March 1, 2022

March 1, 2022

This morning we left the ship and drove to nearby Karnak Temple. It is one of the largest religious complexes in the world. It is a sprawling mishmash of pylons and courtyards because each Pharaoh had to show he was a descendant of Amun by modifying and adding on to the site. The first pylon entrance in the West has a line of ram-headed sphinxes. During the Opet Festival the statue of Amun would be transported in his boat out the South pylons down the Avenue of Sphinxes for his sacred marriage in Luxor Temple.

The most famous part of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall. It contains 134 massive columns. The largest ones are seventy feet tall and ten feet wide, and they are tightly packed in order to support the heavy stone roof. Every surface and every column is carved with figures and hieroglyphics. The huge crowd of tourists took away some of the majesty for me. Tourism is down in Egypt. I can't imagine what it was like pre-pandemic.

The most impressive part of the Hypostyle Hall for me is that workers are removing three thousand years of accumulated dust and soot, revealing that the carved columns were gaily painted. This reminded Aimee that many religious sites (like Amiens Cathedral in France) used to be painted. This temple must have been a colorful site to behold in ancient times.

Once back on the ship, we set sail heading up river. The weather is nice, sunny and getting warmer as we continue our journey south. Aimee and I relax inside a cabana on the ship's open roof deck with cocktails. The tourist vendors are stubbornly persistent in Egypt and they are inventive. They even tie up to our ship to display their wares. If interested, they will toss the items onto deck with payment thrown down.

We watch the scenery of the Nile flow past us. Surprisingly apartment buildings line one bank of the Nile for miles. The habitable part of Egypt is very tiny; maybe a mile of very fertile soil on each bank. Sometimes though the desert mountains come very close to the river bank.

Sugar cane is a major crop of Egypt. Unfortunately burning the fields before harvest is common practice, so the sky is hazy and sometimes downright smoky. It does however make the sunset glow.

When we get to the town of Esna, we encounter one of many Barrage Dams. Like the ones on the Mississippi where I grew up, these are gate dams designed to maintain navigability of the Nile and provide enough head pressure to feed irrigation canals. We watch as our ship passes through the lock. We dock in Esna for the night. I have to laugh as we hear the evening call for prayer of the Muslims. The exhortation is echoing as the call comes from a dozen closely packed, uncoordinated minarets. It must constantly remind the local Christians they are the minority.

At 7:30 pm we had a cocktail hour to introduce the ship's crew. And then it was on to a delicious dinner.