20250310 Monday, March 10, 2025 Edfu Temple

20250310 Monday, March 10, 2025 Edfu Temple

Our ship arrived in Edfu last night and tied up with the starboard side against the landing so we had a view of the landing through our window in the morning.  The gangway drops down just behind our stateroom location.  It was interesting to watch them lower the gangway part way and then maneuver close enough for crew to walk off the gangway and onto the landing to go manage the mooring lines. 

 

When we went upstairs we could see we were not rafting up with any other Nile river boats.  Just ahead of us on the bank were two other Nile River cruise ships tied up side by side.  We have seen the Viking Aton, which was tied up behind us in Aswan, and later in the day we were passed by the Viking Osiris on the river as both ships exchanged horn toots.  It sounds like there are 3 additional Viking Nile River cruise ships in the plans.

Unlike Kom Ombo, the Edfu Temple is not right on the river.  It was apparently buried nearly intact by silt, sand and gravel for hundreds of years before being discovered and then excavated in the 1800’s.  The city of Edfu was literally built atop this temple.  There were lots of river cruise ships tied up along Edfu’s waterfront.  As we prepared for our excursion, we saw a stream of horse drawn carriages headed up the street into town.  It appears that many of the river cruise ships use these horse drawn carriages for taxiing passengers between the river and the temple.  Viking had apparently done this at one point, but this was discontinued because they were getting too many negative comments about the horses being mistreated.  We had a bus shuttling us in 3 groups between the ship and temple.  When we arrived at the temple, there was an enormous area filled with horse carriages and their drivers, like a very busy bus depot.

Of the temples we have visited on this trip, the Edfu Temple was the most crowded and busy.  It has the classic features of most of the other temples including images on its face of the Pharaoh smiting his enemies before the gods.  

In this case, the temple is dedicated mostly to Horus, who was the son of Isis by the reassembled Osiris through divine conception, as told and retold many times on the walls of various temples.  This temple carries the story to its next chapter in which Isis gets Horus to avenge the death of his father.  Scenes depicting the full grown Horus hunting and subduing Seth, who takes the form of a hippopotamus surround the outside of this temple.  

Horus on boat attacking Seth (Hippo)

Evil Seth subdued by Horus

This temple was built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57BC.  Progressing through the center of the temple was the first place we have encountered really intense crowds and difficulty in moving around.  

It was much more pleasant getting outside and looking at the scenes of Horus climaxing with Horus mounting and riding the hippopotamus manifestation of Seth, indicating the triumph of god over evil.

The ship headed back north down the Nile as we had a very pleasant lunch in the Aquavit.  With the banks of the Nile lined by palm trees, banana plantations and other agricultural crops, it is much more scenic and tranquil than sailing through the Suez Canal.  The air, however, is thick with the smoke of burning cane fields.  It is apparently time for sugar cane harvesting, and it is traditional to burn the fields after harvesting the sugar cane.

There were presentations in the briefing room/lounge on excursion group and disembarkation logistics.  We will disembark to a hotel closer to the Cairo airport and will then transfer the next day via bus to Alexandria. This will be a 3-4hr bus ride.  Lunch and dinner will be on our own in Alexandria.  The following day, we’ll have breakfast and lunch provided and will spend the day touring sites around Alexandria.  There is an optional tour in the afternoon to the new library of Alexandria, although this doesn’t have any relationship other than in spirit to the legendary library of Alexandria of ancient times.  The original Library of Alexandria became so great by requiring any ships doing commerce with Alexandria to submit all books on board to be copied and added to the library.

It didn’t take long to get to the old Esna dam.  This is now referred to as a silt dam, but it did function the same as the newer dam in controlling flow for irrigation and providing navigational locks.  But this old dam had a draw bridge that interrupted traffic, and only had a single lock passage which took over 20 minutes to cycle. The newer dam has an elevated roadway and twin locks which allow passage of 2 way traffic with a cycle time of only 6 minutes.

As we approached the old dam a small fleet of rowboats converged on the ship.  They were 2 man teams of vendors selling mostly table cloths and shawls.  They would show an example from their boat and then throw merchandise up onto the upper deck of the ship.  There was a bit of a headwind so tossing things back into these small boats was very difficult.  Fortunately, one of the women on board had a pretty good throwing arm and was able to return fire with some accuracy.  She most likely played softball in college.  The vendors followed us all the way from the old dam through the locks and were finally shed as we left the lock and continued our journey downstream.

 
In the afternoon, Randa gave a lecture on Egyptian women through the years, highlighting the role of women in society. Relative to other countries in the Middle East, Egypt has tended to be more moderate and liberal.  Randa did describe the rightward lurch that her country experienced during the Arab Spring phenomenon and the brief rule of the Moslem Brotherhood.  There was a considerable backlash to the oppression of women by the more extremist Muslim sects, which eventually lead to their removal from power, and a return to more moderate policies.

 
There was a farewell cocktail hour before the final daily briefing on the ship.  The ship arrived in Luxor during dinner.  We had lamb but also had a side of koshari, which is a staple Egyptian vegetarian dish with rice, lentils, pasta, onions and tomato.  

It was actually very tasty and complemented the lamb quite well.  The wife of the couple we happened to be sitting with got a surprise birthday cake and ovation by the wait staff and Program director.  She was nearly brought to tears by the gesture.  We got the benefit of getting a sampling of her birthday cake, which was a chocolate ice cream cake.

We sadly spent part of the afternoon and rest of the evening repacking our suitcases because we disembark the Hathor tomorrow morning and fly back to Cairo.  We have an optional excursion to the new Grand Egyptian Museum in the afternoon.  Then, the following day, we take a 3-4hr bus ride to Alexandria to spend a day there before flying back home.

We’d have to say that Viking’s tagline “See the World In Comfort” really sums up this trip so far.  While our culinary experiences at the pre-cruise hotel were not memorable, the ship’s culinary team has really done a great job with introducing Egyptian cuisine that is healthy and flavorful.

So far we have not had any GI issues.  Janet has been having salads and ice from the start, while it took Ben a while to build up the confidence in the ship’s food safety.  The Viking Nile River Cruise ships actually connect to municipal water when they dock.  This is used for most purposes and we were advised from the very first day not to use the water in the bathroom to brush our teeth or drink.  They provided an ample and readily accessible supply of Nestle Pure Life bottled water.  Ben had asked the restaurant staff about the safety of ice cubes and salads, and they said that they use bottled water for the ice, and that water that comes aboard the ship is further treated before it is used for any food related purposes such as washing fruits, vegetables and dishwashing.

Although Viking has plans for several additional Nile River Cruise ships, we never had to raft up at any of our ports of call.  The hotel manager says Viking books additional berths so that they don’t have to do like other Nile River Cruise lines, and it has been very nice to be able to enjoy the view out of our window the entire cruise.  

The ship itself is every bit as nice as the Ocean, River and Expedition ships but due to its size and short itinerary, lacks many features of the other ships like a gym, spa and self service laundry but to be fair, this itinerary is so packed with activities, nobody would really have time to do anything else.  One remarkable feature of these staterooms is how much drawer and shelf storage there is, even in the lowest category stateroom.  And the desk space is amazing.

While the ship has a Starlink based internet service, for some reason, I was not able to reliably upload images for my travel blog.  Images will have to be uploaded later using a land based internet connection.  Texting worked OK via What’s App but even email was a bit sluggish.

It’s unlikely we’ll be back down the Nile again in the future with so many other places on the planet to see, but we could whole heartedly recommend doing this trip with Viking to anyone with the means and desire.