Night on the Nile

Noneristic Egypt

Egypt for tourists is charm El Sheikh and Hurghada. The New Times correspondent decided to destroy the stereotype and conduct a vacation not at sea, but on the Nile - between Aswan and Luxor

From Luxor to Asuan 220 km. On Felka, this path can be done in five days

After the lively Cairo Asian, it seems to be some kind of fabulous country. Swifts fly above the Nile, on the half -empty streets, the horse harnessed into strollers, smells of the river lazily. The Nile is Nyshirok, the ruins of the old Nubian settlement on the island of Elephantine are visible from the hotel window. There are two nylometers on this island, they are from the oldest in the country: in ancient Egypt, known for its developed bureaucratic and administrative system, all life was built around the Nile's waters. Abundant floods are a large area of ​​agricultural land and a “fat” year, low water level is hunger. The water level on nylometers determined the tax rate in the financial year.

Ancient Egyptian thriller

The main attraction of Asuan is the temple of Isis on the island of File. The Egyptians believed: the Great Nile begins from here, the goddess Isis cried, who lost the husband of Osiris. The brother of Seth killed him, dismembered his body and scattered pieces on different edges of the earth. But the stubborn Isis gathered the remains, not finding only the phallus - it was eaten by a fish in the Nile.

To get to the island of the fillet, you must first pay 150 Egyptian pounds for a taxi ($ 22, which is very expensive for Egypt), and then another 180 pounds per boat ($ 27). There is no way to bargain - either pay, or get swimming. The same problem with guides: there are many of them for each temple or museum, but they are expensive, and there are no guarantees that they will speak in tolerable English. And not the fact that they will tell something sensible: each on the neck is hanging on the Baje of the Ministry of Culture, but most of these certificates are printed at home, and historical knowledge is fed maximum from Wikipedia. So, the guide in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, showing the alabast canopes, in which the insides of Tutankhamun were stored, on a blue eye told us that black traces on a white alabastra - the blood of the pharaoh that had been baked 3,000 years ago.

"Kalesh" - for a long time not a means of transportation, but fun for tourists

Banana cheap

“On the mysterious lake of Chad // In the midst of centuries -old Baobabov // Cutty felts are striving // at the dawn of the Great Arabs” (Nikolai Gumilyov). On Lake Chad, of course, there were never any Arabs, a little of them in Asuan, whose main population is Nubians. But the sails of Felok every now and then dissect the Nile. Felka is a small deck vessel 3x10 meters with a triangular sail and steering wheel. At the level of the stern, mattresses are laid out over the entire surface, and fabric protecting from the sun is stretched from above. Finding a felus is not difficult: they are just waiting for their client. You just need to choose a good team with which it will be pleasant to spend the side on the side for several days.

The main rule of the tourist is not to give a look that you need something. Upon leaving the hotel, each time you have to go through several circles of different “services”. First taxi drivers. “No, thank you” is not at all enough to be left alone: ​​suddenly you don’t want to go, because you expect to find a cheaper car? They will follow you, offering different directions, until your decisive refusal is answered by a sacramental question: "Who not?" It is better to ignore it at all: you can get stuck in the dialog for a long time.

At the next turn, you are waiting for the coachman of double strollers, they are called here in the French manner: "Kalesh." “Kalesh, Kalesh,” they shout, “inexpensive, where to go?” The refusal here does not work at all, because if you don’t have to go anywhere, this does not mean that you cannot ride in Kalesha for your pleasure. It is useful for tourists to know that you can buy everything from coachmen. Sudansky hash, smuggling Scottish whiskey (perhaps, however, is also Sudanese), if someone suddenly needs a pistol on vacation-this is also to the coachman. If desired, it is possible to remove the owner of the “Kalesh” himself - behind sexual joys with Nubian coats to Asuan and Luxor, ladies come from all over Europe. However, women seem to be not limited to women: when the coachman who pursued us (three young people) realized that we did not want to ride, he decided to try his luck differently. "Egyptian Banana! Do you Want Egyptian Banana? I have a Big One! 50 pounds! ” He shouted, not at all embarrassed by his colleagues standing nearby. Whether the banana was really so large, we did not find out, although the price of $ 8 impressed.

It was not possible to find the felu immediately: the calls of Mahmud fell into the hands of Mahmud, who claimed that he had a boat, but the other side of the Nile. The 15 minutes spent with him on the pier, when he frantically called somewhere and presented us in turn of his two “brothers”, convinced us that he was trying to find anyway, just to get his percentage, and we were in vain was losing time. Despite the desperate calls of Mahmoud, we left and immediately conspired with the owners of Feloki's moored nearby. 1100 pounds ($ 170) in two days with food. Alcohol and other pleasures were paid additionally, this time no one offered us Egyptian bananas.

Neil still feeds Egyptians with fish

Lazy navigation

The wind drives the felus not straight, but from one shore to another. The Nile is empty, only multi -deck cruise ships pass from time to time - one might say, the palaces of comfort. And on Felka - two sailors of Nubian, poor Egyptian wine and real tasty fruits, books brought with them and Spartan dinner on board. Convenities - on the islands on demand, water, thank God, from the canister, although the sailors are washed in the Nile. However, the water here is relatively clean - the Asuan dam is very close. On both shores, breathtaking landscapes: palm groves, fields behind which stretches along the river of the ridge of the rocky mountains. Here you understand what was the Nile for an ancient Egyptian - not just the center of life, the center of the world. A life -giving stream irrigating a narrow strip of fertile land, behind which on both sides is a vast desert, the kingdom of the dead. The sun is born on one side of the desert and dies on the other to pass the second half of the circle in the world from where there is no return, where the murdered Osiris reigns. The entire Egyptian system of the universe is built on this feeling of clamping between two great deserts.

Nubians Muhammad and Midhad are cute and helpful. Midhad here for the elder, now and then asks if we still want to eat or drink. "My Felka is your Felka!" He is proud of his boat, but admits that he stood idle for two weeks: there are few tourists this year, even at sea the number of visitors decreased by 40%, what can we say about the Nile Valley. And at home in Aswan a wife and three children who live on the very island with nylometers. The wife is alone, there is no money for the second money, you won’t feed it. “We are Nubians,” Midhad proudly says, “we are people of honor.” This is our land. Previously, to the flood, we had a lot of land. My grandfather was a big man in the village. Now everything is wrong. ” The flood is the construction of the Asian dam that flooded the historical Nubian lands.

Immediately after sunset, we moor with some island: navigation is prohibited at night. While the guys are preparing dinner on the boat, we are sitting in front of the bonfire on the sandbassed shallow, which the water will hide in a couple of months - the bare roots of trees above us show the border to which the Neil rises in the flood. We have dinner, sleep on the same mattresses, hiding by a whole mountain of blankets, because at night in January the temperature drops to seven to eight degrees, we wake up with the sun at the beginning of seventh in the morning with the feeling that not just a new day began - a new life!

Oncoming Egyptians did not believe that we were Russians: "All Russians are in Hurghada!"

Crocodile God

The next day, we stop to inspect the desert temple of the Shipok in combo. Sobok is an ancient god with the body of man and the head of a crocodile. These reptiles in the Nile have not been seen for a hundred years, although earlier they have brought fear to the Egyptians and were considered sacred. They built their nests in advance and slightly above the cut of water, thus predicting the level of the flood. How could they know this, if not from the revelations of the gods?

After inspecting the temple and lunch on Felok, the lazy relaxed clock with a book and wine again, and then farewell to Midhad and Muhammad, who vyede it that it is better to come in March -April, when it is warm at night, there is more water and stronger the flow in the Nile, so that you can go all the way from Assuan to Luxor in five days, visiting ancient temples and Nubian villages.

In the Luxor, the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, we come in a dark: the streets are deserted, the temple of Amon-Ra is beautifully illuminated. The next day, the valley of kings with their secrets and curses awaits us, the romantic part of the trip is over, again the tourism begins in its purest form.

Photo: Miguel Sanchez-Marco