Sitting on the upper deck with a book, sipping tea as Upper Egypt with its ancient treasures languidly slips by, I reflect with a certain degree of smugness that this was beyond doubt the most luxurious holiday I have ever taken. Our ship, a floating five-star hotel gliding effortlessly through the silken waters, is transporting us between Aswan and Luxor. On one side were the lush palms and banana trees that spring from the fertile Nile soils, on the other the barren stone of desert. Sometimes a shepherd boy taking his sheep to feed will appear in the distance between the rocks, or a herd of cows enjoying the greenery around them. But, otherwise, the silence of the Nile is sweet to the ears.
There are, of course, much cheaper Nile cruises to be had - some 3,000 or more to choose from - but I am taking my mother and didn't want to run the risk of encountering food poisoning or broken bathrooms. Upper Egypt is really the country's most precious jewel, with its beautiful people and landscapes - what a shame that more of those living in Cairo and Alexandria don't ever bother to visit Luxor or Aswan.
The two towns are small and very clean. Sixty per cent of the inhabitants of Aswan work in the tourism trade. The place is full of little shops selling bogus pharaonic statues, made-in-China mugs and identical scarves. The touts will chase you down the alley trying to sell you a series of post cards or a map of the Nile. Some local residents work in the hundreds of hotels that keep popping up in the towns to accommodate the tourists, while others make wonderful tour guides. At any one time you can hear Egyptian voices speaking Italian, Japanese, Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, and English. It is amazing to hear so many languages being spoken in such a small place.
The truly awe-inspiring moments come when you enter the archaeological wonders of Aswan and Luxor and the villages in between. Edfu's majestic Temple of Horus, the falcon god, reduced us to silence. The clarity of the hieroglyphics and the beauty of the stories told in pictures along the temple walls make you wonder how they could have been preserved so well. The unusual double temple in Kom Ombo is dedicated to Horus and the crocodile god, Sobek, no doubt as an offering and commemoration to the powerful Nile reptile which attacked the ancient Egyptians' animals and sometimes ate their children. The sheer mass and height of the carved stones are breathtaking. How could people with none of the technologies we harness today have built temples so strong, sturdy and beautiful that has lasted 3,000 years. Sheer genius!
The most impressive sight has to be Queen Hatshepsut's temple in Luxor. A three-floor temple dedicated to herself, the façade is decorated with statues of her dressed as king, even down to a fake beard. Her reign was so successful that she declared herself a king and dug her tomb in the Valley of the Kings rather than the Valley of the Queens, where the female members of Egypt's royal families and their children were buried. Overthrowing her stepson, Queen Hatshepsut took over Egypt and ruled for 22 years. It was a time of prosperity and expanding trade as she oversaw expeditions to Somalia, from where her men returned with incense, ivory, plants and slaves. She also oversaw successful military campaigns in Syria and the Levant.
With the tour over, we drag our tired legs up the ramp and back into the beauty of our ship. Floating along, I remember that everything we have seen during the day was really only possible because of the power of the Nile. Had this river not acted as a lifeline to the ancient Egyptians, it is possible that only the nomads would have passed silently through the deserts, moving ever onwards in search of food and water. Instead, the Nile gave opportunities for settlement. It allowed a beautiful and wondrous civilisation to emerge and prosper. And today it lets us view those wonders in style and at our leisure.
Hadeel al Shalchi is a writer for the Associated Press, based in Cairo
