DESTINATIONS EGYPT | CRUISE
CALM WATERS As we start to sail south that afternoon, it’s eerily quiet but for the cries of kids on the riverbank trying to attract our attention. The scenery is beautiful: green along each riverside where the ground is well-irrigated, but with miles of desert beyond. Now and then I spy a tiny dahabiyya, modelled on the sailing boats the British first used when they came to Egypt, being tugged in the opposite direction.
Once lunch is over – always a
buffet, as is breakfast, both offering Egyptian and international dishes, while dinner is a served four-course meal apart from one Egyptian- themed night – we enter the lock at Esna and dock just beyond for a tour of the hypostyle hall of the temple there, dedicated to the god Khnum. I have already realised that
getting to grips with who’s who in ancient Egyptian history is tricky, to say the least, especially as just when
Visitors are vital
for the economy, but it’s perfect the sites are not overcrowded
you think you’ve got it, along comes another god to confuse things. “We think there are about 900 gods,” Medhat tells me the next day on a horse-and-carriage ride through Edfu to the next temple, where we spend 20 minutes learning about murder, magic and infidelity between the gods. I’m not sure I’m any the wiser, so I make do with admiring the temple, which is dedicated to Horus, the falcon god, and has a perfumery room whose walls are adorned with ‘recipes’ – in hieroglyphics, of course. “Who knows, maybe Chanel No 5 is somewhere on these walls,” Medhat jokes.
CROC ROCK We sail on again, farther south, ticking off the Temple of Kom Ombo, half dedicated to Horus, half to a crocodile god – a prudent move by the ancients designed to appease the crocs that lived in the river in those days – and on to Aswan, where the cruise ends. But not before one last temple. Philae had been built on an island by the ancient Egyptians but, due to being submerged every year beneath floodwaters, it was painstakingly moved more than 40 years ago under the direction of Unesco to its present location, also an island. It is spectacular, surrounded by sandstone islands rising out of the blue water, with pockets of greenery here and there, and little boats taking visitors to the temple. I could have admired the scenery for hours, but we had one last treat that afternoon – a felucca cruise (think
small boat with a sail) on the Nile. It was gorgeous. We glided peacefully past the spectacular Old Cataract Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile, and the giant grey boulders that gave Elephantine Island its name. As the sun started to set, everything took on a warm glow. Our just reward from the pharaohs for at least trying to be good students? I like to think so.
TW BOOK IT
Fred River Cruises offers a nine-day Discover the Nile
holiday pairing a four-night cruise from Aswan to Luxor with four nights in Cairo, from £4,059 per person departing January 28, 2020, including flights. An optional Abu Simbel excursion costs from £299.
fredrivercruises.co.uk
travelweekly.co.uk
24 OCTOBER 2019
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