Egypt 2023 - Day 6 - Kom Ombu, Birding at Aswan, & the Old Cataract Hotel

 I accidentally deleted the first draft of this article, which was about two-thirds complete, so hopefully, this will still be coherent in the rewrite. Ain’t that just the way.

Content warning: there’s a mummified crocodile later on, which is awesome, but it’s also a dead animal

The first stop of the morning was the temple of Kom Ombu, originally named Kum Mubuu, meaning ‘Golden Mount’ because Gold was mined in the hills behind the temple. Kom Ombu temple is dedicated to the gods Sobek and Horus. Sobek is the god of the Nile, a male figure with a crocodile head. The reason for the dual worship is that Sobek, according to our Egyptologist, was considered a ‘bad’ god. Some light research seems to indicate that he was considered a very dangerous god but also a god of life due to his connection to the Nile, the lifeline of Egypt.

The exterior of Kom Ombu facing the Nile. Note the double entrance for the two gods

Kom Ombu is considered the first temple of the Roman period in Egypt, around 30 BCE. It was a place pharaohs would visit to give offerings to both Sobek and Horus. Egyptian temples were not places for people. Only the priests and the Royal family were allowed in, and only the High Priest were allowed into the inner sanctuaries. Not even a Pharaoh could enter those rooms.

An earthquake in the 14th century severely damaged the Temple at Kom Ombu, and most of the columns were destroyed, along with every ceiling and many walls. Emperor Trajan added to the temple, creating the first known hospital dedicated to the Egyptian god of medicine, Imhotep. The hospital was used for surgeries, dentistry, and midwifery. There are depictions of the goddess Neftis, pregnant and sitting on a birthing stool, and her not-so-pregnant sister Isis.

Isis (top) and her pregnant sister Neftis (bottom) in Imhotep’s hospital at Kom Ombu

This temple also has great side-by-side examples of high-relief carving vs. sunken-relief carving. High relief was favored by the earlier Egyptians and was much more difficult since any mistakes were nearly impossible to conceal. By the Roman era, and starting with Ankenhaten, the Egyptians were using sunken relief, where the figures were carved into a background on the stone, which allowed for corrections via the addition of plaster and recarving.

Horus (left) and Sobek (right) in high relief on the walls of Kom Ombu

To the south of the main temple complex is a deep well, which was not used for drinking water but was a device for measuring the depth of the Nile, which flowed into the well via a tunnel at the bottom. The priest used the height of the Nile to determine how much tax to levy against the people. When the Nile was high, the taxes were high since the crop yields were higher in wetter years. This device is charmingly referred to as a “Nileometer.”  There are 87 known Nileometers throughout Egypt.

Nileometer at Kom Ombu

The Nileometer at Kom Ombu was also used to keep a single Crocodile that the high priest ordained to contain the spirit of the Crocodile god Sobek. It was worshiped as such and treated with great respect. When said crocodile would perish, it was given an honor procession, mummified, and kept in a crypt inside the temple. Today, there is a “Crocodile Museum” just outside the temple complex that houses the remains of these mummies, and they are super cool, if a bit creepy.

Mummified Crocodiles at the Crocodile Museum in Kom Ombu

I didn’t know much about Sobek before this excursion, and now he’s one of my favorites.

After Kom Ombu, we had lunch and sailed to Aswan, the Southernmost port of our trip, but certainly not the last adventure. After lunch, we hopped aboard a small motorboat to get a tour of the Nile around Aswan, specifically focused on the birds and flora of the area.

Kids on paddle boats scooted up to our boats to ask for money and sang songs in French to entice the tourists. Our gang, and just our gang, decided to brave sitting on the roof of the boat for a better view, and it was well worth the added wind, though Rob did lose his hat to a particularly strong gust early on in the tour.

Kids intercepting the small motorboats and Feluccas headed out onto the Nile for tours

The Nile around Aswan is home to many specie of trees and plant life including bamboo, mallow, palms of every variety you can think of, mango trees and acacia. We saw gray herons, cattle egrets, harriers, swifts, lots and lots of ducks, rock doves, sand grouse, squacco herons, little herons, and on and on. Our guide on this tour was a man named Mohamed Arabi, who is actually quite famous in the birding world and known as the “Bird Man” of Aswan. 

Cattle Egrets on a scuttled boat in the Nile

Along the way, we also got our first glimpse at the Old Cataract Hotel, which would not-so-coincidentally be our next journey stop.

Uniworld has a contract with the Old Cataract, which is made famous for being the filming site of the original version of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Christie stayed at the hotel for over a year with her husband when they visited Egypt. It was originally the summer home of King Farouk, the last king of Egypt, before being converted into a hotel after the revolution. Farouk stayed in the hotel for probably two weeks out of the year to escape the heat of Cairo.

Nowadays, a room at the Old Cataract starts at about $5000 USD a night in the peak season. The royal suite runs about $12000 USD an evening.

Old Cataract Hotel at Aswan

 The hotel has a beautiful English-style bar that we admired from a distance but were not allowed into. We took afternoon tea on the veranda connected to the New Cataract Hotel beside the Old, originally built to house the Russian builders who built the High Aswan Dam in the 1960s and 70s. The well-timed “light” meal of dainty little sandwiches and cakes coincided with the sunset and the adhan of Magrib over Lake Aswan between the older British dam and the High dam and was very striking.

Sunset from the Veranda at the New Cataract Hotel

Afterward, we returned to the boat for a little relaxation and another happy hour of Egyptian spirits in the lounge. Today’s special was a “Ramses II,” which was more or less just a Gin and tonic with some lime and a sprig of Rosemary, but it was a pretty decent one.

“Ramses II” G&T with Rosemary

At 19:00, we were honored with a traditional Nubian dance accompanied by a chanter and drum group. The first few dances were a lot of fun, but of course they had to get the tourists involved, and it turned into one of those contact embarrassment experiences that are hard for me to endure. I’ll talk a bit about Nubia tomorrow because the Nubian people are a key part of Aswan’s history, and their story is rather tragic.

Nubian performance on the boat

We were so stuffed from all the nibbles at tea that our entire group opted out of dinner for the evening, which frankly didn’t sound particularly exciting anyway. Instead, another round of G&Ts and chat awaited us on the sun deck, where we soaked in the evening air and enjoyed the glow of the KFC located right next to our dock.

It’s worth mentioning that here in Luxor, and indeed in Cairo, there are a lot of cruise ships very similar to ours (though we’ve been told the Sphinx is regarded as one of the nicer boats on the Nile). There are not nearly enough docks to accommodate all these boats, so they are literally stacked next to each other along the dock, and you walk through the lobbies of the other boats to go ashore if your boat isn’t the first on the dock. We were fortunate to be the first at our dock this time, so we got a closer view of the on-shore action.

Cruise ships stacked at the tourist port of Aswan

Tomorrow is a packed day — we’ll visit the Island temple of Philae, a perfume and essential oil factory, the High Aswan Dam, the Papyrus Institute, the “Unfinished Obelisk” of Hatshepsut at the Aswan granite quarry, and then return to Philae for a light show in the evening.