Today, our second day in Aswan, was officially designated (by us) as a day of relative rest. No camel rides. No desert walks. No Nubian village tours. Rest. We began by visiting our hotel’s complimentary breakfast, where we were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice breakfast spread, including crepes, a variety of breads, and even made-to-order omelets! We ate up, and then headed to the pool to catch up on some internet work – we were lucky that the hotel’s wi-fi connection stretched that far.
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| A swimming pool? On our trip? It seemed heaven-sent. |
Before you think that our entire day was spent lounging by the pool, not that that would have been too terrible, before long we were rested and ready for our personal tour of Aswan. We started by walking south along the Nile to Archangel Michael's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral – one of the main sights in Aswan we hadn’t covered yesterday. As James found out via his Facebook page, many people in the US are fascinated by the history of the Coptic Christians, who make up around 10% of Egypt’s population (the remaining 90% are Muslims, mostly Sunnis).
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| Archangel Michael's Cathedral from the street. |
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| The ceiling above the altar in Archangel Michael's. |
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| The view from the back of Archangel Michael's. |
Our guide in Archangel Michael’s explained that the Cathedral could hold up to 3,000 worshipers at one time, making it the second largest cathedral in all of Africa. The church is very much still in progress, with the columns and interior awaiting a marble finish, due by 2018, and with windows that will someday be filled with stained glass. The interior pictures were especially striking – done by a local Egyptian artist in a modern Greek style, James thought they looked a little – but not too much – like stylized precious moments. You be the judge.
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| Some of the paintings throughout Archangel Michael's that shared the same style. |
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| Still more of the lovely, and distinctive, paintings within the Cathedral. |
We finished our Cathedral tour with a visit to the gift shop (included in the free tour), and then headed further up the hill to see the outside of the Nubia Museum. We debated whether we would head inside, as we’d heard very good things about the museum from our tour group, but we simply had not gotten enough exercise yesterday – or today – to spend more time standing still, looking at exhibits. We moved on, heading around the entire museum complex down to a busy road that was definitely not part of the Aswan tourist circuit.
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| Erin catching some sun in front of the Nubia Museum. |
As we headed down that road, James noticed what looked like an archaeological dig in-progress, replete with a bushy-haired European dusting off rocks. He stopped, and beaconed for Erin to come over. In fact, we had the great fortune to meet Marcus, a German archeologist working for the Swiss government on an Egyptian archeological dig here in Aswan. Marcus explained that his team was unearthing a “Temple of Isis,” the Egyptian goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility. This temple was particularly interesting, as it was “unfinished” – that is, where most temples have smooth outer walls of stone that have been ground down, this temple was still in progress when its work was abandoned. It dates from around 300 BC, during the Ptolemaic dynasty, when Alexander the Great and the Greeks had invaded Egypt, before the Romans moved in.
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| Our view of the dig from the road... but for James's curiosity, we would've walked right by. |
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| Marcus took us behind the gates and showed us the buried temple! |
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| James and Tabitha standing in front of the temple at the digging site. |
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| Some of the hieroglyphics - in cartouche form - that were found on the site. |
This visit to the active dig was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far, and it was completely accidental. Much like our hike up the mountain in Edinburgh, or the fashion show we stumbled into in Sofia, some of the best moments are the totally unscripted ones. We certainly hope we have more to share. After leaving the dig, we walked to purchase some postcards and stamps, and then headed back through the Aswan market. During the day, we saw much of what we had missed during last night’s trip – it was brighter, and much less busy. The stands were filled with everything, from tourist souvenirs to t-shirts, appliances, foods, and many, many spice stands. The colors were vibrant, and we were left wondering what each color of spice represented. As we walked, we were also accosted at nearly every booth with someone shouting, “hello!” “you are so lucky” (always directed towards James), “hey Australians!” and “I have what you want. No hassle, no haggle!” As we’ve written before, we have no room and no need for a lot of souvenirs, so we didn’t stop to look; however, we’ve heard stories from our tour group about pressured sales, and seen the results of other market visits. All-in-all, it is a wonderful picture of Aswan’s vibrant market culture, and the sights – and smells – were very memorable.
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| James tried to buy one breadstick, but ended up with 15! |
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| Erin carefully considers whether she needs a prom dress for our trip. |
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| Just one example of many, many stores selling a wide variety of spices. |
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| Erin's feet demonstrate the result of many walked desert miles. |
When we returned to the hotel we had about an hour or two before dinner. We decided to take a dip in the pool with some of our fellow tour group members. The pool was perfectly refreshing. However, a few minutes after we had gotten out, we had an interesting experience. Without any warning, mysterious "smoke" started filling the air. The "smoke" turned out to be some type of mosquito repellent (much like you might get when mosquito control drives through your neighborhood). The repellent smelled and tasted horrible and forced all of us to take cover for about 10 minutes before it dissipated into the air.
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| The bug-killing smoke envelops the hotel pool. |
Our group had dinner together in the hotel, overlooking the Nile at night, and after our dinner of chicken, vegetables, rice and bread was finished, we retired to the hotel lobby. After relaxing for several minutes, we heard drumming coming from the outside street, and loud voices. Erin grabbed her camera, and James followed soon after. Immediately in front of the hotel, a crowd had gathered on the sidewalk to celebrate a wedding in-progress – the bridal party had readied themselves at our hotel, and met with the groom and the wedding party on the sidewalk/street. A party broke out, with singing and dancing and several video cameras. As we stood there watching, we realized that - hey, why not? Why wouldn't a random wedding be a fitting end to our last day in Aswan, the Egyptian city in the South of Egypt, built on the trade and visitors from the Nile.
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| The Egyptian wedding party - if you look closely you can see the bride and groom in the center. |
