Canadian World Traveller Spring 2023 Issue

how it got there and who else has
touched it in hundreds of generations
of people.
59
the capital of Egypt, which bustles with 20 million
living people. Across the Nile to the west,
in Giza, famous monuments to the dead,
including the Giant Pyramids and the iconic
Great Sphinx, are roughly 4,500 years old.
That’s thousands of years older than other
ancient bucket-list destinations, such as
Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, the Aztec pyramids,
and the Anasazi cliff dwellings.
River Life
To live a few days on the life-source Nile, my
husband and I flew south to Luxor to begin
our cruise to Aswan. My first image of the Nile
at Luxor was of waters much bluer than the
river’s commercial artery through Cairo. And
beyond the blue, desert mountains contrasted
with colorful hot air balloons.
Moored near the great Luxor Temple, the
Mayfield became our moving home en route
to shore excursions with wonderful guides. In
only a few days, via horse-drawn carriages,
air-conditioned vans, and shaded motorboats,
we managed to visit the Valley of the
Kings with King Tut’s tomb, the Valley of the
Queens, the Temple of Karnak, the Temple of
Rameses, the Temple of Horus in Edfu, the
Philae Temple and Luxor Temple.
Countless guidebooks and web sites can
share incredible facts about famous locations:
Estimates say about 2.3 million stone blocks
weighing about one ton each were used to
build the Great Pyramid. The eyes alone on
the Sphinx of Giza are two meters high. But to
be there with your own eyes is to wish they,
too, were two meters high. There is so much
to take in and to wonder about. To touch one
of these mammoth stones and to marvel at
Driving through open desert, then crouching
through a long narrow passage and descending
into the bowels of the Earth to see something
astonishing awakens an innate thrill of
discovery.
In our current world hurtling past Snapchat
and 30 nano-seconds of fame, the carved
walls and pillars and ceilings in these temples
are still telling stories millennia later - tales of
battle and bravery, tenderness and love. And
they have created rock stars (literally) for the
ages.
We also created our own little stories when
going to have hibiscus tea in a Nubian village,
visiting the Aswan Dam, clambering
over rocks to see the Unfinished Obelisk, and
helping make paper in the Papyrus Museum.
But our touchstone was always the Nile River
to smell the winds that swirl felucca sails and
to watch the moods of the clouds and to feel
the rhythms of the river’s tides.
Our well-appointed ship provided several
ways to view river life: topside with winds and
smells and sun, from the dining room with
good food and drink, or from a balcony in the
suite. Our room even had a deep bathtub
with a sliding panel, so that we could see over
the bed, through the balcony glass door, and
onto the Nile itself.
We passed diverse tableaux - oasis-looking
settlements, stretches of sand-piled deserts
with a row of camel, and all-rock islands with
only winged visitors. We passed the river life
of fisherman and farmers in realms once
ruled by great pharaohs. We passed cliffs with
cave-like portals that stirred mystery about
what might have once been.
When the sun blazed fiery farewell to another
day, we saw it in the sky and reflected in the
Nile, as it has been millions of times before.
And later we could sleep on the Nile, under
the stars of Moses and Pharaohs.
Yes. We really are on the Nile.
www.egypt.travel
World Traveler Spring 2023