Cruise on the Nile
One of the most interesting travels in Egypt is a cruise on the Nile River with a visit to the historical monuments of this ancient civilization.
Our movement along the route took place in a combined way. First from Rostov to Moscow by train, then to Hurghada by plane, then by bus to Luxor on the banks of the Nile. Further up the Nile on a comfortable boat to Aswan. Then by high-speed train to Cairo and again by bus to Hurghada. 4 days of rest on the Red Sea and by plane to Moscow.
For 11 days, we managed to see the grandiose Karnak temple of the god Amon-Ra with an alley of sphinxes and the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor, the valley of the pharaohs, where the famous burial place of Tutankhamun is located, the oldest temples in Edfu and Kom Ombo, the Aswan dam with a reservoir named after Nasser and a monument to the Soviet -Egyptian friendship. We visited the Cairo Museum of Archeology and, of course, the only one of the ancient wonders of the world that has survived to this day - the Egyptian pyramids with a large sphinx. We visited the settlements of the indigenous inhabitants of Egypt: the Bedouins in the desert and the Nubians in the upper reaches of the Nile. They admired the magnificent underwater world of the Red Sea with corals and outlandish fish, which had previously been seen only in the programs of Jean-Jacques Cousteau.
The most pleasant part of the trip was on a four-deck motor ship with comfortable cabins, a spacious solarium and a swimming pool, which slowly moved up the Nile. As you know, the length of the Nile is the third largest among the rivers of the Earth, after the Mississippi and the Amazon. But its width and fullness are unlikely to exceed our Don. On the starboard side, wretched villages, countless palm groves, rice fields, where peasants worked with their assistants - little donkeys, sailed very close. On the left, steeper bank, the desert sometimes came quite close to the water. And here, in order for the trees to grow at least 5 meters from the river, gasoline pumps were constantly buzzing, supplying water for irrigation.
We have seen hundreds of ships like ours. All are about the same size. Moreover, the height of 4 decks was limited by the height of the spans of the Nile bridges. Sometimes, when passing the bridge, at the request of the crew, we even had to bend down or sit on sun loungers so as not to damage the structure with our heads. In places with famous historical monuments, the ship moored, and we went on excursions on buses, horse-drawn carts or sailing yachts.
By ship we got to Aswan, where in the 1960s the Soviet Union built a dam across the Nile and a hydroelectric power plant for the brotherly people of Egypt. Aswan has a park and a monument to Soviet-Egyptian friendship. Nearby stands a dam across the Nile, built by the British 60 years earlier. From Aswan we take a night train to Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
As you know, 95% of the Egyptians live on the banks of the Nile, including more than a quarter in the huge 18 million metropolis of Cairo, comparable in number of inhabitants to Moscow. One can only marvel at the genius of traffic organizers in such a gigantic city. There are no wide avenues in Cairo, but there are no traffic jams either. But there are multi-level interchanges at intersections, dividing lanes and safety islands for pedestrians. And the most interesting thing is that there are no traffic lights on the roads of Cairo.
Often in the city in crowded places, near hotels, on the beaches you meet armed patrols in white or black army uniforms. There are even firing points with mobile armored shields near the market, and snipers sit on the roofs of railway stations. Columns of buses with tourists across the desert are also accompanied by armed soldiers. It can be seen that the terrorist threat is taken seriously here, although we did not notice even the slightest hint of danger.
Local merchants have already learned that Russian tourists are desirable customers for them. Therefore, often on the streets, in shops, in the markets you can hear in our native language: “Hey, friend, come in, freebie! ” or "You tell me, you tell me what you need, what you need, maybe I'll give you what you want! "
Of course, the strongest impression remains from the pyramids of Cheops and his son Khafre, located on the outskirts of Cairo. I remember when at school we were told about the Egyptian pyramids, we thought about the pharaohs: what a cruel whim to force hundreds of thousands of slaves to build these stone monsters for decades, consisting of two million plates, weighing more than two and a half tons each, to perpetuate their name. Now I think differently: there were no wiser rulers in history than the pharaohs, who, having built giants not subject to the elements and time, provided their people with bread for many thousands of years after their death, since international tourism that flourishes in Egypt is largely due to this wonder of the world, brings 40% of the budget of this poor country.
From Cairo we return by bus to Hurghada and rest for 4 days on the Red Sea coast.
