Nile Cruise: Day 2 Temple of Kom Ombo

The cruise we took had a nice balance of down time on the boat and site seeing on land. The boat moved lazily up the river, and we spent a fair amount of time each day under the sun canopy on the upper deck watching the banks roll by.

Camels grazing

Kids swimming in the Nile

A boat similar to this one lashed on to our boat at hitched a ride for awhile.

Kom Ombo

Our only stop on day 2 of the cruise was the Temple of Kom Ombo. This temple is unique in that it is a double temple for two different gods: Sobek-Re (the crocodile god) on the right side and Horus the Elder (the falcon god) on the left side. This temple is located on a prominent bend in the Nile, which was a favorite spot for the Nile crocodiles to hang out prior to the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Sobek-Re is associated with Seth, the enemy of Horus. In the myth of Horus and Osiris, Seth and his followers changed themselves into crocodiles to escape. The ancient Egyptians believed that by honoring the crocodile as a god, they would be safe from attacks. On the grounds of the temple is an area where the ancient Egyptians would keep a captured crocodile in a type of open tank. They made offerings to this crocodile in the attempt to appease it and protect themselves.

One of the notable features of this temple was the fact that the paintings on the ceiling still retained so much of their original color.

Mummified crocodile. One of those captured to make offerings to.

DIY Kitchen Plumbing

Last night after dinner Seth carried our plates into the kitchen then called out to me in the dining room, "Why is the floor all wet in here?"

I walked in to see a small puddle of water leading out from under the kitchen sink. We opened up the cupboard and pulled out the garbage can to have a look. Seth turned on the faucet and the sink immediately began to fill up. I went for the plunger.

Seth began to plunge the sink drain when we heard a wet "splat" from the cupboard below followed by water oozing across our toes. We both bent down to see a filthy, sopping wet rag on the floor beneath the sink drain.

DIY Plumbing Step 1: Remove old pipe stopper rag 

"Where did that come from?" I asked.
"From the pipe."
"What was it doing in there, and why is the end of the pipe just open like that?"
"I don't know."

Seth started to plunge the sink drain again, only this time water started to pour out from the now unblocked and open ended pipe.

"Stop!" I offered helpfully.
"Go get me another rag!"
"For what?"
"To stop up the pipe! What do you think?"

DIY Plumbing Step 2: Replace pipe stopper rag. A greasy bike cleaning rag should do the trick.

We now have an unusable kitchen sink and more than a few questions about the plumbing techniques used in this apartment and why these issues always seem to happen right before bedtime. It looks like I'll be washing dishes in the bathtub until someone can take a look at this.

Nile Cruise: Day 1 Aswan, Granite Quarry, High Dam, Temple of Philea

This past April 2012, my mom made the trip out to visit us during my Spring Break from school. We had ten days to experience as much of Egypt as we could. We did a community service project in the Wadi Nature Protectorate, visited the Khan el Khalili bazaar, had a felucca ride on the Nile and took in the Egyptian antiquities museum at Tahrir Square. The highlight of the trip, however, was our Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor.

Seth and I had been holding off on a Nile Cruise in anticipation of my mom's trip. This was one of the experiences we knew we must have before leaving Egypt, and it did not disappoint. After a "spring fling" party at our place to celebrate the end of school for awhile, we woke up bleary eyed for our early morning flight down to Aswan.

Day One

We checked in to our cabins on the Movenpick Royal Lily at 8:00 am, and headed up to the sun deck to take in the views of the Nile and Elephantine Island. For this first day of the 4 day, 3 night cruise the boat would remain docked in Aswan with a couple of excursions around the area.

Our first excursion took us to the Granite Quarry, where much of the pink granite that is seen in monuments around Cairo came from. On the bus ride to the quarry we passed lines of cars that stretched for over 1 mile pulled off to the side of the road waiting for gas. People had clearly slept in their cars in these lines to get fuel.

One of the remarkable features of the Granite Quarry is the "unfinished obelisk", which would have been the largest obelisk carved out of a single block of granite had it been finished. It was abandoned in the quarry when a crack appeared during it's carving.

Our next stop was the Aswan High Dam, which created Lake Nasser. On the upstream side, you can see the Temple of Philea, which had to be moved to higher ground when the island it was originally built on was flooded due to the damming of the Nile.

Following the dam, we headed for the felucca docks and piled in for our boat ride to the Temple of Philea. This temple was dedicated to the goddess Isis.

Most of temples we visited had a common design at their entrances: two tall tower-like structures separated by a gap directly above the main entrance. This is symbolic of the East and West banks of the Nile, separated by the river flowing in between.

At this temple our tour guide began to tell us the ancient myth of Isis and Osiris. He asked for 4 volunteers to pay the parts of the main players in this myth. My mom volunteer Seth and I, and another couple in our tour group came forward as well. As the guide began introducing the gods and goddesses in this myth he first explained Isis, and her brother, Osiris (who were also husband and wife). He then turned to us to introduce the next god and goddess: Seth & Nephthys. The guide points to Seth (my husband) and says, "This is Seth" (meaning Osiris' brother) and we start cracking up. We try to explain the coincidence that his name really is Seth, but we could not get anyone to believe us for quite awhile.

The day ended much as it began, as you will see from the photo below.