Aswan, Egypt

The forecast today called for a high of 39C, so we didn’t plan for much.

The top thing on our list was the Nubia Museum, about a 25 minute walk along the river from the ferry drop-off. It wasn’t too bad on the shady side of the street. Dropped into the Coptic orthodox cathedral of the Archangel Michael as it was on our way.

The Nubia Museum was empty when we arrived, but quickly filled up with school kids and a visiting delegation from Gabon (the sky view restaurant at our hotel was closed for a private event for a Gabonese delegation yesterday, so we think it was the same group). The museum gives a full history of the Nubia culture, ending with the building of the high dam near Aswan, which flooded most of their homes and displaced the local population. I also didn’t realize the international effort at the time (late 60’s) to rescue some of the ruins that would be flooded, most famously Abu Simbel. There’s also a separate Egyptian hall in the museum, which included four mummies that were as good or better than the museum in Cairo. Anyways it took us a couple hours to walk through.

We wanted to stop in at the Old Cataract hotel, now a Sofitel, for a drink just to see the hotel. But they charge a minimum of 300 EGP per person (can be used for drinks / food etc) which was way more than we wanted to spend. So I guess their objective to keep out the riff raff worked.

Instead we walked back to the centre, and found the souq. The first bit was touristy, but then changed to more local wares. Went into a pita bakery and took some pics, then found a little falafel place for sandwiches. After we stopped at a cafe with sidewalk seating inside the souq and had an Egyptian coffee. Very muddy and good. We knew the going prices for coffee by this time, so it was easier to pay.

It was only 2pm when we finished up, so we decided to take a boat cruise around the islands in the Nile close to our hotel. Arranged with a boat owner moored at the hotel, who gave us a decent price (very surprising as we were staying at the Mövenpick!)

Outside it was around 39C, but on the water it felt much cooler and was really pleasant. From the boat we saw a variety of birds, giant sand dunes, the Masoleum of Aga Khan and the family villa. There were also good pics of feluccas with their sails up.

We stopped briefly for a Nubia coffee; the process is very similar to Ethiopia. They add some spices (cardamom, ginger, ginseng and a local seed) which give it a distinctive smell and taste.

Got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and then to the sky view restaurant. The views are amazing here. We watched the sun go down (with the clouds on the horizon though there wasn’t much colour) and then had dinner facing the lights of Aswan. It’s a beautiful setting.

I was starting to come down with a cold and we had an early flight the next morning back to Cairo, so we didn’t stay up too late.