December 10 -- Aswan and the Unfinished Obelisk (by Lou)

Several things determined the layout of this archaeological tour starting with lots of time for Cairo, our lower Egypt destination to Abu Simbel in upper Egypt.  In between those points we chose stops in Aswan and Luxor.  Our desire to slowly cruise the Nile on the SS Sudan and use EgyptAir to speed things up determined how those stops would shake out.  Overbooked flights from Abu Simbel on the Nubian border made it necessary to stop in Aswan both coming and going especially as Aswan will be where we embark on the SS Sudan which will steam us to Luxor.  ( If you wish, watch the 1978 version of Death on the Nile to see the same SS Sudan and Cataract Hotel where we'll embark from ).  Essentially, we're double dipping Aswan, so to speak.  Working with those constraints, Roger did a marvelous job laying out the nuances of how we would tour.  Leaving the oldest districts of Cairo this morning for its ultra modern airport, we clicked our heels and within no time found ourselves in Aswan, where the drive to our hotel on the corniche overlooking a wide Nile toward Elephantine Island, had us pass over the old Aswan dam and its view of the temple of Philae.  Sand dunes restrained by sandstone and granite outcroppings ring the shore.   The hotel arranged a driver to whisk us ( light, photography, you know the drill ) over to the ancient quarry with its unfinished obelisk.

Though the unfinished obelisk lay high up in the rock and can be seen from a good distance, the more interesting bits of this quarry reveal themselves only on closer inspection.  Less a hole in the ground and more a removed side of a great rise of granite, blocks were cut and rolled down the grade to waiting barges in what once was a canal to the Nile, destined for temples we are about to see, or used in sculpture that we did see throughout the Egyptian museum.  This local granite itself is wonderfully textured and bronze colored.  Signs of ancient work abound and shallow even-spaced rectangular holes allowed movement of small and large stones alike through leverage.  The unfinished obelisk however was another story.  Absolutely massive, at nearly 1200 tons, it would have been the largest obelisk ever made by the ancients but alas, after 3 sides were smoothed in preparation for inscription, flaws were discovered and work ceased.  With dusk falling, we captured some ancient graffiti in the last light as we climbed our way out.

The corniche has a lovely wide promenade that follows the crescent shore of this part of the Nile.  A Muslim festival was raucously parading down the boulevard, with children wearing bright tinselly hats and blowing horns a la New Years.  Below the railing of the corniche were coffee shops, restaurants and docks for various types of boats and floating restaurants.  Sunset is when the felucca captains solicit tourists for 1 hour sails but we opted to watch them dockside instead with our first Stella beer, Egypt's most popular brand and as far as I'm concerned, a wonderful accompaniment to our beef and vegetable tagine.  Watching the feluccas slowly ply the Nile while the sun set, I really enjoyed my dinner but a thin little tabby cat became bold and sensing a sucker, looked me right in the eyes.  I succumbed.  But will I succumb tomorrow to riding a camel to complete tomorrow's trek up to the 7th C monastery on Elephantine Island before hitting the tombs?  Did I mention that the island has steep walls of rock and sand?