the nile river

Up is Down: Sailing the Nile

Posted by carol.fletcher@rocketmail.com
Share Button

Up is Down: Sailing the Nile 

Egypt is confusing. The Nile runs north, so up (going North on the map) is down (sailing with the river’s current). Upper Egypt is down South. Lower Egypt is up North.

A satellite image of Egypt clearly shows the Nile valley flowing all the way through the country until it empties into the Mediterranean. Orange fills the map–the Sahara, the world’s biggest desert. And the Nile, the world’s longest river, is a green stem cutting through Egypt. At the top, the fertile delta fans out like a papyrus leaf.

The Nile (and her two major tributaries the White Nile and Blue Nile) stretches 4,130 miles through eleven African countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt. And the Nile shows up in the Bible as the setting for Moses, Joseph, plagues, and the exodus. To touch the water of the Nile is to touch ancient history and the African lands so far away.

felucca on the nile river egypt
A felucca on the Nile. Felucca sails are designed for sailing against, and with, the wind.

The Felucca

Old etchings and photos of the Nile almost always show the little sailboats with the large triangular sails…feluccas. A boat seemingly from another era, ancient times.

We boarded a felucca in Aswan for a day of sailing the Nile. We’d also spend the night on “The Jewel of the Nile”. Our small boat held 8 passengers and 2 crew. A platform of colorful kilim bed cushions filled the platform and our suitcases were filed under. A tarp overhead made it impossible to stand up (good idea to stay seated anyway), and it shielded us from the hot Egyptian sun. Shoes off and into a plastic laundry basket, our important items placed down the center line of the boat, and we pushed off.

Felucca passing under bridge, folding mast
Today’s feluccas have folding masts so they can duck under bridges over the Nile. This is the New Aswan City Bridge.

 

Sailing on the Nile: Life in another time

I was ready for the quiet. Observing life on the green banks. Birds, horses, cows, kids, farms…does life along the Nile look much the same now as it did 3,000 years ago? The river is wide and clean. Slow moving.

Cows in the Nile
Cows cool off in the Nile River.
Felucca in the Nile
A felucca passes on the Nile.

A breeze. The sun. The smell of water. Distant sounds of people and animals along the banks. And some restless and bored people on board who chattered and stayed on their phones for much of the ride.

We stopped for lunch and some swam. A sandy beach, a stray dog. I watched a man so very carefully spreading a towel on the beach and displaying his jewelry and Egyptian knick-knacks for sale. Back on the boat, we settled in again… this time with the quiet. Writing, sketching, napping, watching life go by. Absorbing the time.

Egypt banks of the Nile docking
Pulling in the sailboat to dock along the banks of the Nile River.
Stray dog along the Nile River
We stopped sailing for lunch and swimming. This little one came to our boat and accepted Oreo snacks.
Tea on the Nile River felucca
Tea for two on the felucca….sailing quietly down the Nile.

 

Docked for the Night

The sunset. Golden. After, the Nile horizon turned soft pink and periwinkle. At last, the stars. Black night, dark water, lights on the opposite shore. Large boats–floating hotels–cruised by.

We docked, alongside a couple of other feluccas of tourists and a “service boat” where we would dine and could shower. I took my journal and headed for a quiet space. The sails on the felucca pulled against their ties, like horses against their reins, bucking in the waves.

The slow day had left me restless instead of calm, irritated with the young and the loud, dismayed at aging–at “progress”–in general. I sat with my journal contemplating my frustrations. I wanted to absorb the antiquity, life as its always been on the river, to slow it down to catch it, to feel it.

Bryan came to rescue me from my sad melancholy. My big sweet hero. He brought a bottle of water and a deck of cards for scoreless cribbage. We sat chatting and staring out at the water. A memory that will be time immortal.

strawberries Nile River Egypt
By far, the best strawberries I have ever had. Sweet, tart, juicy, fresh…perfect in every way. On the Nile River, Egypt
Bryan and Carol on the Nile River felucca
Us on the Nile River.

Sleeping on the Nile

Cold night, hard pillows, the occasional splash of fish, buzzing bugs, a barking dog, voices on the bank, and finally snoring on the boat. I awoke in the pitch-black morning and sat looking at the stars and the moon.

Eventually, the smell of coffee, rallied me up and over to the service boat. Dawn was coming. I stood with my coffee and watched the sailors prepare the boats. We would leave the felucca this morning, and they’d return to Aswan.

Earth as Designed, or Progress?

There is an eternity to the Nile, the waters push onto the banks, nourishing the valley, and helping to produce food for millions. But now, the dam at Aswan and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. What happens to this fertile valley when countries upstream build dams and fill reservoirs? What happens to the world when we progress to fighting for nourishing water, for more and more electricity, for flood control?

River Nile at sundown
The River Nile –pink and periwinkle– just after sunset.
Felucca sails folded for the night nile river egypt
Tucking in the sails for the night.
Felucca sailboat bedding. Egypt
Felucca sailboat bedding. The suitcases all went under the bedding platform.
Feluccas at Sunrise on the Nile River
Feluccas at sunrise on the Nile River.
Sunrise on the Nile. Preparing the felucca sails.
Sunrise on the Nile. Preparing the felucca sails.

 

The Sun and Moon over Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo is about 35 miles “below Aswan” (North of).  We’d sailed most of that distance, and now we drove to the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was still early morning–the light soft and warm, and the moon still shining down on us. Humming REM, “Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp…yeah yeah yeah yeah.  Moses went walking with his staff of wood…yeah yeah yeah yeah…Andy did you hear about this one…If you believe, they put a man on the moon…”  🙂

Kom Ombo temple was built ~100-200 BC. It is a symmetrical double design to accommodate two gods and thought to be the first place efficiently designed for multiple gods. Worshippers chose which door to enter to convene with their god.

Kom Ombo column moon egypt
“If you believe, they put a man on the moon…” Kom Ombo column with bas reliefs. Egypt.
ankh key of life at Kom Ombo egypt
Kom Ombo bas reliefs and the key of life.

 

Duality…Sobek & Horus

The southeastern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of the Nile, fertility, and creator of the world. Sobek is represented as the aggressive crocodile, which once populated the banks of the Nile. He is also considered a protective and nurturing healer for Egypt–like the mummified crocodiles who have been found with baby crocodiles in their mouths and on their backs; crocodiles diligently care for their young often transporting offspring in this manner.

Meanwhile, the northwestern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon-headed god, Horus the Elder, god of the sky and protector of the king. It is said that the sun is his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traverse the sky when he, as a falcon, flies. The moon is dimmer because his left eye was plucked out in a battle with Seth, god of chaos and the desert. Power-hungry humans tied their lineage to Horus, as explanation and justification for pharaonic power as a divine right. Horus has a dying-and-rising story too…but let’s not go there today.

These two, Sobek and Horus, represented duality…both universal and local stories, spiritual and material. Two priesthoods likely shared the space. Worshippers chose the door they entered based on their need at the time.

The Writing on the Wall

The hieroglyphics… you could spend days reading them all, like books written on a wall. Thousands of illustrations…whales, jackals, incense, medical tools, ankhs, flowers, women giving birth (!), a calendar. It is said that women came here for fertility and contraception, and for predicting the sex of their child. Urinate on barley & wheat…if the barley grows, it’s a boy. If the wheat, it’s a girl. One recipe noted the mix of sour milk or honey plus a mystery ingredient to prevent pregnancy.

Kom ombo bas relief whale birds
I wish I could read all the hieroglyphics at Kom Ombo…there are thousands of fascinating bits. I love this whale.
Egyptian calendar kom ombo egypt
Sherif explains this hieroglyphic calendar. Egyptians invented the calendar: a year of 12 months, each month had 30 days, in three 10-day weeks.
Kom ombo hieroglyphics
There are many medical related hieroglyphics at Kom Ombo. This one showed birthing chairs (left) and childbirth (right).

 

Hijinks

Kings and Pharaohs also came to one of the two black stone altars to request help from the gods. In a hidden wall beside and below the altars, the priests could secretly listen to the king’s private request of his god. The priest then quietly entered the stone chamber hidden beside the altar–which served as an echo or amplification closet–and spoke as god to advise the king/pharaoh. In this way, priests ruled the kings.  Once again, religion and politics traveled hand-in-hand. Nothing is really new, is it? Religion is too often political. Up is down.

black stone altar kom ombo
Our guide, Sherif at one of the black stone altars where pharaohs came to seek advice from their gods.

 

Progress?

The temple has been shaken by earthquakes, its columns and stones salvaged by builders for other temples, and its artwork desecrated by Christians despising and fearing others’ gods. Today, its antiquity is protected. And today, little birds nest in the walls, in the deeply carved hieroglyphics or where chunks have fallen out. I love that.

After our walk through the temple, we lingered. Thank goodness. We sat and enjoyed this soft, slow morning. Music, tea, coffee, and shisha. And the happy little birds, birds singing and us smiling.

lanterns straw roof kom ombo
Lamps under a straw roof. Having coffee after walking through Kom Ombo early one morning.
shisha kom ombo egypt
The boys enjoying shisha at Kom Ombo.

 

Thank you for reading

If you’re interested, select photos are available for sale on Etsy.

Finally, if you liked this post and would like to stay in touch, please…

 

Carol Fletcher is a traveling, dog-loving, tree-hugging, coffee-addicted, Nashville born-and-raised photographer living in Chicago. To see more photo essays and projects, please visit www.carolfletcher.com.
dog on the banks of the Nile
Setting sail and saying goodbye to the sweet dog who loves Oreos.

Egypt Time

Posted by carol.fletcher@rocketmail.com
Share Button

Egypt Time

We booked Egypt in the summer, when things were happy and light. In the fall, things dimmed. I caught a cold in September, and coughed viciously into November. A heavy snow fell in early October. How odd it looked, the still green leaves collapsing into the snow. The holidays came and went. And suddenly, it was Egypt time. We should have been elated. But Trump started saber rattling, taunting Iran. Would there be a war? Would we be targets in Egypt? Was it safe? Things felt ominous, imminent. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon; ill winds stirred. I reckoned it was a cocktail of worry for my parents, for us in our old age, for the environment, for the world consciousness.

Waiting for the el the night we left, we debated whether or not to even go to O’Hare. Walking onto the plane, we considered a different final destination–maybe Paris, or maybe just stay in London. We stood in the Harry Potter shop at Heathrow examining the wands and joking how it felt like the death eaters were hovering. We needed a Patronus charm to protect us. But, we said the important things on calls home, and got on the overnight plane to Cairo.

We landed at the empty Cairo airport at 3:25 a.m., Egypt time, on January 9. It would be a day of rest after 20+ hours of travel and many days of worry.

After a nap, we headed to the banks of the Nile on our first walkabout. The life-sustaining, illustrious NILE. The longest river in the world! The storied River Nile–market of nations, where a touch of a staff turned the river to blood, where 14 cows walked forth–seven fat and seven gaunt–predicting feast and famine years, where Moses was pulled from the bulrushes. The NILE…IMAGINE!

 

The River Nile

Yet, I did not imagine the traffic, the pollution, the haze from the Sahara’s sand, the congestion and chaos of a 3,000-year-old city inhabited by 17 million people. It is said that “he who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world.” That magical sentiment missed me. Cairo is like every other big city. Cars. Trash. People. Fast food. Desperate stray animals. Noise. Pollution. Crime. Concrete high rises shade the beautiful old buildings with turn-of-the-century craftsmanship.

We crossed 4 “lanes” of traffic along the corniche and a sidewalk chalked with 100 years of dust, to stand at the river’s concrete barriers. Trash collected beneath trees and bushes all the way down the bank to the brown water. We walked up the chipped concrete steps of the October 6 Bridge –an overpass highway built in a massive circle around the city–above the narrow streets and alleys that for eons defined the madness and majesty of old Cairo. And there, we could see an expanse of the river, the notorious, nourishing Nile. I felt sorry for her. Dammed, tamed–ORDINARY. I had expected something grand and profound–like I’d felt at the Ganges. This could have been Tennessee’s Cumberland River.

Nile River in Cairo
The 4,132-mile River Nile as it flows around Gezira island in Cairo, as seen from the October 6 Bridge.

 

Expectations and Reality

We made our way back to the cafe next door to the hotel. Middle Eastern techno music tingled our table as I watched an Egyptian girl nurse a hot tea, read her book, and smoke sweet-smelling shisha. Christmas decorations still lit the front of the cafe. I took hot tea with mint and lentil soup, warm and comforting in its foreignness.

Months before leaving, I’d absorbed the 1860s Cairo of Twain, the 1900s Cairo of Mahfouz, and the 1920s Cairo of Carter. Magnificent tales of early eras. I’d expected to see the Nile of the Pharaohs. Of course, those days are gone. The world IS Babel–more homogenous, more McDonald’d every day. Fading away are the days of “exotic” travel–where the imagination’s romantic notions aren’t interrupted by “progress”. It occurred to me that weird night, that perhaps I’m best left to the type of traveling done in an armchair, time traveling of sorts.

But, here we are. In the real life Cairo. Time to dust off, adjust my attitude to the “see” position, and carry on.

First Impressions of Cairo

Christmas decorations in Cairo, Egypt
Christmas decorations on the streets of Cairo. Egypt is 85-90% Sunni Muslim and 10-15% Coptic Christian.
Saving a parking space
Parking attendant “office”. Cairo, Egypt. In Chicago, we’d call this “dibs”.
Sampling shisha
Bryan sampling the shisha in Cairo’s market, Egypt.
Cairo balconies decorated
Cairo balconies decorated with wallpaper, laundry, and satellite dishes. Apartment buildings are often left unfinished in order to expand if necessary. When children marry, parents can add units to the top for their growing families.
Cairo satellites, skies, and a lone dog in muezzin scaffolding
Cairo:  the city of a thousand minarets…and maybe a million satellite dishes. Hazy skies and a lone dog in the minaret’s speaker scaffolding.
Signs of Cairo.
Signs of Cairo.
Mint bouquet
Egypt time is best savored with hot mint tea and lingering in a seat with a view.
Santana Hotel in Cairo, Egypt
Santana Hotel in Cairo, Egypt

 

A welcome taste of the past at the Egyptian Museum

I’d read that the Egyptian Museum was relocating. The grand old place was said to be in need of modern security, better lighting, some organization and labeling, and more space for her collections spanning thousands of years. The desert rose-colored building, opened in 1902, holds unmarked ancient relics in hundreds of original wooden curio cabinets, stacked and jammed into dimly-lit rooms. Sarcophagi and statues crowd into other rooms, lit by dusty sunbeams. The old museum is a treasure trove to wander through, and thousands more artifacts are said to remain packed away in basement rooms. I’d read that the fancy new museum was opening soon near the Giza Pyramids. When we discovered that the legendary old pink lady was still receiving guests, well…you can imagine what that meant to me and my romantic travel notions. It was like stepping back in time.

Sunbeams, statues, sarcophagi, and security lines at the old Egyptian Museum
Sunbeams, statues, sarcophagi, and security lines at the old Egyptian Museum
The Egyptian Museum is being packed up, like Indiana Jones' house being prepped for a move.
The Egyptian Museum is being packed up, like Indiana Jones’ house of treasures being prepped for a move.
A duplicate of the Rosetta Stone.
A copy of the Rosetta Stone. Written in 196 BC, and discovered in 1799 by Napoleon’s army, It was a decree, written in 3 languages: hieroglyphics, ancient Egyptian/Coptic, and ancient Greek. In 1803, Jean-François Champollion realized the cartouche for Ptolemy was outlined in all three scripts, thus breaking the code for how to read hieroglyphics. Currently, THE Rosetta Stone resides in the British Museum. Requests for repatriation to Egypt have been denied.
Canopic jars of alabaster
At embalming, canopic jars individually stored the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver. The heart was left in the body so it could be weighed against a feather. Lighter than the feather, the dead person became eternal. Heavier than the feather, and he/she would be fed to the monster.
sarcophagus at Egyptian Museum
A stone sarcophagus at Egyptian Museum. In the 1850s, so many mummies were ousted from their tombs by grave robbers that the wrappings were sold for paper and the mummies were rumored to be burned as locomotive fuel.
Moon goddess on the inside lid of the sarcophagus
Egyptian moon goddess on the inside lid of the sarcophagus
Dwarf sarcophagus casket top
In ancient statues, people are represented as Gods perfected. On the sarcophagus, truth is depicted.
A golden nesting shrine from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, protected by four 3-4 feet tall goddesses.
A golden nesting shrine from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, protected by four 3-4 feet tall goddesses.
A room of wooden curio cabinets filled with relics at the Egyptian Museum
A room of wooden curio cabinets brimming with relics at the Egyptian Museum
At the Egyptian Museum.
At the Egyptian Museum.

 

Thank you for reading

Select photos are available on Etsy.

Finally, if you liked this post and would like to stay in touch, please…

 

Carol Fletcher is a traveling, dog-loving, tree-hugging, coffee-addicted, Nashville born-and-raised photographer living in Chicago. To see more photo essays and projects, please visit www.carolfletcher.com.