Aswan (Again)

Aswan is a huge city, with about 1.5 million inhabitants, according to Magdolin. It is her home town. I can't say why, but I like it much, much more than Cairo or Alexandria. I suspect it's the feluccas.

We don't wake up at an ungodly hour, but I'm exhausted nonetheless. I guzzle more coffee. This will be an easy day. We're looking at Aswan Dam, the Nasser Dam, and Philae Temple.

Our first stop of the day is the local quarry that was used for building projects all over Egypt. There's a massive unfinished obelisk partially shaped there, but it was abandoned because it developed cracks. I smile to myself. This is a tourist site, but only because of what's NOT here.

It does have all the requisite vendors and the exit can only be reached by running their gauntlet. Hassling comes fast and furious in multiple languages. I don't hear German. "Es tut mir leid. Ich spreche kein Englisch," I say. As with nearly everywhere that isn't a western chain store, none of the vendors have posted prices. They engage in "ethnic pricing." Egyptians get one price; others get much higher ones. Getting ripped off isn't that annoying even when they charge 3xs as much; it's still only a few dollars and they still have to live like that. At least I get to go home. And by "home", yes, I mean the war zone. I'd still rather be there than live as an Egyptian vendor.

We simply drive over the older English-built Aswan dam. I still can't help wondering why it was built. As we approach Nasser dam, Magdolin explains that Nasser wanted to build his dam but didn't have the money. He tried to get the money from the Brits and French, but they wouldn't give it to him. So, he nationalized the Suez Canal, which they'd financed the building of in exchange for 100 years of customs money. They were, understandably ticked off and wanted to go to war. For the 1st time in a very long time, the US said to our traditional allies, "We're not backing you up. Do what you want, but if the USSR does get involved, we're still out." England and France fumed. Nasser got customs money and a loan from the Russians, who also sent engineers to help with the project. To be fair, the dam is impressive.

As with all hotels and tourist sites, we go through a metal detector at the dam's visitor center. Without fail, I set it off as do most of us, but I've learned not to bat an eye. The security folks certainly don't. Metal Detector Profiling is alive and well in Egypt. If you're white, I suppose they don't figure you're going to blow up yourself or anyone else. Of course, I haven't witnessed many darker people go through the detectors (other than Magdolin and Ryan, but they're clearly with the tour), so I can't be sure the guards are profiling or if they're just stunningly lazy.

As I think back on it, they might have been stunningly lazy, at least at the dam. We walk from the bus, into the security shack, through the beeping metal detector, and right back outside to where the bus is to look at the lake on one side and the Nile on the other. So, the security is completely pointless, but that's okay. It would take a hydrogen bomb to damage the dam.

The Nasser Dam would qualify as a marvel were it in any other country but Egypt. If you look up the Great Pyramid on the internet, you'll find all sorts of theories as to how it was built. From aliens from outer space (no humans could possibly stack stones) to the enslaved Jewish nation. The Great Pyramid is comprised of about 2 million stones, all weighing many tons, and is emplaced so that it aligns with true North, East, South, and West. All the sides are virtually the same length (negligible difference). If the ancient Egyptians moved TEN of these massive blocks a day (all using bronze tools, mind you), it would have taken nearly 550 YEARS to build it. However, the three large pyramids at Giza were built by three successive pharaohs.

What most don't know is that when the Nile flooded, there wasn't anything for anyone to do other than to help with building until the waters subsided. You'd be surprised what you can do when you can draft the entire populace. It takes a village to raise a child; it takes a country to build a great wonder.

All of that is to give credit where it's due. To build the pyramids in the twenty or so years they took for each, think of how much that would cost? Today, each would come in 5-10 years late and $2 billion over estimate, easy. The Nasser Dam has 17xs the material of the Great Pyramid, holds back a several-hundred-miles-long lake, and was finished in 11 years. If we're still around in five thousand years and the dam is still there, no doubt our descendants will think "Aliens had to have built that", particularly if the futuristic, bizarre monument the Egyptians built to honor the Soviets for their help is still there. I'm not sure that I like the fact the dam was built, but I admit it's impressive.

From the dam, we go back into Aswan. This time we get on a boat on Lake Aswan (between the Nile and Lake Nasser) and head over to Philae Temple. Since we'd spent the morning at the quarry and the dam, the pier is bustling with other tourists. With absolutely no regard for either his boat (not a felucca; a covered motorboat) or anyone else's, our pilot batters his way out of the scrum. We joke amongst ourselves about "bumper boats", but make dam sure (groan...) to keep our hands and arms within the confines of our boat.

We get off the boat, walk up the ramp past the pest vendors, and there it is, our first temple. Philae Temple was built over the course of 400 years by the Ptolemies and Romans. Thus it's *only* 2200-1800 years old. I'm SO not impressed. As old or older than the ruins at Rome, Philae is in vastly superior shape. Other than defacements done in places by the Copts, and the need for a minor bit of touch-up, it looks like it could hold ceremonies today. Philae, like Abu Simbel, would have been covered by a lake, but it was disassembled and placed on an island in the middle of the lake.

As impressed by the temple as I am (and I AM impressed), what astonishes me is there is paint still on it in places. Let me repeat AFTER 1800 YEARS SINCE IT WAS COMPLETED, IT STILL HAS PAINT ON IT.

In the West, we think of what the Greeks and Romans left us and we think of the gleaming white of the Acropolis and the white statues in museums across the world. To the Greeks and Romans, they would have thought us deluded. All their temples and statues were actually painted. We think they left austere elegance, but they were probably closer to garish (in comparison to our current expectations).

This temple, massive and covered in reliefs and heiroglyphs from top to bottom, is overwhelming enough as it is. I reel imagining it completely painted, accustomed as I am to thinking it should all be sand colored as it is now. How the hell does any paint last that long? Sherwin Williams needs to step up to the plate. Dad has to repaint his house every five years.

Finished with the temple, we check into the ship that's going to take us to Luxor in the course of the next few days. I collapse onto my berth bed, exhausted.