the location of the power stations.


After the visit to Aswan dam, we were driven to the nearby Nile River side and into one of the river cruise ships, which are large floating luxury hotels. These were positioned all over the river, catering to the flow of tourists, though not too many at the time of our trip to Egypt.  

Philae

The Philae Temple Complex is located on an island in the reservoir of the old Aswan Low Dam downstream of Aswan High Dam and Lake Nasser. Until the UNESCO led ‘International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the temple complex was located on Philae Island, elsewhere in Upper Egypt. It was dismantled and moved to nearby Agilkia Island as part of the project, protecting this and other complexes before the 1970 completion of the Aswan High Dam, and the ensuing threat of destruction through massive flooding. This was an astonishing feat that came about as the collaborative work of archaeologists, architects, structural engineers, and skilled labour.

Many of Philae's surviving structures were built in the Ptolemaic era, during which the island became a prominent site of pilgrimage not only for Egyptians and Nubians but also for pilgrims from as far away as the Greek mainland.

Here are the ferry boats in waiting, one of which picked up and took us to the current location of the complex a short distance away: 


Here is our first view of the temple complex as we approached it from the lake side:


The following picture shows the Philae temple complex from the entry point, with the Temple of Isis directly ahead, and its row of massive colonnades on the right: 


In the picture below, I have preferred to stay in the protective shade, against the harsh sunny background of the massive temple structures: 


Close to the temple is the impressive structure called Trajan’s Kiosk seen in the following picture:

On our return to the floating hotel, we were told to be prepared to get up early next morning and be ready at 4 am to proceed on a long bus journey to Abu Simbel, the southernmost tourist spot in Egypt.  It would be a four-hour long journey, in a convoy of four tourist buses, escorted by the Egyptian military because of a possible threat from militants in neighboring Sudan.  After an early dinner, we were entertained on board by a belly dance programme.  Not wishing to appear different from the rest of the group, CS and I put in a brief appearance, and excused ourselves after some time, preferring to retire early to bed for a good night’s rest before the long day ahead.

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel consists of two massive adjacent rock-cut temples dating back to the 13th century BCE, during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II.  This site also presented one of the greatest challenges to archaeological engineering in history, because the threat of the monument’s submergence in the backwaters of Lake Nasser formed by the Aswan High Dam necessitated the extremely challenging task of its relocation to its present location. Between 1964 and 1968, as part of the hugely expensive UNESCO-led International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, an artificial hill was built to house the two relocated Abu Simbel temples.  The gigantic structure was cut into huge blocks of different sizes, dismantled, lifted and carefully reassembled in a new location, 65 metres higher and 200 metres away from its original site.

After our arrival in time without any incident and a briefing by our chain-smoking carefree guide, we started on a short walk leading up to the Abu Simbel temples. Here is a picture in brilliant early morning sunlight, with a sideways view of the temples in the centre, and CS, in the black coat, way ahead of me on the right. 


This keepsake picture of the iconic Ramesses temple, in the dazzling Sun, with me far in front of it, was captured by CS after he graciously let me go ahead of him. 


The entrance to the temples is flanked by four colossal 20 m high statues of Ramesses II, each seated on a throne and wearing a huge crown. The statue to the immediate left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, causing the head and torso to fall away.  The fallen pieces were not restored to the statue during the relocation but placed at the statue's feet. Next to Ramesses’ legs are placed a number of smaller statues, each with its own significance.

The picture below gives a close-up view of the four gigantic rock hewn figures:

I clicked the following angular view of the rock-cut statues of Ramesses as I moved further to the right and close to a large shrub that had given shelter to some tourists from the blazing sun. This was after I had explored the interior of the temple and found the exterior more interesting than the rather dimly lit interior. 

Right next to the Ramesses temple is the other relocated temple, one dedicated to his queen Nefertari, originally about 100 m away.  It has three statues, of the queen and the king, on either side of the central entrance as can be seen in the following picture:


Shown in the picture below is the lake at some distance in front of the temples, with tourists, mainly from our group, scattered in between. 


After this was a long bus journey back to Aswan and to our floating hotel.

Kom Ombo

Our next visit, late that evening, was to the ruins of nearby Kom Ombo Temple, which carried the following helpful and succinct description of its symbolic status and significance, something missing or not as prominently displayed in most other places we visited: 


Kom Ombo temple is located right next to the river near Aswan as can be made out from the following picture:


The gigantic columns of this temple bear the beautifully chiseled features seen in the following picture, somewhat similar to the ones seen in many large temples in India, though less intricate than the latter in their designs and carvings. 


Another interesting feature of Kom Ombo is the Crocodile Museum, with exhibits of mummified crocodiles as in the picture below: 


As we left Kom Ombo early that night, I captured the following picture of the illuminated double-sided entrance to the temple:


Here is a strikingly illuminated view of our floating hotel on the Nile, with its landside approaches equally inviting: 


Night Nile Cruise

Late that night, we left Aswan for the historic city of Luxor by Nile River cruise, traveling a distance of around 215 km downstream, a much sought after experience for most tourists.  We woke up early in the morning to bask in the fabulous sights lining up both sides of the river. Here is one such sight:


The banks of the river are dotted with innumerable eye-catching sights, old and new, desert like and agricultural, traditional and modern, for the poor and the rich, and catering as it has done to all kinds of needs for thousands of years.  Here is one such sight, apparently for the rich, particularly of the tourist class:  

CS and I quickly worked our way to the top deck of our ship and started taking in the refreshing sights as the ship moved downstream at just the right pace for us.  The river was marvelously clean, full and beautiful almost everywhere we saw it in the country.  I caught CS unawares with the following picture as he positioned himself at one side of the deck for the view ahead as the ship made its way forward:

Esna Lock

We were soon to enjoy one of the most thrilling experiences, of not just the river cruise, but also of our entire trip to Egypt, as we approached the iconic Esna Lock seen in the picture below: 


Built in the 19th century, and renovated in 1996, to facilitate and control navigation of boats and ships along both directions of the river Nile, Esna Lock is a lock and dam system that is also a major tourist attraction in itself.  Here is some basic information about it:

“Esna Lock has two entrances, built with an elevation difference of 8 meters, 17 meters wide, 221 meters long, and 14.6 meters deep.

When a boat enters the lock, the gates are closed behind it, and the water level in the lock is adjusted to match the level of the river downstream. Once the water level is equalized, the gates on the downstream side of the lock are opened, and the boat can continue its journey down the river.  Filling the lock with water and emptying it is carried out through 4 automatic gates, while a control tower loads and opens the lock in about 6 minutes.

Esna Lock was constructed to control the flow of Nile water to preserve and store the water for agriculture and to improve navigation in the river Nile. The lock is a vital waterway on the Nile River that connects the upper and lower parts of the river.  Esna lock is an essential part of the Nile River transportation system and has played a crucial role in the transportation of goods and people along the Nile River for centuries.”

We went through the whole experience of navigating the river as described above. It was further enlivened by Nubian traders in small boats trying to sell a variety of memorabilia and other goods to tourists perched high above them on the ship’s forefront at the top deck. They would roll the stuff into a compact size and shape and throw it up expertly for the potential buyer to collect it, examine it and negotiate a price.  Once the bargaining, which was a virtual shouting match in broken English, was completed, the payment in cash would be dropped down from above and collected equally expertly, to complete a transaction.  Needless to say, the rejected items found their way back more easily.  Luckily, we did have a few buyers around us to make the whole show a grand spectacle, even as the transfer through the lock system was progressing.  Not many things in one’s life could be more enjoyable than this, even just watching the show! 

Here is a picture of the traders in one boat, with the camera looking down from high above: 


It was soon time to halt at Luxor, with an evergreen memory of the cruise and its highlights as valuable additional baggage.

Edfu

Before reaching Luxor, we had also visited the Temple of Edfu on the way. It is a well-preserved Egyptian temple on the west bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt, built during the Ptolemaic era between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on the language, myth and religion during the Hellenistic period in Egypt.

Here is a picture taken as we approached the temple from a well laid out path at its outskirts:


Here is the large forecourt of the temple complex against the background of a bright blue sky with scattered clouds: 


In the courtyard is a statue of Horus (see picture below), the god of the sky, and the son of Osiris. Horus had a man's body and a falcon's head. Incidentally, Pharaohs were viewed as the incarnation of Horus. 


Here is a view of the spacious interior sanctuary of the temple, partly lit by sunlight: 


Below is a large portion of an exterior wall filled with characteristic ancient Egyptian artwork: 

4th April 16 was our last full day of the Egyptian trip, and a very busy day, with as many as four of the most important visits all scheduled for the same day.  Around noontime, we visited one of the most extraordinary places, both historically and otherwise for reasons to follow.

Hatshepsut Temple

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, built during the reign of Pharaoh (Queen) Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, is located opposite the city of Luxor, and is considered to be a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian architecture.  Its three massive terraces rise above the desert floor and into the tall cliffs of Deir el-Bahari, themselves towering over the temple complex as the following picture, taken from quite a distance on the approach road, shows:


Here is a closer, panoramic view of the temple complex, with only two of the terraces clearly visible at the angle at which the camera was pointed: 


The relative sizes and distances of the objects I was viewing, with CS closest to the camera, can be gauged from the picture below. Observe also the water bottle CS is holding.  He certainly needed it on that blazingly hot and sunny day, just past noon. In this picture, the middle terrace that was hidden in the previous picture, is just about visible. 


The next picture was shot from a sufficiently close range for all three terraces and their long approach ramps, stepped in the middle and sloped on the sides, to be visible in fair detail. 


Having walked laboriously under the blazing sun, with no shade to shield us on the way, we rested for some time even as we looked back at the path we had traversed. Shown below is what we saw.  The ramps appear to merge into one long, slightly sloping pathway, with the road where we had alighted from our bus barely visible very far away. We felt the visit should have been scheduled much earlier or on the previous day, considering that this was just the first one for the day.


The partly damaged row of statues of Hatshepsut seen at the top terrace is captured in the following sideways view, showing greater detail: 


Now, let me go into the question of why such a remarkable structure is also associated with one of the worst and most dastardly acts of terrorism in the annals of Egyptian history in what has come to be known as the Luxor Massacre. Here are some excerpts from the Wikipedia on the incident:

“The Luxor massacre was a terrorist attack that occurred on 17 November 1997 in Egypt. It was perpetrated by al-Jamāʻah al-Islāmīyah and resulted in the deaths of 62 people, most of whom were tourists. It took place at Dayr al-Bahri, an archaeological site located across the Nile from the city of Luxor.

In the mid-morning attack, six gunmen killed 58 foreign nationals and four Egyptians. The assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. They killed two armed guards at the site. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes, during which many bodies, especially of women, were mutilated with machetes. The body of an elderly Japanese man was also found mutilated. A leaflet was discovered stuffed into his body that read "no to tourists in Egypt" and was signed "Omar Abdul Rahman's Squadron of Havoc and Destruction - the Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Group".

The dead included a five-year-old English child, Shaunnah Turner, and four Japanese couples on honeymoon. There were 26 survivors.

The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian National Police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the subsequent shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together.”

No doubt, tourism in Egypt suffered immensely from this mindless act of terrorism on innocent tourists.  At the time of our visit, nobody in our group, including me, had heard about this horrendous story!

Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings is a desolate desert location near Luxor on the west bank of the Nile where, for nearly 5 centuries, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles of ancient Egypt. It is now known to contain 65 tombs and chambers of wide-ranging sizes and shapes. It was the principal burial place for the major royal figures and privileged nobles. The royal tombs were decorated with traditional scenes from Egyptian mythology and hold clues to their funerary practices and afterlife beliefs. Almost all of the tombs have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of Egypt's pharaohs.

The Valley of the Kings has been a focus of great interest for Egyptologists and archaeological exploration since the end of the 18th century, and its tombs and burials continue to excite interest. It came into the limelight with the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by Howard Carter, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.  I have no pictures to display of the time we spent there on that oppressively hot afternoon, since photography was strictly prohibited, for whatever reason.

Incidentally, most of the riches discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, as described in the first part of this travelogue.

Some of the tombs, including the one of Tutankhamun were open to tourists to explore, wading through narrow, poorly lit tunnels.  Most of the visitors in our group explored the historic, and totally empty, Tutankhamun’s tomb.  Rather pointlessly, I summoned up enough courage and strength to explore two others as well. 

Karnak

For historical reasons, the Karnak (not to be confused with Konarak in India with which it has no resemblance) Temple Complex is the most important ancient Egyptian site in southern Egypt.  Together with nearby Luxor, it appears to be next in prominence only to the Pyramids of Giza in northern Egypt.  The complex is a vast open site and includes the Karnak Open Air Museum. It consists of four main parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the public. According to Wikipedia,

“The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re, because this is the only part most visitors see. The other three are all closed to the public. The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. About thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are vast.”

Here is a roadside view of the towering main temple complex, known as the Hypostyle Hall:

The Hypostyle Hall has 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. Twelve of these are 21 m tall and over 3 m in diameter. Some of these massive columns can be seen in the following picture:


Below is a row of animal headed sphinx statues prominently visible at the entrance to the complex:

A distinctive feature of Karnak (as also of nearby Luxor) is the tall pyramidal obelisks, two of which are seen in the picture below at close proximity to each other: 

Below is a zoomed in picture of one of the obelisks seen above, showing the intricate carvings on their surfaces, with every picture denoting something significant:


A notable feature of Karnak is the large Sacred Lake dating back to the reign of Tuthmosis III (1443-1458 BCE), measuring 120 m by 77 m. A part of it is seen in the picture below: 


Our local guide for the day told us that on a clear sunny day, it was possible to sight the Temple of Hatshepsut far away on the other side of the river with a binoculars or superzoom camera. Since it was indeed clear and sunny, I immediately took him on his word, turned my camera to the direction he pointed out, zoomed in nearly to the full extent [Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, f/6.5, (1/500) sec, ISO 80, 215 mm] and, sure enough, was able to capture a spectacular, though grainy, picture (see below) of the Hatshepsut complex. 


Luxor

Located quite close to the Karnak Temple complex, Luxor Temple is a large ancient Egyptian temple complex on the east bank of the Nile in the modern city of Luxor (ancient Thebes), dating back to around 1400 BCE. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to any cult god or deified version of the pharaoh. Instead, it appears to be dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship. It may have been where many of the pharaohs were crowned. Incidentally, a mosque is also located, partially attached to the temple complex, apparently from 640 AD.

Somewhat similar to Karnak, here is a roadside view of the Luxor Temple complex with its massive pillars: 


The following bilingual map of the complex is displayed prominently near an entry point: 


The picture below shows the pylon (monumental gate), the Obelisk of Ramesses II and a statue of Ramesses II himself. 


Below is a picture highlighting the architectural aspects of the construction of the complex, also capturing the beautiful symmetry of the layout inside: 


Below is part of a row of massive pillars forming part of the Sun court of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. 


Two giant statues of Ramesses II (see picture below) adorn the entrance through the first Pylon of Luxor Temple.


 The Colossi of Memnon

Earlier that afternoon we had gone past the twin statues known as the Colossi of Memnon.  The bus driver chose to just slow the bus down to a crawl while letting the guide explain what these gigantic objects were. I shot the picture below from my window side seat.


The Colossi of Memnon are a pair of monolithic statues that depict Pharaoh Amenhotep III, located on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. They were built in the fourteenth century BC.

It was past sunset when we returned to our floating ship, then to vacate it and spend the last night of our trip in a beautiful riverside resort.

Jolie Ville Resort

The Jolie Ville resort proved to be just what we needed on the last night of our trip to Egypt.  It is located on the east bank of the river and right next to it, with all amenities a first-class resort is expected to provide.

Here are three pictures of the river side amenities the two of us enjoyed that night and the following morning:




The next morning, we boarded a flight at Luxor international airport for Bangalore via Doha with a few hours of halt at its ultra-modern airport.

Au Revoir, Land of the Pharaohs!

This concludes my two-part travelogue on Egypt.

Before saying au revoir, I would like to dwell a little bit on my fascination for the magnificent Egyptian obelisks, seen in Egypt on this visit.  I had first seen one on the Victoria Embankment of the river Thames in London as ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’, sometime in the summer of 1967.  It originally came from Luxor, an authentic ancient Egyptian obelisk.  So did the ones I saw just a week later at the Place de la Concorde in Paris and in Vatican City, near Rome. Fifty years later, I had the chance to see yet another, at the Central Park in New York, as also to revisit the ones in Paris and Vatican City.  That apart, I have seen impressive obelisks that did not originate in Luxor, at Washington DC and Buenos Aires. There is something just magical about them!

I sign off with a picture of the most magnificent in my list, one at Luxor whose picture I have reserved for the last, one which appears to be trying to reach out for the stars!





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