[DAC] Saved from drowning in Lake Nasser

Lucilda Cooper lucilda at earthlink.net
Mon May 12 10:18:35 EDT 2008 

Barely awake, I did not notice that my 3:00 a.m. wake-up call from  
the front desk had come at 2:00.

My husband wanted to go back to bed, but I was put out, and thought  
they at least owed us coffee for waking us an hour ahead of time.
Calling back to the front desk, I was told that it is 3:00 a.m., as  
Egypt moved to their version of daylight savings time. There goes my  
bargaining chip for coffee, the best brew we have had in Egypt so  
far, and there goes Ken's extra hour of snooze time. Our pick-up  
vehicle was actually late, and we had not only one, but two cups of  
coffee courtesy of the very efficient and helpful manager (in  
addition to our breakfast boxed to go which they had promised the  
night before) from our hotel, "Keylany" in the heart of the city of  
Aswan.

Cruise ships carrying tourists from other cities along the Nile, are  
stacked up in Aswan alongside the Corniche.

A strange caravan of air-conditioned luxury buses and mini-buses  
shatter the morning stillness of the desert, racing each other,  
overtaking gratuitiously while their passengers dozed, slumped  
against their seatmates, the wonders of nature unnoticed while they  
rush to the wonders made by man.

Seen from the air, ancient river courses are a recurring feature of  
the desert.

Buses travel in convey through the desert (on roads) with a police  
escort, and of course cleared by "police control."
The tourist industry brings more dollars, euros, marks, francs, and  
currency from all over the world that bolster the economy. The  
visitors who accompany their currency come to be awed by the  
magnificence of the Pharaonic past and monuments made by wannabe  
Pharaohs.

During the Pharaonic era, foreign domination of Egypt came from their  
near borders, the Hyksos during the Old kingdom, and the Libyans,  
Sudanese, Nubians, Assyrians and Persians during the Middle Kingdom.  
The Greeks led by Alexander the Great again wrested control from the  
Egyptians, and his general, Ptolemy, who became leader when Alexander  
died began the line of Ptolemies. Cleopatra was the last Ptolemaic  
ruler whose liasons with Brutus and Mark Anthony failed to protect  
her and Egypt. Octavious brought Roman rule to Egypt in 30 B.C. and  
proclaimed himself Pharaoh. With the advent of Christianity bought by  
St. Mark during the Roman era, Egypt became part of the Byzantine  
empire, then conquered by the Arabs, was an important center of the  
caliphate. The Mamluks were next, then the Turks made it part of the  
Ottoman Empire, then the French led by Napoleon who had the foresight  
to bring a large group of intellectuals to begin documenting Egypt's  
treasure trove of the ancients. Even the British ruled Egypt.

  From the new site of Abu Simbel, Lake Nasser, the largest man-made  
lake in the world is 340 miles long.


Until the revolution led by a colonel who dreamed of Egyptian rule  
after centuries of foreign domination. He became a general,  
revolutionary, dissident hero and subsequent president of Egypt,  
replacing the puppet king of the British. His vision for Egypt also  
included more control of the life-blood of the country that nourishes  
and sustains the strip of green that is agricultural Egypt, from  
Aswan to Alexandria.
Flowing from South to North in Egypt, the ancient Nile ends in the  
Delta between Cairo and Alexandria before merging into the  
Mediterranean.

Named after the first president of modern Egypt, Lake Nasser is the  
world's largest artificial lake created by the building of the Aswan  
High Dam on the Nile. Nubian lives were disrupted, properties  
engulfed, and monuments were almost lost.

With unprecedented international cooperation and much valiant  
labor,UNESCO led an international team to save Abu Simbel built by  
Rameses II, and Philae Temple to Isis (Greco-Roman) from the rising  
waters. Some smaller temples were given to some of the cooperating  
countries and are now in museums in other countries.


Tourists swarm the temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel in the early dawn.

A casual visitor would never have known that these huge architectural  
legacies of Nubia were transposed and re-assembled in their present  
locations. Abu Simbel in the desert on higher ground near the lake,  
and Philae temple on an island in the Nile.

Ancient pre-historic drawings from caves in Nubia shows an elephant,  
"Abu" leaving us to speculate on the name given to the temples.

There are two temples at Abu Simbel, the larger proclaims Rameses  
might and links him to divinity, and a second for his Nubian wife
Nefertari where he also deifies her.

  
Temple of Nefertari

Twice a year, the sun shines directly on the inner sanctum of the  
Rameses temple where the statues of Ra, Ptah and Amun along with  
Rameses are seated. On February 21st, the King's birthday and again  
on October 22, the date of his coronation. The temples are re-sited  
to allow this phenomenon to continue. One source said October 20, and  
Feb. 20th but the re-siting of the temple moved the date back one day.


Seeking to intimidate his enemies and shore up his far Nubian border,  
Rameses most probably struck fear in the heart of would be attackers  
with this group of bound men on their knees and roped together by the  
neck. In another image in the temple he is shown mightily striding  
and striking dozens of captives in one blow, holding them by the hair.

In contrast to this outward show of might, the temple inside is  
astonishing in its tender depiction of offerings to the gods.  
Numerous side rooms from the main Hipostyle hall repeats the motif of  
offering and as we walk towards the inner sanctum, the offerings are  
increased in size and number. From offerings that fit in both hands,  
they are placed on tables, then larger tables, until the offerings  
fill the entire wall.

I had missed my meditation and prayers that morning and in the bus  
across the desert had begun to offer mental prayers silently.

In gratitude for life and living, I was thankful for the air, the  
fresh desert morning, the people who accompanied us on the trip, the  
friend of a friend who had arranged the tour for us, the friend who  
had recommended his friend, the driver of the bus, the cook who had  
prepared our breakfast, the desk clerk who had requested coffee for  
us at 3:00 a.m. the waiter who served it, the taxi-driver yesterday,  
the caleche driver who took us through the market in what I thought  
was going to be an impossible journey, but somehow this horse drawn  
carriage became passable through a crowded souk. I was thankful for  
the cheerful driver that Ken upbraided as he kept trying to be a  
salesman for each vendor we spoke to until Ken reminded him that his  
job was to drive.


For Nefartari, his Nubian wife, Rameses II broke all conventions when  
he built her temple at Abu Simbel making her into a goddess. Queens  
and consorts of Pharaohs are never depicted more than knee high to  
the pharaoh, but here Nefertari towers in her own nice on the pylon  
of her own temple, replicated and at the same height as her husband  
Rameses.

Tumbling out of the bus half asleep, I was still making offerings  
when we ventured through the temples, looking up at the drawings  
created so many thousands of years ago, it seamlessly melded into my  
drowsy state of mental gratitude and offerings of thanksgiving.

Through numerous rooms my footsteps followed the ever increasing  
bounty being offered to the hawk of the desert as Thoth, the  
crocodiles of the river as Sobek, the jackals as Anubis, and  
throughout a devout prayer for life after death so the mortality of  
the flesh is not the end, but a transition as symbolised by the  
mummified Osiris figures. The hope of life beginning anew is  
symbolized by the lowly dung beetle, patiently moving its ball of  
dung across the desert like the sun moving patiently through the sky,  
day after day, and year after year.


Closer to Aswan, Philae Temple, also saved from drowning and moved to  
this island is the last temple in Egypt that was decorated in  
hieroglyphs. This Greco-Roman structure was said to be built on an  
ancient site of worship to Isis.


A fleet of ferries on the far bank transport visitors to the island,  
and then wait for them to return to the mainland. Although it would  
probably be far more efficient to have one fare and visitors could  
get into available boat when they were ready to leave. As it was, we  
had to wait for the rest of the passengers who had come on our boat  
after we had negotiated the fare.


Pylons at Philae temple are decorated in the pharonic style, with  
large incised deities, and mighty pharaoh smiting his enemies.


In the Christian era, many monuments were defaced in an attempt to  
destroy the pagan gods of the pharonic era.

Philae temple had more determined Christians with a lot of time on  
their hands, than any temple I have seen so far.


Also this temple to Isis sports a most curious mixture of columns  
that one wonders if they did in fact mix-up the columns in moving the  
complex to its present location. Or could this have been a mad  
experimentation for styles of columns, mistakenly referred to in  
present day architecture as "Greek columns" when in fact they are  
Egyptian in origin?

Love,

Lucilda

www.Lucilda.com




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 32811 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0002.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Desert Rivers.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 89453 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0011.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LakePalms.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 112774 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0012.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Rameses Temple.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 111832 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0013.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ancient elephant.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 75601 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0003.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Nefertari Temple.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 97737 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0014.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Captives.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 127802 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0015.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Sleepy at Nefertari Temple.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 111773 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0016.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Philae temple island.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 98683 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0017.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Philae ferries.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 98447 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0018.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Pylons at Philae temple.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 103230 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0019.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: obliteration.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 125275 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0020.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Columns.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 101919 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.thedac.org/pipermail/dacmail_thedac.org/attachments/20080512/d09cb382/attachment-0021.jpeg

More information about the DACmail mailing list