Deep in the heart of the ancient land of Nubia, there is a dichotomy of huge Lake Nasser, surrounded by the Sahara Desert. Deep blue in the water, sky blue in the, well, sky, and brown to red land, highlighted by beautiful mountains. And remember, the mountains would look even higher back in the day, before the Aswan Dam was started in 1947 (and finished in 1965).
We had set off that morning on our Lake Nasser cruise, aboard the Steigenberger Omar el Khayam. It is one of just two boats still cruising the lake since the Arab Spring in 2011, many ohers have been mothballed, looking for new owners/investors. The tourism industry of Egypt took another huge hit during COVID, and Egypt’s economy is struggling to rebound. Inflation is sky-high here, and unemployment is double digits.
Our first stop did not include getting off the ship. Instead, we stayed on the boat, gathered at the front of the top deck, for a view of Kasr Ibrim. At the top of a hill that is now, because of the lake, flooded to just a small island, the settlement featured ruins of a Coptic church, a fortress from earlier days, and before that an Egyptian settlement dating back to around 2,000 B.C. It was originally settled in in the eighth century B.C. Life is old there.
Editor: “The front.” Not much of a waterman are you? Editor: Hey, I’m pretty handy on a kayak, sorry I don’t know all the nautical terms!
The island is closed to everyone except archaeologists because it is in a fragile state. It is the only major site to have survived the Aswan Dam.
Sam talked with us for a while about the history of Kasr Ibrim. It was pretty neat looking down on the ruins from the sixth floor of the ship. And then it was time to move on.
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