Elephantine

Today our boat trip ended after breakfast. All of us headed in different directions. We are staying in Aswan on Elephantine Island for 3 days. Chris and Marit went to Abu Simbel and will return to Aswan tomorrow. Hilary and Sal and their daughters were staying at the famous Cataract Hotel and will fly to Abu Simbel, tomorrow. Silvie’s French family were flying back to their respective homes in Paris, Berlin and Cairo. We wish that everyone has a safe trip home.

Aswan is the starting or ending point of many Nile Cruises, but it’s also a destination on its own. With its Nubian culture, it feels different from the rest of Egypt. There are lots of places to visit - museums, temples, a monastery, Nubian villages, the high dam and local markets. It is also from Aswan that you can do a day trip to the famous Abu Simbel.

We were dropped off at the ferry docks and taken across the river to Elephantine Island. The island is the largest of Aswan’s islands. It was once a significant trading post, particularly for ivory, which may be the reason for the name (elephantine means elephant in Greek).

The island is small and we easily found the Mango Guest House. It was pretty early to be checking in but the owner Pook, from Denmark, met us, offered us tea and coffee and gave us tips for places to visit.

She suggested that today we could take a ferry to Aswan, walk up the Corniche and get a motorboat that would take us across the Nile to the Tombs on the West Bank. After seeing the tombs, we could walk 4 km across the desert, or take a camel, to an old Coptic monastery, have lunch at the Sunset Place tent and then get a boat to bring us back to the island. Sounded like a plan.

The Tombs of the Nobles located in Aswan are usually called the tombs of Qubat El ‎Hawa. They date back to the Old and Middle Kingdoms (2500 BC and 2000 BC) and are built following a simple plan - an entrance hall, a pillared room and a corridor leading to the burial chamber.

The wall paintings inside the Tombs of the Nobles were quite different from others that we have seen. They were colourful and they ‎clearly displayed the daily life activities of the ancient Egyptians.‎ We had to climb a long set of stairs to get up to the tombs but then we had a great view of Aswan and the Nile looking east, and the desert looking west.

From there, we had to make a decision about how to get to the Monastery of St. Simeon. The 4 km walk through the desert followed a camel trail. Hmmmn. It’s not so easy to walk on the fine sand with no shade…

We decided to ‘rent’ a camel for the two of us but the saddles are brutal and camel riding is not the most pleasant. I decided to walk rather than endure the pain. Chris rode to start. I walked with the camel owner, who insisted on holding my hand, in the shade of the camel. My shoes and socks filled up with sand. We came to a steep hill that went up to the monastery and Chris and I traded spots.

The Monastery of St. Simeon, also known as the Anba Hatra Monastery. Visiting this Coptic monastery provided us with a glimpse of the early days of Christianity in Egypt and how the monks lived as far back as the 7th century. Unlike some other Egyptian ruins, this attraction does not draw crowds, so it made for a pleasant experience. We had fun trying to guess the function of each section of the monastery by looking for clues. A giant grist stone indicated the mill. Small rooms with stone benches were probably the dorm. We could imagine people cooking in the kitchen. We even identified stables and washing areas, maybe toilets too?

By now, we were hungry and easily found the Sunset Place near the Nile. We had a wonderful meal with a Stella beer under a big tent with cats and dogs for company. Everything was cooked from scratch so we had to wait a bit but it was worth it. The owner arranged to have a boat take us back to our island. All pretty easy.

When we got back, I was pretty pooped out. We both just had a shower and relaxed in our room.
Tomorrow we will explore Elephantine Island.Read more