Nile River Cruise

The second trip of my AIESEC project was a cruise down the Nile River, from Aswan to Luxor. If you want to read about the first one to Siwa Oasis, click here. So this trip started with a not-so-fun 15 hour train ride from Cairo to Aswan. The AC was turned to the max and we barely got any sleep (I forgot to say we traveled by night). However, we were pretty excited about what was coming.

Prior to this trip we had to choose between two accommodation options. The first one was staying at different hotels and commuting between them with cars. The other meant cruising on a ship with an all-inclusive meal plan. We obviously chose the Nile River cruise (for an additional fee of 100 US dollar, unfortunately). The accommodation conditions were far better than Siwa. Also the food was quite good and definitely more diverse- in the Siwa trip we ate rice and chicken for almost every meal.

First stop on the Nile Cruise: Aswan

So, our journey begins in Aswan, a city on the Nile River, that has been southern Egypt’s strategic and commercial gateway since antiquity. After doing the check-in for the cruise we visited the Temple of Philae. The sacred Temple of Isis is one of Upper Egypt’s most beguiling monuments both for the exquisite artistry of its reliefs and for the gorgeous symmetry of its architecture. The temple was saved by the rising waters of Lake Nasser by UNESCO’s rescue project. It was moved lock-stock-and-barrel from its original home on Philae Island to nearby (higher) island where it sits today.

Nubian Village on the Nile River

On the first morning, we took a boat trip to the nearby Elephantine Island. We got to visit the rainbow colored insta-worthy Nubian Village. It is inhabited by Nubians. They moved from Sudan over 8000 years ago (which is why they have a darker skin tone) to start farming around the Nile. They are not Egyptians and they even have their own unique language. We wandered around for a few hours, had hibiscus tea and saw living crocodiles. And of course we also bought some souvenirs (for which we had to bargain).

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Temple of Kom Ombo

On our way to Luxor we made two stops. The first one was at Kom Ombo Temple. The temple is unique for its dedication to two different deities: the local crocodile-headed god Sobek, and the first “god of the Kingdom”, the falcon-headed god Horus. Until very recently, the River Nile was infested with crocodiles of which the Ancient Egyptians were naturally scared. However, they believed that if they worshipped the animal, it wouldn’t attack them. One of the highlights of the visit to this temple is the Crocodile Museum. There are exhibited some of the many hundreds of mummified crocodiles found in the area.

Temple of Edfu

The second stop was at the Temple of Edfu which is dedicated to Horus, one of Egypt’s most important historic deities . It is generally regarded to be the best-preserved of the Ancient Egyptian sanctuaries. For 200 years, the structure was buried under almost 12 meters of desert sand from the Nile, which helped to conserve it to near-perfection. After visiting it we returned to our boat and began the final sail to Luxor. A lot happened there and because I feel this post is getting king of long, I am saving the last part of this trip for the next one.