Tag: Gamal Abdel Nasser

It was a perfect day, and in front of us lay Lake Nasser, sparkling and tossing its ripples under the glorious sun and mellow breezes.  It immediately occurred to me that people, such as Adrian Daninos, a Greek Egyptian Engineer, and the brain behind conception of the Aswan Dam, were really applause-worthy.  The dam was finally materialised, in collaboration of the erstwhile Soviet Union, during the time of President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and came into operation in 1970.

The inception of the dam was meant for taming the River Nile, the longest in the world, although this label has been contested by a team of Brazilian scientists, who claim that the Amazon is effectively longer by around 65 miles. However, gazing at the magnificence spread in front of us, we were just wonder struck like a child gazing at the endless heavens.

The Aswan Dam, as we know now, is actually the High Dam that successfully supersedes the Aswan Low Dam, which was incapable of controlling the Nile flood. It has an installed capacity of 2100 MW hydro-electric power generation.

Despite of so many benefits, the Lake Nasser, effectively the giant reservoir for this Dam, actually served its share of collateral damage, flooding lower Nubia, and requiring resettlement of approximately a hundred thousand people. Many archaeological sites were also submerged by this lake, the most famous being the Temples of Abu-Simbel, located on the west-bank of the Lake, bordering Sudan. The site had to be later restored by the UNESCO in 1968!

“Are you hungry?” It was Michael Shehata, our tour guide, who’d also become a dear friend. I nodded, saying that we’d had enough for breakfast, on the train from Cairo to Aswan.

The car resembled earlier first class compartments of the Indian Railways, and what was interesting was that all cubicles (having two berths each) were interconnected through small sliding doors. So, one could practically run along the entire length of the car, without actually exiting into the main alley!

Aswan station was quite different from Cairo Railway Station. It was pristine, and homely, in contrast with Cairo, that was loud, noisy and less well-maintained, just like any busy Indian Railway Station. The crowd jostled to get a foothold in the local city trains, just the same!

On the way to the Dam, we experienced the life in Aswan. There were horse-drawn carriages, running beside modern cars. Seeing people dressed in Galabya, pulling those cabs, instantly brought the typical images of the ancient Levant alive, before one’s eyes….  Even as crowds of enthusiastic tourists chattered around me, the gentle breezes kept on flooding my mind with a myriad of such emotions, and the expanse of blue kept on shimmering….

The blue kept on shimmering well into a beautiful Egyptian sunset, because that evening, we took a ride in a traditional sailboat a.k.a a ‘Felucca’ to locals. The young Nubian boy who sailed the boat, hardly looked eleven, but he was adept at judging wind directions and the Nile currents.

Hardly casting a glance anywhere, but towards the endless blue below, and the blue punctuated with an onslaught of orange and yellow above, he just kept doing his job. In front of us lay the Elephantine islands, which had taken their share of urbanisation.

The other boy, a little older, maybe in his late teens, suddenly conjured a bag full of traditional silver and camel bone jewellery. The breezes stirred up a light rustle in our minds, and reminded us that these people wait for tourists. This was their major source of subsistence.

Maybe, it was the nostalgic sunset or it was simply the aroma of the Nubian spices, a different face of Egypt was etched in our minds; an Egypt different from the Land of dead Pharaohs and hieroglyphics and Moses….. This was the simpleton’s ‘Misr’ in front of us rife with the struggles of life.

How to reach:
Aswan is located at around 857 km from Cairo.
By Air:
Aswan International Airport also known as Daraw Airport is well connected by flights with Cairo with good frequency throughout the day. Egypt Air, Nile Air and Almasria Universal are the operators who run flights in this route and takes approximately 1.5 hours to reach.
By train:
Egypt is well connected by Railways and also offering spectacular landscape while travelling in train. The name of Egyptian rail operator is Egyptian National Railways. Website of this organisation is https://enr.gov.eg. On their website you can check the timetables for express trains that are running on the main route but not for the slow trains.
How to book tickets: Tickets for different destinations can be bought from the booking counters in Cairo main station by using Egyptian Pounds but not for the Cairo-Luxor-Aswan route. There are restrictions.
Information for Cairo-Luxor-Aswan route:
Due to security reason foreigners are not allowed to buy tickets for normal day time trains. Tickets are not available for this route from Cairo booking office. For booking you have to visit El Watania sleeper office by using dollar, euros or pound sterling only and no Egyptian Pounds are accepted. Tickets can be booked online for this route from this website http://wataniasleepingtrains.com/ticket/index.html . Telephone no of El Watania office are +20237489488 and +20237489388.
But the adventure lover people can buy tickets on day train on this route via Egyptian people.
By road:
By bus: Buses are available for Aswan from Cairo bus terminal Al Torjoman at evening and it is a overnight journey. It will drop at Aswan bus stop which is located at three km north of Aswan train station. Tickets are available at this bus stop from Upper Egypt Bus company window. Buses are also available from Ahmed Helmy Bus station behind Cairo railway station main building.
By car: There are many reputed companies offer cars on hire form Cairo. These are AVIS, Hertz, Europcar, Almo, Budget, National, Sixt etc. All the details are available on their websites.

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