Saturday June 21 supplement

Saturday June 21, 2008 supplement at Aswan

Aswan means ‘he place of barter’. When the Granite, Gold and Ivory were in high demand this place was the center of all of that trading. Hence, the name was contracted into “As – Wan” . One of the places we saw today was the granite quarry of Aswan, but more on that later.

The early morning was spent walking a few blocks to a yard goods store (shop) that had stacks of bolts some 15’ high all around the 15 X 20 X 18 feet structure. There was hardly enough room to walk around inside. As a matter of fact , there was not. But there was a variety of yard goods. There was a wooden ladder to reach the upper bolts. Both Karl and Shirley needed material and were successful in getting what they needed once the shop owner understood what colors and fabrics they were after. Our guide, Ihim, was very helpful. All the while we were there a “cab driver” ( a horse cab, not a motorized one) was after us for a ride. That would mean that his horse affectionately named “Suzy’, would have to pull 7 of us which included the driver , our guide and his helper,10 year old Mohammed. As you may have suspected, Suzy did well. We headed for the Aswan Market and Bazaar some 2 miles away.
{NB: The traffic lights here in Aswan have timers on them so you can see how many seconds are left on the green or red. They count down to zero from 45. Is this a good idea???} The drivers here are much better than in Cairo, of course there are less of them.
We did get dropped off at the entrance to the mile long official Aswan Bazaar and started to head for a shop that sold T shirts. Of course the many shop owners (all men) tried to sell us things including spices (many types of them) and water pipes and the only woman we saw selling anything was walking, selling cigarettes. We arrived at a shop run by ‘Shokalata’, who was a Muslim with a good sense of humor that made our purchases seem more agreeable to us. We did find the T shirts we wanted all in embroidery, and enjoyed the banter and hassle over prices. He threw in some gifts (shawls) for the ladies, but for the men…!
After a good trip with Suzy and his driver back to the ship we ate lunch, and prepared for the afternoon guided tour. Hassan, our guide on the ship, took is to three places . First the Aswan High Dam, second the “Unfinished Obelisk Granite Quarry” and third the Island where the temple of Isis and Osiris is, called Philae temple.

The Aswan high dam is a monster (3000 meters long) situated a few miles above the old dam so the river flows between them now. It has saved the Nile Valley three times already, and brings the minerals to the farms through irrigation. There are more farms now in the upper Nile, but fertilizers are used in the lower Nile. Leaching becomes a problem yet to solve. Irrigation has increased the size of the farmland and crop land. The dam is as large as 17 pyramids of the size of Cheops. The Nasser Lake that it has made is 500 Km long (300 Miles) and from the air is huge!

The quarry was a walk through the stones and up and on top of them during which Hassan called a “Swiss 20 minutes” walk for us. (The Mogenpick Co is Swiss.). Now this was hot! Probably about 115 degrees in the sun and the heat of the rocks just added to that . We didn’t linger too long at any one place and there was no shade. I consumed one bottle of water on that walk alone. Hassan said it was NOT a hot day!!! It is often called the ‘place of the unfinished obelisk’ as there is one there almost ready to be taken out of the ground . It is 150 feet long and weighs 1200 tons. How they would have moved it to its destination is a beauty and a mystery of the early Egyptian engineering. There are still a few (8) obelisks left in Egypt of some size. There are more in Italy (20+) and two in the USA. (Do you know where they are located? Think NY state.) It was an awesome place.

Finally, it was the bus and boat ride to the temple of Isis (Philae Temple) which was one of those moved across the river to keep it from being under water when the Dam was built. There are many stories connected with the culture of the Kings and Queens’s time and more of that will come at another writing. Suffice to say that the entry to the Temple passes through five portals (square openings) each of which gets smaller as one reaches heaven at the other end. At that point the room is closed (except for the entry) and there is a platform (3 feet high) from which the deities can enter the heaven. Interestingly in the 500 AD era the Christians used this temple as a church (evidence is there) and did not destroy anything that was there. (Read back in Jerusalem for a comparison). The boat ride helped stifle the heat.

Two hours later (after cooling down) we had a reception for all guests in the lounge. This ship has six decks, with three for living space for guests, one for the 69 employees and hands, and two for engine and other needs (water , waste, etc).I will check out the engine and specs later.
Dinner was served on the Promenade (top deck) and as we sat down to eat, the ship embarked on the first leg of the journey down the Nile. One of the students from Arkansas (37 of them on a 2 month” class” to the Middle East and Europe) had a birthday so the staff had a line of drums and singing with some Central African rhythms ending with their version of “Happy Birthday”. It lasted 10 minutes. No restaurant ever did that in these!

Our destination in 21/2 hours is Edfu (10:30 PM) where we will visit at 7:00 AM in the morning. We will tie up there most of the night. Then proceed to Edfu for more historical places . Stay tuned. Maybe I can get the pictures to download. Please keep a fellow traveler in prayer. He is George and his family from Greece, and is searching for employment close to home (he has been sent to four countries the past 8 years.)