Lake Nasser: Where Pharaonic and modern ages meet

Jan 26, 2010, 7:36 GMT

Aswan, Egypt - Take a leisurely cruise on Lake Nasser in Egypt. The journey transports one back to Pharaonic times and provides a show of modern engineering excellence in the vast Nubian Desert.

When Lake Nasser was created in the 1960s, many nearby temples had to be saved from floods. The view of the Ramses statues, now on higher ground at Abu Simbel, astonishes visitors.

The waves splash gently against the side of the ship and the harbour wall, rocking the vessel back and forth. The passengers are on shore at Aswan before their journey south begins.

A stroll around the bazaar takes them into the depths of the Orient. The smell of cinnamon and curry powder mingles in the air. Alabaster figures, handbags and trunks are lined up alongside colourful carpets and other goods in rows of stalls. Of course the flowing traditional floor-length tunics, or Galabayas, are there too.

'The Nubian kingdom once extended from Aswan in the north, along the Nile and up to Khartoum in the south,' says Mohamad. At least half the blood flowing through his veins is Nubian, the tour guide adds proudly.

When the Aswan High Dam (Sadd el-Aali) was built some 40 years ago, many Nubians had to leave their land and move to Aswan or Kom Ombo. The reservoir on the Nile River in southern Egypt created the 500-kilometre Lake Nasser. It is over 35 kilometres from shore to shore at its widest point. The lake is named after former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

At the Aswan Botanical Gardens, the shade of old trees provide a spot for a lunch break. Colourful knotted carpets pad the plastic chairs in the tea bar where a friendly man with a moustache serves steaming mint tea in gold-rimmed glasses.

Through the foliage is a view of the Old Cataract Hotel in which Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. In the water below, feluccas with sails raised glide past. The evening sun bathes Elephantine Island in a gold-red light - no wonder then that the crime thriller queen chose to place her star detective, Hercule Poirot, in this setting.

The motor heaves quietly and the ship vibrates as it floats out of Aswan harbour at the break of dawn. This early start is typical in the days that follow: a visit to the huge monuments at Kalabsha Temple, a lazy afternoon by the ship's pool, a night under the starry sky and the day evaporates.

Amada, Wadi es-Sebua and Qasr Ibrim - temples from the Pharaonic period - are reachable by ship. Unlike at Aswan Harbour, each ship finds its own landing dock on Lake Nasser. During the high season on the Nile up to 10 ships are docked in one row and coming and going requires a talent for organization and a captain with a steady hand.

There is also the outing on the lake via a Nile cruise. On the banks of the Nile, farmers work the fields with pickaxes as they have for generations, but the shores of Lake Nasser is desert, with no human settlement. A dip in the lake to cool down is not advisable - the Nile crocodile is at home in these waters.

For the cruise-takers, Abu Simbel is the highlight of the trip. The temple sites are located around 60 metres higher than when they were originally built 3,000 years ago. In the 1960s, scientists and engineers spent four years working a few kilometres from the Sudanese border to save the temple of Pharaoh Ramses II and the smaller Hathor Temple dedicated to his wife, Nefertari, from flooding.

Captain Hussein reduces speed with precision. What a feeling it is to drop anchor in the immediate vicinity of Abu Simbel! The temple site begins around 200-metres uphill from the water's edge. Little by little the sunset peels the sandstone colossi from the grey twilight, dousing it in luminescent orange.

Inside the temple, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pharaoh Ramses II had hoped to live eternally. His face is depicted on all four colossi at the entrance to the temple. The drawings of the pharaohs on the walls inside are almost lifelike. They show Ramses II with his bow and arrow, or striking down an opponent.