In Aswan the Temple Philae tells a fantastic mythical tale
By Eileen Ogintz
ASWAN, EGYPT — Talk about time travel. Ancient Egyptians have been sailing on the Nile River for thousands of years. Well-heeled and adventurous travelers have done the same for more than a century.
So here we are in the 21st Century on an 80-passenger boat owned by Abercrombie & Kent getting ready to sail down the Nile 180 miles from Aswan to Luxor over three days to see the famous ancient temples and tombs, including that of the boy king Tutankhamun known around the world as King Tut. For 500 years beginning in the 6th Century BC, tombs of pharaohs and nobles were buried in the Valley of the Kings.
There are just 25 tourists on board, 17 in our group. We have a restaurant, two lounges, a library and plenty of outdoor space — even a plunge pool. Food is prepared with local ingredients.
We started the day with an early flight from Cairo to the city of Aswan, known for its gold and granite that was used to build obelisks in Ancient Egypt. Today it is a city of more than a million with Egypt’s newest university, two dams, the first built in the 19th Century, the second (Aswan High Dam) in the 1960s, creating one of the biggest man-made lakes in the world and famous for its fishing.
This is where our cruise will begin, but first we took a motorized boat to Philae Temple on the island of Agilika, a sacred complex dedicated to the goddess Isis and a demonstration of the Roman, Greek and Egyptian Civilization first built in 3200 BC.
This temple was painstakingly moved from its original location that was flooded when the Aswan High Dam was built. Some 72,000 stones, columns, and other pieces, were carefully disassembled from the old site and rebuilt here over about four years in the 1970s.
“Every temple has a legend related to the God or Goddess of the Temple, explains our Guide, Essem Zeid, an Egyptologist.
Even Gods and Goddesses didn’t always get what they wanted—including Isis. She was in love with another god Osiris the God Seth was in love with her and desperately jealous. He even built a gold coffin sized specifically for Osiris, convinced him to try it out, and then had his men seal it and throw it in the Nile.
It’s said Isis’ tears filled the River Nile and that she created the first magic in the world—conjuring wings so she could fly around looking for her love. She supposedly found him in what today is Lebanon and brought him back to life. But Seth wasn’t done. He then cut Osiris into 14 pieces and had each piece placed in a different part of Egypt.
Isis didn’t give up. She and her sister, another goddess, found all but one of the pieces. But Osiris was done fighting. He preferred to become the god of the afterlife, the one who would say whether someone could pass after the final judgement.
As the legend goes, Isis still was desperate to become a mother and enjoyed a miraculous conception (who knew there was another virgin birth?). And she loved her son Horus very much. Seth continued his depredation, gouging out Horus’ eyes. But Horus got the gift of an eye and was able to see again—the first surgeon, our guide explained.
Horus won a battle against Seth, but Seth didn’t die. He is emblematic of what other religions consider to be Satan.
When the Greeks arrived, they rebuilt the ancient temple and later early Christians fleeing persecution worshipped here. So many of these stories are carved into the walls, though some original Egyptian faces were disfigured by the Greek Orthodox Christians who wouldn’t worship where there was what they considered idolatry. It’s amazing that it has lasted so long and is such an interesting merging of cultures.
We ended the day with a short outing on the Nile in a traditional Egyptian sailboat called a felucca, being serenaded by an Egyptian welcome song, past the hotel where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. Notable here as well are a mausoleum for the Aga Khan (leader of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias) and an ancient Jewish settlement that is now ruins.
There is just so much history, but we need some time for fun. Ready for an Egyptian costume party?