“ Their genders and identities long erased , these seemingly mythical warriors and influencers we ’ d been learning about for nearly two weeks somehow appeared before us in their flaking flesh .”
It ’ s a lovely vision of bustle from afar , but frankly , I couldn ’ t wait to leave Cairo . It ’ s a tough metropolis , densely overpopulated with some 22 million inhabitants . There is little to no waste management in Cairo , so residents burn their garbage , the haze blanketing the skyline . Roadways are always clogged , lane dividers are absent or ignored , and most of the cars have scrapes and dents from the fender-benders of everyday commuting . Khalil called Cairo traffic the “ daily circus … If you find a traffic light that works , show it to me . We use the car horn as a language , like hieroglyphs .”
While the trip began and ended in Cairo , it was punctuated in the middle with a seven-night cruise on the Nefertiti , a private 75-passenger riverboat docked in the port city of Aswan . Away from the congestion of the capital , this was the most pleasant time on the journey : enjoying three meals a day — including four-course , chef-driven dinners — surrounded by lively company . Cruising the Nile allowed us the opportunity to take in the quaint riverside
domiciles , the water buffalo and cows and horses , and the enthusiastic rural children waving and shouting from the water ’ s edge .
Befitting its ancient Egyptian focus , the trip included informative stops at nine temples — Abu Simbel , Kagemni , Philae , Kom Ombo , Edfu , Dendera , Luxor , Hatshepsut and Karnak , each with their significant backstories and stunning attributes , although they began to blur together by the end of the journey . Navigating us past the heaving throngs of tourists toward the most impressive carvings and stories , Khalil offered a condensed curriculum on Egyptian gods and the real-life pharaohs who worshipped them .
These included the sky goddess Nut , sprawled along a rectangular ceiling on the extravagantly preserved Dendera Temple — its blue and red colors derived from lapis lazuli minerals and animal blood — who swallowed the sun every sunset and then birthed it anew every sunrise . Or the Kom Ombo Temple , whose hieroglyphs
Right : Graceful felucca sailboats crisscross the Nile River , much as they have for centuries .
16 DISPATCHES • JUNE 2023