Aswan

After such a stupendous day, anything following was going to be a letdown. The tour company factored that in. I like to think I'm fairly tough and this trip is the "comfort" tour. Still, even though we don't physically do much, I get worn out. I'm only (nearly) 32 years old, but age seems to be taking hold. After getting to the hotel, David and I walked along the banks of the Nile as we searched for food. We ate, marched right back to the hotel, and took hours-long naps.

We met up with the group and Magdolin took us down to the waterfront for a felucca ride around Elephantine island, the southern boundary for the Old Kingdom. I was bummed to discover that there are no longer crocs on the Nile. They've all been moved to Lake Nasser. The water of the Nile is therefore no longer dangerous, at least in that way. It looked clear and clean. Magdolin said kids swim in it. I'd have been tempted to take a plunge in it if I didn't know the Nile is the world's largest sewer.

How the felucca moved, I had no idea, as I felt no breeze. Trapped on the boat for a couple of hours, the captain motioned for his mate to bring out the trinkets. Joy! More vendors! Some of the others bought trinkets. I refrained. Where would I put them? I live in a 7' x 7' plywood box. I'm trying to *downsize* my possessions.

At sunset, we docked on the island, went to the Nubian village and had an authentic Nubian meal outdoors on the 2nd floor terrace as the day died and violet shrouded. Nubia is now under Lake Nasser. The Nubians were moved from their land they'd lived in since pre-pharaonic times. For progress and development. Surely not for the addition to Nasser's personal wealth.

I asked Magdolin, "Why build the dam?"

To her, it was obvious.

"To stop the floods."

"Right, but why?"

My question made no sense to her. It made complete sense to me. Yes, the Nile flooded, but Egypt was famous for the incomprehensible regularity of those floods, so much like clockwork that they used to mark the passing of the seasons, and thus years, by them. It took Nile years over 1400 solar years to have a 1 year solar year of error. Amazing.

The Nile floods were what defined Egypt and Egyptians. All the silt the flood spread over the Nile flood plain was responsible for making Egypt one of the most fertile places on earth, and thus one of the richest nations in historical times. Egypt was arguably the most valuable land in the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine worlds. If Egypt in modern ages wasn't an economic dynamo pre-dam, it surely was due to horrific mismanagement and spectacular corruption, and yet Egypt post-dam still can't produce. Nope Egypt nowadays needs tourism and baksheesh. Nature gave the Nile valley unmatched fertility; now pesticides and fertilizers do.

When the English (arrogant fools) built the first dam at Aswan in 1903 (or so), the population of Egypt was eight million. Now it's eighty million. Was it right to dam the Nile? I'm not arrogant enough to think I know, but I suspect not. "Progress" for "growth" always strikes me as foolish. There's probably a reason I haven't done all I can to replicate repeatedly.