Egypt 2023 - Day 9 - Esna & New Year’s Eve

Last night, the ship stopped at Esna, and this morning, we left the ship and walked directly into the town. We walked through the market or souk, where Walid showed us a traditional tailor’s shop making galabeya and an ironing shop next door. The market was of the usual sort, but it was cool to see the old style of ironing, where the vendor sprayed starchy water from his mouth (!!) and used his foot to apply pressure to the flat iron.

Shopkeep ironing a galabeya in Esna Market

After the souk, we spied the oldest standing minaret in Egypt, right next to the souk, and then walked a few meters to the temple of Khnum. Khnum is a creator god responsible for sculpting the faces of babies on a spinning wheel while they are in the womb. He is the patron god of Aswan, but his temple at Esna is really special. It was buried under the sand until its discovery in 1816. It was only discovered because a massive sandstorm cleared off the roof.

Excavation of the temples at Esna is still occurring. The main temple is 9 meters (29.5 feet) below the city's current ground level. But an ancient temple, probably dedicated to Amun-ra, is buried behind and below the Roman-era temple to Khnum. 

Façade of the Temple of Khnum at Esna from ground level

The exterior of the Roman Temple has a huge set of columns topped with the lotus blossom motif. King Mohammad Ali used the temple as a storehouse for cotton from Cairo, and his soldiers trained by shooting at the architrave; thus, many of the friezes at the top of the temple were heavily damaged. Inside remained remarkably intact, but the paint was rendered black by smoke and time. USAID has restored much of the painting and continues its work to this day.

The Hypostyle hall with its painted colonnade is breathtaking, and the high reliefs all over the walls are in near-perfect condition. It’s become one of my favorites, alongside Dendera and Karnak.

The gorgeous painted capitals inside the Temple of Khnum at Esna

We then took a brief stop at the Esna Cultural Center, the renovation of which was just completed by USAID this year. It is set to open as a new market and small museum next year, but we got a tour of the building and its roof, which allowed us to get some good pictures of Esna from a bit higher. Esna is just a village, and much of it is still in disrepair. Many of the multi-family houses with their sycamore balconies are no longer habitable. Part of the renovation of the city is to demolish many of these unsalvageable mud-brick residences and replace them with modern Egyptian housing at no cost to the villagers. If the money holds up, Esna should look pretty amazing in ten years.

The current town of Esna undergoing extensive renovation by the government

The trip to Esna was short, and we returned to the ship before lunch, setting sail once again to our final destination, back at the port of Luxor. 

A performance of various dances representing different parts of Egypt was part of this evening’s entertainment. The troupe included a band playing traditional Egyptian instruments, including the darbouka, a goblet-shaped drum; the ney, an Egyptian flute that’s similar to an oboe; a hand drum; and the rababa, a single-string sort of lute played with a bow. They performed several dances, including a whirling dervish-style dance, where a (quite handsome) man in a multi-hued circular coat spun wildly in a tight circle. The dance must have gone on for 5 minutes, including a moment when he turned on electric lights on the outfit that illuminated the whole darkened room in a rainbow of colors. I doubt it was a particularly classical interpretation of the dervish dance, as sufis that practice the true dervish take vows of poverty and austerity, and it is considered a sacred meditation.

Dervish dance with the band playing behind

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and there was a special dinner planned for us with Beef Wellington, smoked salmon with caviar, and a big impressively decorated dessert buffet, mostly filled with cakes of various flavors and a few other nummies like crème brûlée (the only one of the desserts I actually cared for in the spread, quite frankly.)

New Years Eve dinner getting started

After that, the lounge was turned into the dance floor, where, at least conceptually, we were to dance the night away until midnight. The crowd was slow to congregate, but Sean was eager to get to dancing, so he, I, Moses, our amazingly cool bartender, and a few of the other staff got dancing early to 70’s disco. About an hour later, the dance floor was almost 75% crew, rocking out to Arabic dance music. The wait staff of the restaurant kept rushing out to grab crew members from the back until half of the crew was out on the floor. It was a delight to join, but man, I could *not* keep up with their enthusiasm. By 10:00, Sean and I were pretty well done. I returned to the room first and Sean about fifteen minutes later.

The flight back to Cairo is tomorrow, but the adventure isn’t quite done. We’ll be visiting the not-quite-yet-open new Grand Egyptian Museum for a bit a sneak peak at a few of the exhibits an the grand staircase after we arrive, and then the day after is probably the busiest day of the trip. 

Saying goodbye to the beautiful Nile

But more on that tomorrow! Now to pack and get ready to say farewell to the brilliant, attentive, friendly staff and crew of the S.S. Sphinx for the last time.

Thank you for reading.