Cruising the Nile

The Nile is a busy waterway and tourism accounts for a large part of that traffic. If you’re entertaining the notion that you will be alone, enjoying the desert wilderness with just the occasional sighting of an Egyptian native in a canoe… then you can forget it. That’s not to say you’ll be waving at other boats all day long either; it’s a big river after all. There are huge stretches where all you will see is lush green vegetation, buffeted by impressive desert mountains in the distance. There are times when you can glimpse out across deck towards a 2000 year old temple on a hilltop. The Nile was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the lifeblood coursing through their glorious country, but even today, that life is still in abundant supply.  

Although there are many settlements along the river bank, particularly as you enter the Nubian stretch of the Nile, it is by no means built up. You won’t see blocks of condos, more likely it’ll be mud brick houses and if you’re honest, you’d probably feel short changed if you didn’t see mud brick houses lining the banks. One of the best times of the day is sunset, where the temperature cools and the sun melts away on the horizon in a gold more dazzling than Tut’s guilded coffin. The sun was considered by the ancients to be the source of all life, God shining down on them, and when you experience a Nile sunset, it’s not hard to see why they thought this.

But with that sun comes heat… and a lot of it. Temperatures further south around Luxor regularly hit 40 degrees centigrade or higher. Thankfully, the desert climate is what you’d call a dry heat, which doesn’t mean you won’t break a sweat, just that you won’t have to change clothes six times a day. It can also get quite breezy on deck, though most of the time it’s a very welcome breeze indeed.

Just watching the world go by whilst you’re sitting in a nice café is a pleasant experience. It’s even more pleasant to enjoy a drink as you travel along the Nile’s tranquil waters. Whilst touring the sites of Egypt isn’t exactly relaxing, cruising the Nile most certainly is. Most boats have a topside bar area, ample shelter from the sun, a plunge pool to cool down in and it’s more than warm enough to enjoy these things well into the night.  

As far as ancient sights on the river itself go, there are very few large temples immediately visible from a boat. Those that are though, more than make up for this fact. Kom Ombo Temple is perhaps the most discernible from deck, perched high on a hilltop overlooking the water, the temple itself was in part dedicated to Sobek, the deification of crocodiles. The Egyptians, who so depended on the Nile and close contact with it’s waters, had a healthy respect for crocodiles and regularly fell prey to their jaws. Since the building of the Aswan High Dam however, crocodiles have all but disappeared in the main body of the Nile, choosing instead to make their home in the vast waters of Lake Nasser, which is apparently choc (or croc – sorry!) full of crocodiles.

What I failed to consider when I first enquired about a Nile cruise was how long the river actually is. Despite claims that the Amazon is the world’s longest river, the Nile is still regarded by most as laying claim to this title. Due to this length, many of it’s treasures are spread out over vast distances. The Pyramids of Giza and the colossal statues of Ramesses II that adorn the hillside of Abu Simbel for instance are around 500 miles apart! As you can imagine, cruising this distance at a speed of 40 knots would take a considerable amount of time. For this reason, the vast majority of cruises cover a stretch of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. This stretch includes many of the most famous sites of antiquity, except the Pyramids, the Sphinx and Abu Simbel. That’s not to say that you can’t see these sights, just that they are usually only available as optional extras to a standard cruise. These options are elaborated upon more fully in some of the later pages of this site.

As rivers go, the Nile must surely be one of the greatest the world has to offer and ancient temples aside, staring out across it can be an adventure in itself.

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