Egypt trip

My Wife and myself enjoyed a long awaited trip to Egypt. It is a commonly held misconception that Egypt = Pyramids and the Sphinx. I have to admit secretly that I did hold this belief at a corner of my brain until I set sight on the River Nile at the time of our landing into a city called Luxor. I was woken up by the '' Fasten your seatbelt '' warning which made my eyes to focus on this long river which was feeding the lush green vegetation in the middle of an arid desert like landscape.

Luxor airport == Not spectacular but as we reached our cruise ship, the Nile became closer to me than it ever was. It fed the Egyptian civilization for 4500 years and it was now home to almost 300 Ships literally pouring diesel into its shores .

Luxor - Home to the Karnak temple which is a Sun temple and the largest temple complex in the world. Can you think of similarities between Konarak temple and Karnak temple. I leave it to your imagination. The Karnak temple was huge with massive statues and had reliefs depicting even ancient surgical instruments . Fascinating. The Ancient Egyptians worshiped many Gods and the walls were adorned with culture .

The Gods included Osiris - God of afterlife . His Wife Isis . Son Horus who is a Falcon headed God . They do have a very rich mythology. The temples are obviously not used for prayer as their ancient religion is defunct. Egypt became a Christian country for a while and was replaced by Islam in the 7th - 8th century AD.


The Temple of Luxor stands bang in the middle of town and you can hear the Islamic call to prayer very frequently near the temple as it stands next to a majestic Mosque. We did a sinful act of eating in a Mc Donalds near the Luxor temple . No veggie options unfortunately , hence , fries and a coke hurried into our bellies. The coke didn't quench our thirst as we realized that the temperature was 52 degrees . Hell------

Have you folks heard about a Christian group called the '' Coptic Christians'' - They have lived in Egypt for over 2000 years. They are a minority now. I posed for a photograph with a Coptic Christian who looked no different but I just wanted to. I knew he was a copt as he has the photo of Mother Mary in his shop.

Valley of the Kings and Queens is a testimony to the belief in afterlife held by the ancient Egytians . That is where you see the fabled Tutankhamun's tomb. Superstition prevented us from visiting it . We did enjoy the different tombs in the valleys . Basically, a king would cut a tomb for him and for his beloved in the valley and fill it with all the necessary ingredients for after life including jewellery etc etc etc.

The market popularly called '' souks'' was entertaining . It was full of life like one of our markets in India. Spices in open containers , craft shops , fake papyri shops, artefact shops loads of them with owners yelling '' Amitabh Bacchan, Shahruk etc .

Aswan - Overnight sailing from Luxor into Aswan . Famous for the Aswan dam - Second largest in the world . The building of the dam created the largest artificial lake - Lake Nasser. There is some political history to this [ Suez crisis]. Pres Nasser at that time nationalized the Suez canal to build the Dam bringing him into conflict with PM Heath of Britain. Aswan is also home to the temple of Philae which had a lot of Greek influence to it . The tomb of Aga Khan is also in Aswan . Aga Khan was the leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims. His tomb was open to the public until some scantily clad women wreaked havoc in the tomb leading the family to close it to the public. We sailed on a Felucca [ Traditional Egyptian sailing boat] which stopped sailing and had to be helped by a motor boat to a Nubian Village tour . Nubians are an ethnic African tribe who are great singers and artists . We bought a beautiful African carving as the artist just about finished giving a life and form to it. We visited a traditional Nubian house and were helped to hold two tiny crocodiles . We also visited a temple dedicated to crocodiles called '' Kom Ombo''.

Abu Simbel
Built by Ramases [ Great KIng of ancient Egypt] . Colossal statues of him and queen Nefertari standing majestically facing Lake Nasser almost challenging the 300 km radius of the magnificent lake. It is a must visit as the statues are carved out of a single rock.

Cairo

Bustling metropolis living in a sense of paranoia created by its military ruler Mubarak. Security everywhere [ Security will be visible all over Egypt after tourists were killed by terrorists - notably the Luxor massacre]. We were driving through cement building until we saw one of the pyramids through the window of the bus but it didn't prepare us for what we actually saw . There are three pyramids . The largest pyramid was massive and it is inconceivable as to how ancient Egyptians could have mobilized tonnes of granite to build this super structure . Time for photos and also to take photographs of poor camels made to pose like models by their masters. The owners run to you for a tip. Giving a tip reaches epidemic proportions in Egypt as you have to tip anyone irrespective of whether they offer a service or not. Just a way of life I suppose. The drive from the pyramids takes you to the Sphinx which stands guarding these three pyramids . It is a sight hard to forget as it overpowers your sense of imagination.

Lunch at a traditional Egyptian restaurant . We are plagued by the same old '' Vegetarian'' issue. They didn't know what to offer us. Sad that our Acharyas didn't go that far, no sight of vegetarians . We were offered Falafel [ Traditional Egytian Vada ]. It was so tasty that we binged on it and satisfied our appetite.

The Antiquities museum at Cairo had an eclectic collection of 4,000 year old Gold and other precious stone ornaments worth billions. Yes, you can also see the mummies . Animal mummies also can be seen.

Khan - el- Khalili bazaar , very similar to the market at Luxor and the same chants of Amitabh etc etc.

Back to our cruise ship. Time to bid adieu to the Nile. Throughout our trip, the one fascination was the Nile. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the Ganges. I have seen the enormity of Krishna , Cauvery and Godavari but never have I stayed so close to a River for a week. It is a common saying in North Africa that if you drink from the Nile, you will visit again. I will surely visit the Nile again and also the Coptic Church at Alexandria [ Yes , the one and only Alexander the Great made it his capital ] and Mount Sinai.