After visiting the dam we took a motorboat to the Temple of Isis on the island of Phillae. It was a temple built by the Greeks in honor of the Egyptian gods. It had numerous columns, and carvings nearly covered every square inch of the surface. We learned when the Romans conquered Egypt they defaced the gods on the walls they did not believe in. They would chisel the faces and bodies so the gods were unrecognizable.
After the visit to the temple, Tarek took us to the biggest mosque in Aswan. This was not part of the itinerary but because of our expressed interest in his culture/religion he thought it would be a nice stop. After taking our shoes off we sat down and asked him a lot of questions. It was really special and both of us were extremely happy he took the time to share part of his life with us.
We learned about Ramadan (which it currently was during our travels throughout Egypt), fasting, not lying, praying five times per day, and the call for prayer from the minarets. After the call to prayer, Muslims are allowed 10 minutes for washing their hands, arms and feet before praying. Over the past couple of days, we had noticed numerous men that had a dark brown spot on their foreheads (about the size of a silver dollar). We learned it's a callous from praying so much (since they bow and touch the ground with their foreheads as they pray). We learned about Mecca, the pilgrimage where you walk seven times around the holy building and then sacrifice an animal by slicing its neck.
We learned that women choose who they marry, and they choose to dress conservatively based on tradition and to prevent men from looking at them in an impure way. Women can remove their head scarves in front of their immediate family members and in front of other women. Men do not touch women at all out of respect, and dating is very, very conservative. Men and women live at home with their families until they are married. Tarek was 24 and still living with his family and looking for a girl to marry. We had fun trying to pick out girls for him!! Overall, Islam is similar to Christianity in its values, and Muslims are very peaceful people.
We then headed to the unfinished obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. It was going to be the biggest obelisk in the world, but they found a large crack during the carving process and the obelisk was abandoned. It would have been ~42 meters long. I could NOT for the life of me understand how something that large would be moved, sailed to the other side of the Nile, moved to the temple, erected, and then carved while it was standing upright. Unbelievable! We walked around the grounds for a while trying to find any shade we could find. Tarek told us it was around 42 degrees Celsius today (107 degrees Fahrenheit!)
After lunch back on the boat, Tarek suggested we use the free afternoon to sail to a Nubian village up the Nile. We quickly jumped at this opportunity to get off the beaten trail. We sailed by motorboat for an hour as the banks of the Nile glided by. It was amazing to look at the desert hills covered in reddish rock and sand and how the lush greenery pressed right up against water's edge. At one point during our voyage I could reach up and touch the tree limbs passing over the boat.
We passed some small rapids and finally ended up at a really small colorful village on the bank of the Nile. We docked and climbed the stairs to the village. The Nubian people are more African than Middle Eastern, and although they speak Arabic, they more commonly speak Nubian. We pulled up to many children swimming in the Nile, people outside working and relaxing and many people on camels as their transportation.
We were invited into a Nubian home by an elderly women, had a welcome drink of Coca-Cola, held baby "Nile crocodiles," bought some souvenirs and just hung out. We said our goodbyes and enjoyed experiencing authentic village culture. It was a highlight of the trip!
On the way back to the cruise ship, our motorboat's engine stopped just as we approached the small rapids. We spent the next 15 minutes floating down the Nile until the boat operators got the engine running again using a piece of rope. I spent the rest of the trip at the front of the boat soaking up the experience and thinking about what this river has seen in its lifetime.
We luckily made it back to the ship before it set sail. We headed up to the roof-top deck and watched another perfect Aswan sunset as we sailed down the Nile. We sailed to Kom Ombo to visit the Greco-Roman Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to Ra, the Sun God, and Sobek, the Crocodile God. It was really interesting to visit this temple at night because the ambiance was different from the others we had seen. The lack of intense sun was a welcome relief as well!
We headed back to the ship and had an enjoyable dinner with Grace and Larry. After dinner we hung out on the roof-top deck taking in the sights and sounds of Kom Ombo on the Nile. The weather was perfect!
