March 3, 2022

March 3, 2022

Overnight we continued sailing upstream ending in the town of Aswan. Here hard granite extrusions rise to the surface. Granite quarried here was ferried downstream for Egyptian statues and temples. This granite also caused the first of several cataracts on the Nile. These rocky outcroppings in the river impeded water travel and defined the border between Egypt and the tribes of Nubia to the South. The annual rising of the Nile was mysterious and magical to the Egyptians. They thought the Aswan cataract was the source of the flood.

The British built a low dam on the first cataract a hundred years ago. In the 1960’s President Nasser with Russian help built the high dam that formed Lake Nasser. The high dam produces 2100 MW of power, controls the flooding, and provides year-round irrigation for agriculture.

We drove over the low dam and stopped at the high dam. Looking over the edge we got sand blasted by the strong updraft. We then stopped at the Russia-Egypt Friendship Monument memorializing the dam building partnership.

We finished at the Aswan airport to board our flight to Abu Simbel 150 miles to the south on the shore of Lake Nasser. Our flight was delayed by a dust storm, and eventually cancelled. The wind continued to pick up obscuring visibility. We head back to the ship disappointed. It looks like we are going to miss Abu Simbel. Our back up plan of going to the sacred island of Philae was also cancelled because of the sandstorm.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at a papyrus store, where a Nubian girl demonstrated the basics of making paper out of thinly sliced stalks of the papyrus plant. Papyrus gave us the word ‘paper’. Another amazing technology development we owe to Egypt.

After a couple hours resting on the ship, we learn that Philae has reopened. We gather quickly to attend its nightly Sound and Light show. From the Aswan dock we take a little powerboat to this granite island sitting in the water between the two dams. Shortly after disembarking, the show begins. There is some flashing of the lights as we move through the Temple of Isis, but it is mostly a sound show relating the thousands of years of Egyptian history. While I would probably have preferred a day visit, it does provide a way to get in the mood of actual Egyptian religious life.