Felucca and Quarries (Aswan ~ Egypt)

December 2019

From Luxor we headed south to Aswan, and have found the further south we go the quieter things are. Aswan was once home to some serious cataracts in the Nile, which have long since gone with the construction of various dams upstream.

The cataracts were caused by a combination of large rock outcropings and Elephantine Island. We opted to stay on Elephantine Island in a very nice little quiet house overlooking the Nile. The island is a little bit odd as the southern half is occupied by locals living in mud brick houses with large amphora of water sitting outside, windy lanes which goats wander through, some 4,000+ year old ruins  and no traffic. The northern half is taken up by the Movenpick (yes the ice-cream people are big in resorts in this part of the world) Resort with a very out of place tower. The two halves of the island are separated by high solid wall to keep the locals from getting into the resort.

The tower does stick out like a sore thumb but have to say the views from it, when having an evening beer, are great.

There isn't a huge amount to see in Aswan and they main reason for coming here was to do a day trip down to Abu Simbel (see next post). In the ruins to the south of the island are a few more Nilometers. The one below has a mixture of the original water level recording marks and those added at a later date (ie a 1,000 or so years later). 

Within the town is a quarry where obelisks were carved out of the rock, put on rollers, lugged on to marooned boats and once the flood waters came floated downstream to places like Luxor. Now these obelisks are a single piece of stone. So the effort to carve one out of the rock (without metal tools) is phenomenal. The quarry is home to one such obelisk whose construction was abandoned due to it cracking mid excavation. In the photo below the obelisk to be, is lying on a 20 degree slope. 

The carving of the rock is carried out by grinding with coconut sized rocks - laborious is an understatement. 

Being a less touristed place meant wandering though the souq was a lit less hassely. It is not a well known fact that Adolf had a younger brother who did not share his vision for world domination but rather ran away to Egypt to become a successful spice merchant. 

Some great street food in the Souq.  These guys were constantly churning out the egyptian version of mini-pizzas, of which we had a few - very tasty.

This messy lump of foood probably had its origins in traditional street food but now days we think it's the sociological equivalent the Big Mac. Messy, unhealthily  (lots of cheese) but very tasty. 

A visit to Egypt and the Nile wouldn't be complete with a trip on a felucca (traditional sailing boat) and Aswan is a great place to do this as the scenary is great.

The water, whilst looking cool and tempting to swim in, is home to various flukes and worms that have a habit of swimming up parts of your anatomy that you really don't want flukes and worms swimming up so no swimming for us.

Enterprising kids have worked out that they can use surfboards to paddle out to a Felucca and sing a ditty in the tourists language to gain  a few pounds.

On the felucca trip we managed to get a look at the Old Cascade Hotel where Agatha Christie penned, or got inspiration for, the "Death on the Nile". Didn't go inside as you either had to stay there (v expensive) or cough up $30 each for a food voucher to gain entry (and the Old Terrace, the one place you really want to go, was excluded) - pity.

It was in Aswan where we bought our one and only souvenir in Egypt. A set of small Canoptic jars. Initial asking price was $125 and after some protected negotiation and us walking away we got them for $15.

Next we head down to Abu Simbel for the day and then head back towards Luxor by a cruise boat.