I arrived in Aswan after 2am and spent the next hour looking for a place to stay. My first choice was closed for renovation. I would spend four nights in Aswan. On my first day, I woke up late and worked on planning the flights that will take me back to London in a few weeks for my last exam. My trip will have a whirlwind tour of a few stops in Europe while I take care of some final business before having the summer to myself. It will include stops on three continents in 36 hours.
The main cultural sites I saw in Aswan were Elephantine Island, which has temples dating back to before the Giza Pyramids, and the Nubian Museum, which tells of the history of the region.
Elephantine Island has been lifted out of time. There are no cars and no roads. The only telltale signs of modernity are electrical wiring and the occasional satellite dish. Unlike the deserts of Egypt, Elephantine Island has plenty of water because it’s in the middle of the Nile. The trees are lush and green, almost like a jungle. Many of the homes are built of mud bricks in the traditional Nubian style.
I waded out to the rocks in the photo above, and quickly some local boys who were out fishing came to join me. They wanted me to go swimming, but that’s not safe in the Nile because of the risk of parasites.
I also visited the Unfinished Obelisk, a massive block of stone that would have been the largest in Egypt – if it hadn’t cracked and been abandoned. It provides a lot of evidence about the methods the Egyptians used to make these monuments with only stone tools.
The Nubian Museum was probably the highlight of my time in Aswan. Ancient Nubia is distinct from Ancient Egypt, even though they share some customs and a writing system. Much of ancient Nubia has now disappeared because of the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the reservoir, Lake Nasser, that it created. In the Museum, I was especially proud to see the work of one of SMU’s most distinguished faculty members, Fred Wendorf, who was among those who tried to salvage as much of Nubia’s history as possible before it was submerged.
After another day of planning and relaxing, it was time to move on from Aswan into Sudan.
The journey from Aswan to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, involves a ferry and a three-leg bus trip across the Sahara. The first leg stretches from Aswan to Abu Simbel, the famous temple, where the bus is loaded onto a ferry to the other side of Lake Nasser. This route goes across the old dam at Aswan (called the Low Dam), which was built and extended in the early 20th century. I hastily snapped a photo back towards Aswan from the top.
After a half hour wait, we were on the ferry across the lake.
From there it was a short journey to the border – my first border crossing in Africa. It was what I expected – slow, inefficient, and bureaucratic. As the only white person within 150 miles, the guards who spoke good English helped me through the unfamiliar process. In all, it took four hours to move 300 yards – probably the slowest leg of the entire trip.
I was in Sudan. And the first thing I did was drink tea, for which the Sudanese have an even greater affinity than the British. By this point, I was beginning to become familiar with the Sudanese man sitting next me. His name was Idris, and he was on his way home after a three month absence for work. The Sudanese are legendary among travellers for their hospitality, and I was quickly invited to stay at this home. (I’ve since been invited to stay at three other homes, usually less than five minutes after meeting someone.)
After crossing the border, we spent the night in Wadi Halfa, on the Sudanese side of Lake Nasser. The next morning, we started the 12-hour drive to Khartoum. This was truly the Sahara – a dry, hot, and largely featureless waste of sand. It seemed to go on forever, but at last we arrived.
