We landed in Aswan on the third day of our Nile journey in January 2003. The first thing that comes to mind when the name Aswan is mentioned is the Aswan High Dam that was constructed in the 1960’s to create the largest reservoir in the world - Lake Nasser. At the time of it’s construction this dam was a political chip in the cold war. The Russian’s did the design and a major portion of the construction and the American’s installed the power generation plant.

The highlight of a visit to Aswan is of course the Aswan High Dam. The dam is a huge earthen construction with 12 turbines, each producing 175,000 kW. The dam is not that tall, but the volume of water is is holding back is immense and allows for a huge amount of electrical generation. At right is a photo of the Nile as it leaves the dam.

At the time of the construction there was much discussion about two temples that were going to be flooded by the lake that would be created. See the Abu Simbel page for more information about this.

In the granite quarry you can easily see the quoins left by the previous block extracting activities. In the days before drills and explosives were used to split blocks of stone, the Egyptians chiseled into the rock, then placed wood into the holes (a nearly finished piece shown below). Water was then added to expand the wood, forcing the block away from the rock face.

Just outside the town, there is a site where they have found an unfinished obelisk (above right). This obelisk allowed us to see how other obelisks were hewn out of the granite stones. This particular obelisk would have been one of the largest, if finished, but evidently was abandoned when it began to split. We learned that the Egyptians would carve the rough shape, then build a fire on top of the rock that would burn for 3 or 4 days. After that, cold water from the Nile was poured on the rock. If it cracked, the work was abandoned. If it didn’t crack, it was strong enough to be used and work continued.

As you can see in the photo, a huge amount of granite was chiseled away from the obelisk shape, allowing space for workers as the depth increased. When it was deep enough, quoins were chiseled at the base of the rock to separate it from the rest.

Near sunset, we watched the feluccas coming in for the night (below). The feluccas gingerly sailed around the myriad cruise boats to get to shore. The boats are surprisingly “beamy” and have a small retractable keel. The mast and booms are smoothed tree trunks (from who knows where). The sails are triangular and made of wide strips of cotton sewn together. The lines are generally cotton and very well worn. Most have rings around the mast to which the sail is attached, allowing the main sail to be raised and lowered.

We saw a few with a permanently attached sail, requiring the sailor to climb the mast (no bosun’s chair!) to tie the sail to the mast at night (photo above left - notice the man on the mast near the horizon) and release it in the morning.

We then walked around the town of Aswan, and particularly to the local market area. The market is known for its spices and there were plenty of vendors selling. As is the norm, we were met by the usual overzealous vendors, trying to sell us everything from spices to hats, bags, and perfume. One had to show us and make us smell all his spices which really did smell good and fresh. Then we looked for a hat for Jim, drawn in by the fellow with the line “No hassle in my castle,” but we didn’t find the one he wanted. Not deterred, the shop owner took us over to another stall with more hats where we had to inspect every single one, but to no avail.

Then the shopkeeper turned his attention to Verna to try and sell her boxes for her gems, or some essences guaranteed to be the Egyptian viagra - good for 3 hours! We managed to leave without anything once again, but enjoyed our shopping excursion. Walking down the street we got accosted by all the vendors, but in a pleasant manner. They look at us and try English, but we usually don’t respond. Sometimes we respond in Spanish and sometimes get a pitch in Spanish. One we walked by asked “Alles gut?” to which we replied “Alles gut” then got the sales pitch in German as we continued down the street. 

The next morning we enjoyed a felucca ride on the Nile (right). In the background of the photo is the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan on the hilltop.

 The sail was quite leisurely and could best be described as bathtub sailing. As we were sailing out, a nearby powerboat caught our attention as it appeared to be headed directly into our bow. Not sure of the rules of the road, or if there are any, we watched closely as the powerboat did come directly to our bow, only to deliver a cup of tea to one of the boys working forward!

Onward up the river and the boys now come out with the bags of jewelry and carved animals. It was profitable for them as they made several sales. We then had drum music and joined in the chorus. Several of us even joined in the line dance as we all sang along. About half the group then left us to go visit a local Nubian village and take a swim in the Nile. The rest of us continued on the felucca to the Island of Plants (below, right) and took a peaceful stroll through the Botanical Garden created in the late 1800s by the British. It had quite a diversity of plants and trees and most of them had labels in English and Arabic. When we went back to the felucca and we find many felucca's together with a small dingy in their midst that is evidently the breakfast boat. The man had a pot of cooked vegetables which served on a long bun, along with a cup of tea. He seemed to be doing quite a brisk business amongst the felucca workers as they awaited their passengers.

As we sailed back, we sailed around another island, the passageway being a navigational nightmare with submerged rocks everywhere. With great deftness our captain steered through the maze, raising the keel when necessary. We were amazed at how controlled these boats sailed. The boat responded immediately to the rudder and the sail seemed to catch the slightest of breezes, even in the lee of the islands. 

While we were doing this, the crew brought out a poor little crocodile for everyone to see. Our fellow passengers had great fun with this, enjoying holding it and putting it on their heads. The croc was so cold from being below that he didn’t resist anyone. We felt terribly sorry for the poor fellow and were glad to see the crew finally put him in the sun to warm and take a rest.

The felucca ride was definitely enjoyable and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

For more photos of the Aswan area, click here:

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