All,
From Luxor, we flew to Aswan, where the famous dam is. This was built in the 60’s to control the annual flooding, which used to wreak havoc with its unpredictability. Now its flow is controlled, so life along the river is less dangerous. So much so that although the Nile River Valley is only 10% of Egypt’s land, 90% of its population lives along its banks. Incredible. They are trying to get people to move westward into the desert, but I think that is a tough sell. Some hardscrabble land.
We took a great small boat ride down to a Nubian village. Nubians live in southern Egypt and have much darker complexions than Egyptians from the north. Actually, due to the long-time influence of Greeks and Romans on the Mediterranean coast, Egyptians can range from very dark to very light-skinned. Not what some people expect.
We visited several more temples and learned about the rich and wonderful Egyptian culture, and flew back to Cairo today. Tomorrow, onto Jordan 🙂
Onward!
Cruising down the Nile
The land is so fertile along the river. Because of that 90% of all Egyptians live by the Nile.
Locals tied onto our boat, trying to sell goods to the passengers. WAY better than Somali pirates coming after us 🤣
This is the Nile, looking north from the Aswan Dam. And that’s a modern-day Sphinx guarding it hahahaha
This is the Temple of Abu Simbel. Incredible!!!
Lots of pretty violent battle scenes portrayed everywhere on the walls. Keep in mind these are over 3,500 years old.
A friendly face peering out through the wall of the tomb
Pretty incredible, huh?
And this is the inside
Nubian village. 30 miles from the border of Sudan
We took this small boat to the Nubian village. Notice the name: Titanic. I figured it was safe. No icebergs here hahahahaha
Crocodile mummies
Here’s a contest: Guess which one is the captain of the ship?