Frontier of the Pharoahs

Aswan has long been Egypt's gateway to Africa. Situated near the historic First Cataract of the Nile, the rapids beyond which uninterrupted sailing was impossible, it formed a natural limit to Pharaonic rule. South, the darker-skinned Nubians stood guard over the lucrative trade routes into the heart of the continent. It was in the environs of Aswan that gold, slaves, treasure and exotic animals were imported to Egypt, for transportation upriver. Aswan then was pretty much the world's first 'border post'.

Although modern Egypt now stretches well beyond the High Dam, Aswan still owes its glories to its position. The Nubian Museum, an unmissable first-stop on arrival in Aswan tells the story of the intertwined Egyptian and Nubian peoples to put the sights into context. The upper hand in this relationship fluctuated over time. The west bank is dotted with the tombs of the nobles who guarded the realm from incursions from Nubia. And at the tip of Lake Nasser to the south stands Ramses II's egotistical temple to himself at Abu Simbel. Constructed at the apogee of Pharaonic power it was designed to awe his Nubian vassals. Today it is a must-see attraction, and now it is tourists who stand awe-struck gazing at the colossal representations of Ramses.

A millenium later external rulers sponsored the development of the Isis temple complex on Philae Island, just outside the modern town limits, as part of their attempts to spread their control over the entire country. Rescued from the waters of Lake Nasser, the columns and kiosks of Philae are the images of Aswan to this day.

With the decline of the Egyptian nation and its sublimation into a mere province of a wider Muslim umma (community) that looked either east to Mecca or north to Constantinople rather than south to Africa Aswan lapsed into a backwater of the Nile. It took more external nation-builders to recognise its place as a historic border town (graffiti by French and British soldiers can be seen amongst the ruins). Under British rule Aswan was once more a military staging-post against the Mahdi's followers in Sudan, visited by soldiers of the calibre of Generals Gordon and Kitchener (and a young officer named Winston Churchill). The twentieth century saw the 'taming' of Egypt through damming of the Nile, and the opening up of this exotic town as a genteel resort, as personified by the historic Old Cataract Hotel. Again, it was Aswan's location at the farthest navigable point of the Nile that brought it such prominance.

There is not a whole heap to Aswan, which remains a neat little town (even the souk is pretty tame). However, as the gateway to Philae, Abu Simbel, Nubian communities, and cruises down the Nile to Luxor its status is assured.

Quick Tips:

As I say, there is not that much to Aswan. The heart of town, from train station to Nubian Museum cannot be more than three kilometers long, and it is probably only three or four streets wide. The outlying areas of town would be of little interest to tourists.

As one would expect of a border-town, it is the location that makes Aswan special. There are fewer things finer than strolling the Corniche as the sun sinks over the river. This street is, for Egypt, sparkling - nicely paved, swept every evening, and with an outstanding panorama across the Nile to the barren hills dotted with tombs opposite. Floating restaurants line the banks, at considerably better prices than in central Cairo. A meal here on the water provides an unforgettable memory. I can recommend Salah al-Din for food, drinks, and shisha. For a different type of meal, try to get invited to a meal by a Nubian family. Considering the amounts of home-cooked food you are served, these often work out very good value, even if you discount the thrill of sailing upstream to their village.

Ancient quarries of Aswan granite (and the famous 'Unfinished Obelisk') lie to the east of town. Tombs and monasteries lie to the west. The chief attractions are to the south and north along the river though.

First to the south is the island temple of Isis at Philae, which is not to be missed - and certainly not if you have kids, who will love the boat ride to get there. Getting to Abu Simbel is much trickier and either involves a pricey flight, or a three-hour road trip before dawn. However Ramses II's vainglorious temples there are one of the greatest sights in Egypt, and I would encourage you to visit.

To the north the entireity of Egypt is spread out along the Nile. You can often arrange three-day tours by river to Luxor, stopping at the ruins of Kom Ombo and Edfu en route. The delight of lazing as you watch the fabled banks slipping past you cannot be overstated. And river travel still seems to be the easiest way of travelling this route, free from the pettyfogging restrictions on land traffic.

Best Way To Get Around:

You don't really need transport within Aswan per se. The distance from the Nubian Museum to most anywhere is really strolling distance. I accept that you would not want to do that in the middle of the day though! You are certain to be accosted by quite horrifically aggressive caleche drivers, trying to tempt you into riding in one of their horse-drawn carriages. Taxis are reasonably priced - from my hotel to the Museum cost three of us E£20 (around 50p each in British money). You will need to book transport to Abu Simbel in advance, as the authorities want to know which tourists are where at any one time.

Getting to Aswan from Cairo can be a pain. I was booked on the overnight sleeper train. The journey is scheduled to take 13 hours, but that is approximate - our journey took 14.5 hours. I would really recommend getting a sleeper compartment. While the seats in shared carriages are comfy, the footrests really get in the way. Furthermore, the lights are left on all night, menaing that I was only able to snatch four hours of kip (and normally I can sleep anywhere!). Still, some of the scare stories I had heard did not come true - the ticket inspector did not pass through continually checking my paperwork all night, the breakfast (paid for in advance) was perfectly decent, and the toilets were clean (if a bit pongy).

Really, river-travel is the way to go. Essentially there are three types of boat to transport you down the Nile. Top of the range are the gigantic cruiseships, with all the amenities you would expect from a big hotel - bars, dining rooms, shops, private berths, sundecks, possibly even a pool. I hopped on board one to use the loo and was taken back by the marble lobbies and grand spiral staircases. The downsides are the expense, and the fact that they insulate you from Egypt somewhat.

The next step down are the dahabiyas - ornate houseboats, the rivergoing equivalent of the Old Cataract. I can imagine hiring one of these as part of a family or group holiday. Here you get privacy (private rooms) but also more space in the form of terraces and decks. The downside? While they look fantastic with their polished wood and brass, the sails of all we passed were furled - instead they were towed upriver by a noisily puttering tug, smoke wafting across the river.

I travelled by felucca, a single-masted sailboat without amenities. There are no cabins, only a single shaded deck which is where you sleep. You are without toilets (you have to pull over to the banks and find a bush) or showers, or any sort of privacy. The only kitchen is a gas-powered stove. Yet here you scoot along just above the water, utilising wind and flow the same way Egyptians have for millenia. It is a very natural way of travelling, the best way of understanding the Nile.

A floating restaurant on the River Nile? That's got to be expensive right? Well no. I was very impressed with the prices at the Salah al-Din; almost as impressed as I was with the setting.

The Corniche el-Nil is the prestige road of Aswan, a smart thoroughfare lined with banks that follows the bank of the Nile. It is only on this road and its namesake in Luxor that you will find that most un-Egyptian of objects, the traffic light. More amazingly, the drivers obey them!

It is on this central stretch of road in Aswan that you will see the entrance to Salah al-Din. The restaurant is built down the bank, with at least two floors. But the real treat is at the bottom, where a pontoon supports a floating terrace. Carpet underfoot and beer in hand the diner is able to sit and watch the sun sink behind the desert hills across the river in a last blaze of fire, and stygian darkness descend. Shaded from the city by the river bank, the only illumination out over the oily water are the floodlights picking out the Tombs of the Nobles and the Aga Khan's Mausoleum in soft orange glows, and the running lights of passing boats, fractured and reflected in the wavelets left in their wake. A flash of movement, a sigh, and a ripple in the stream is all that signifies the presence of wildlife - bats, swallows, I'm not sure. However you want to put it, this floating restaurant is an idyllic place to while away the evening.

Nor will you pay through the nose for it either. I went for 'Fish Tagen Nupien Style' - the local take on a Moroccan tagine, served in a casserole dish. The fish, which appeared in soft white lumps, was locally-caught tilapia. The sauce that accompanied it, based on tomatos and celery, was thankfully mild so as not to drown out the taste of the fish. And the price? A mere E£28 (roughly 2.50GBP). Drinks-wise, beer was only E£10, fresh orange juice E£8, and my beloved fresh lemon juice only E£6. Our wise-cracking waiter professed to be very impressed when I ordered an "Aseer limoon min fadlak". It was of course one of the first phrases I endeavoured to learn!

Following the meal the group headed upstairs to the lounge. In a complete reversal of British culture we went indoors to smoke. Shisha, the famed Egyptian 'hubble-bubble' cost E£4 per pot. Between the ten of us we ordered up four - three with apple tobacco, one with mango. The ornate shisha were provided for us, embers glowing under their protective covers. We were also provided with plastic nozzles to cap the pipe mouthpiece, each person to keep their own. This was a concession to hygiene I had not seen in Morocco, and which I found a bit superfluous. Still, it gives you an example of the standards that they set themselves here. The mango-flavoured tobacco I found a bit full-on and sweet for my tastes, but the apple showed why it is a favourite of tourists. Soon most of us were puffing away like good 'uns, experimenting with blowing smoke rings or - in my case - breathing twin plumes of smoke from my nostrils until I looked like a moustachioed Wing Commander. What I did find, and maybe it was just because of the sucking gulps I was taking was that I rapidly started feeling, well, drunk. Certainly light-headed and woozy. And I started to understand the appeal the shisha has throughout the middle east as a social lubricant when drinking alcohol is frowned upon. Certainly for me, this social activity topped off a very pleasant and memorable evening.

If only all museums could be like the Nubian Museum. It is a microcosm of Aswan itself - neat, approachable, and displaying itself to best effect. It is also an indispensible guide to understanding Aswan and the relationship between Egypt and its southern neighbour Nubia.

First impressions are favourable. It is sited on a rise at the southern tip of town just past the Old Cataract Hotel (E£20 in a taxi, or a thirty-minute walk from the heart of town - I particularly recommend the stroll back in the cool of dusk as the shadows lengthen across the Nile). Opened in 1999 the Museum is a stunning-looking low pink granite building, fusing the most up-to-date techniques with traditional Nubian architecture, such as a strong fortress-like appearance and narrow windows (for defence and coolness). Within the exhibits are well-labelled in English, and much better laid out than Cairo's Egyptian Museum, clearly taking you on a chronological journey through the history of the Nubian peoples, ancient Egypt's southern neighbours who lived beyond the Nile cataracts. Those exhibits are so pristine and demonstrative I half-suspected they had been knocked up by a craftsman in the bazaar!

As outlined here the relationship between Egypt and Nubia reminded me of that between medieval England and Scotland. A dialogue based originally on mutually-beneficial trade, led to the weaker partner becoming subservient to the mightier. Pharaonic Egypt utilised its organisational and military might to gain predominance, hungry for Nubia's gold and control of the trade routes into Africa. Yet this predominance waxed and waned. When Egypt was strong (such as under Ramses II) Pharaonic rule over Nubia was absolute; when Egypt was weak the Nubians could raid north and - to continue the British analogy - pillage York. Indeed, Nubian invaders conquered Thebes in the eighth-century BC. The resulting Kushite dynasty reigned as pharoahs for almost a century. Most of the time however saw Egypt laying claim to Nubia in theory, while in reality controlling little more than their forts along the Nile Valley, similar to the English king's 'rule' in Scotland in the 14th century.

Descending into the main gallery you are presented with a route that takes you through the glories of Nubia. These range from the flint arrowheads of prehistory, through egg-shell porcelain, to an example of a round grave. Egyptian interest starts with a headless statue of Cheops (the pyramids were built with Aswan granite), a large smooth scarab statue, a monumental eight-metre tall Ramses II, and sample belongings of the militarily-powerful governors who were based in Aswan and held the territory in the pharoah's name. That the two peoples shared the same gods is demonstrated by the gold-coated mummies on display upstairs. Further on we get horse bardings and the icons of Christian Nubia, then the story of the area's Islamisation. Finally the visitor is presented with dioramas of traditional Nubian village life. These communities could be found scattered along the Nile valley south of Aswan until the building of the dams submerged their homeland, displacing an estimated 800,000-strong people, forcing them to relocate north of Aswan, or south of Wadi Haifa in the Sudan. The story of the relocation of the Nubian people is not really told however; instead displays focus on UNESCO's work to relocate the cultural sites of Nubia's heritage, most notably with a model showing the former and present sites of Abu Simbel in relation to each other, below and above the waterline respectively. Other temples were relocated to higher ground, such as Philae and Kalabsha; still others were donated to the nations who assisted in the mammoth undertaking of deconstructing and then reconstructing these primordial edifices, such as Spain, Germany and Sweden.

Quite frankly, I thought that E£40 (less than £4GB) for such a confident and impressive introduction to several millenia of history was a very good deal. As with many museums I visted in Egypt it served to make the flagship Egyptian Museum in Cairo look dingy and disorganised. Moreover it was sparsely occupied at the time of my visit, enabling me to actually scrutinise the exhibits and read their blurbs, rather than craning my neck over the crowds and moving on. Be aware that the museum does close between three and four in the afternoon. My recommendation would be to visit as soon as it reopens; that way upon leaving you get a lovely walk down the Corniche as the sun sets - as long as you can ignore the persistent caleche touts. I would also urge you to make this your first stop in Aswan. It will really allow you to understand the background behind the construction of Abu Simbel, and the Nubian bands you will assuredly see and hear.

Getting to Abu Simbel is not easy. The great rock-hewn temple complex of Ramses II and his favoured wife Nefertari is located 175 miles south of Aswan, a mere 25 miles from the Sudanese border. That's a lot of very sparse terrain to cover. The logistics involved meant that, when faced with the option of visiting the site only four of our company of nine took it up. But I knew of Abu Simbel, and the very idea of visiting Aswan and of not making the effort to go and see one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world was not one that I was prepared to consider for long. Hell, if necessary I would have made the journey on my own!

There are two ways of visiting Abu Simbel. For the cash-rich and time-poor the quickest way is to fly. Flight time is approx 45 minutes each way and apparently gives superb views over Lake Nasser and the temples before landing. Booking that through the tour company I was there with would have been $170 (85GBP), plus the E£70 entrance fee, and left me with an hour at the site. (You can travel independently, and even stay over night in the nearby hamlet if the idea of a mere three-hour excusrion is not to your taste). For the more time-rich and cash poor you can travel overland, which is what I plumped for. This cost only $25, plus the E£70 entrance fee. However, to beat the midday heat this meant that I had to wake at 3:30 am, ready for our hired minibus to join a convoy at 4:30 for the three hour drive south.

Convoy you say? I admit I did have notions when I heard that of vans nose to tail speeding south into bandit territory with armed outriders to provide security. In practice this is not the case. Following the massacre of tourists at Luxor in 1997, the Egyptian government became slightly paranoic: they simply want to know where all tourists are at any one time should anything happen. As a result we rarely saw other traffic en route, and the only police we saw were at isolated roadside stations.

Arriving at Abu Simbel at around 7.30 you find yourself in the carparks around the back of the hilltop holding the temples. Progressing into the compound you can circle around the mount to the plaza before Lake Nasser. Here you get your first view of the two temples - the Sun Temple of Ramses II to the left, the Hathor Temple of Queen Nefertari to the right. On both an entrance way is flanked by tall statues, standing proud of the rock face. These hills are not natural, but rather scuplted with funds from UNESCO to resemble the cliffs in which the temples were originally set, and which now lie under the sparkling waters of Lake Nasser.

Ramses' Sun Temple is the more impressive. Two monumental figures of the pharoah sit either side of the temple entrance, each twenty metres tall. Even today the fine features of lips, ears, eyes and pharaonic head-dress are crisp and clear, having been preserved beneath the sands until the 19th century. Ramses sits, gazing over his domains. The edifice was clearly meant to instil the fear of God (the deified god Ramses that is - he dwarfs the carved images of gods which accompany him)into his conquered Nubian vassals as well as exalt the greater glory of the pharaoh. The statue second from the left lies shattered, its torso and head lying on the ground following an earthquake early in the Roman rule of Egypt; UNESCO made the decision to leave the ruins in situ rather than reconstructing them. Wanderluster is quite right when she writes that one's first thought is of the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem 'Ozymandias':

"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read".

There is dispute about which particular statue of Ramses II inspired this work, but I note that the year of its composition (1817) was also the year that the archaeologist Belzoni excavated Abu Simbel. However, gazing upon the face of Ramses I would describe his expression not as a 'sneer of cold command', but rather a wry smirk, almost as though he appreciated the irony that the greatest monument to his reign would be buried by the sands of time and forgotten.

Closer to, passing through the crowds you are able to see signs of earlier visitors marring the surface: 'W Collins, Rifles', 'Sapper W. E. Davis', testament of a later empire and army that passed by to crush the restless natives to the south. The story of Ramses' miltary campaigns is told within, a storyboard of the great pharaoh smiting his foes. He really seemed keen on the whole smiting thing. One Australian woman popped her head around a pillar to survey the walls. "Nah, more of the same" was her pithy summation. And indeed, the reliefs were executed purely in monochromatic stone, with none of the startling colour that was to characterise the Nile temples up towards Luxor.

At the rear is the sanctuary, where the fingers of dawn's light used to illuminate the statues of Ramses on February 22 and October 22 (the pharoah's birthday and coronoation date respectively), though with the reconstruction this effect now occurs a day later. Annoyingly, my visit occurred a week too late. However, I do not think it would be possible to get there for dawn unless you were staying overnight. Certainly for me dawn occurred at some point during our three hour drive south.

So, Abu Simbel. Awkward to get to, but certainly worthwhile. My praise is not altogether critical however. The somewhat pristine plaza before the temples, and the swarm of tourists do distract from the effect. The reconstructed statues are somehow too clean - reminding you that they were built in this location merely forty years previously. And while one can marvel at the story of their construction, and again at the story of their reconstruction, I was constantly reminded that what I was looking at was purely a tourist attraction, and hence felt maybe just a touch 'plastic'. Still, hell of a tourist attraction!

Adjacent to the larger Sun Temple of Ramses II stands the temple to Hathor, goddess of love and beauty, of his wife Queen Nefertari. Nefertari was but one of the pharoah's wives, though clearly his favourite. Reputedly of Nubian descent she has been remembered as being very beautiful ('Nefer' in ancient Egyptian meant 'beautiful'). It is no susprise that here she is identified with the cow goddess Hathor, as shown by the cow-horn crown on the depictions outside the temple. Here six figures grace the facade, three each side of the entrance, depicting Nefertari, Hathor... and of course Ramses himself. The number of surviving collossi of Ramses II in Egypt is breathtaking. Clearly this was a man with a monstrous ego. If it weren't for the fact that he reputedly sired 250 offspring I might think he was overcompensating for something... Two of their children stand knee-high between the couple.

Compared to Ramses' temple, the interior layout is simpler - a main chamber leading to a sanctuary, and only two chambers leading off to either side, whereas her husband has eight in total. Ramses makes a reappearance in here, as reliefs show him smiting his enemies once more (again with the smiting!). But here Nefertari stands cheering him on, or making offerings to the gods. In the sanctuary at the end Ramses is depicted worshipping his deified self.

The temple is not in its original location - originally it stood 61m lower down the hillside, in a location now fully submerged by the waters of Lake Nasser, as shown in an imporessive diorama at the Nubian Museum in Aswan. When the waters of the Nile begn to rise following the completion of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s UNESCO, the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation spearheaded a massive relief project to save the temples, and other relics of ancient Nubia (such as Philae and Kalabsha). A waterproof wall was constructed around the site, and the hillside was dismantled into over 1000 sawn blocks of sandstone. Within two years, and at a cost of over $40m, the temples had been reconstructed on an identical axis higher up the mountain, with the surrounding terrain sculpted to resemble their prior setting.

Entry is covered by the E£70 entrance fee to the complex.

The Temple of Isis at Philae is a modern complex. Well, compared to many of the other sites you will visit in Egypt it is. Its remains date from the period of Ptolemaic and later Roman rule, and hence were constructed at least a thousand years later than, say, Abu Simbel. These new interloper dynasties (hailing from Macedonia and Italy respectively) found it made sense to associate themselves with Egypt's indigenous pantheon to win over their new subjects. Of all the Egyptian gods and goddesses it was that of Isis, the loving and mysterious mother-goddess, that spread furthest throughout the Roman empire. As wife of the slaughtered god Osiris and mother of Horus, with whom the pharoahs associated themselves, she attained the honoured position of quasi-mother to the rulers of Egypt. And the complex at Philae, opposite the holy Biga Island where part of Osiris' dismembered body was supposedly buried, was one of the cult's centres.

From Aswan you will need to hire a taxi to take you to Shallal, south of the British 1902 dam. Here there is a flotilla of simple boats that can ferry you across to the island. Apparently some of them can even get there in one trip without sputtering to a halt and requiring you to transfer to a second boat, but I wouldn't know about that!

The trip there takes you along the west side of the island, the dun coloured temple suddenly appearing between green palm fronds and the towering piles of grey boulders that frame the lake. You chug past a ceremonial gate constructed in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, the side of the tall wedge-shaped pylons, and a long colonnade topped with carved flowers to reach the landing stage at the southern tip of Philae. Disembarking, you progress down columned collonades (the western once looking over towards sacred Biga Island) to reach the large first pylon with its preternaturally clear carvings of gods cheering on the Ptolemaic pharoah Neos Dionysos (more smiting). The passageway is the site of yet more European graffiti, left by Napoleonic troops in Year 7 of the French Republic. Beyond there is a jumble of chambers, all adorned with engraved gods and supplicants, and telling the story of the raising of the infant Horus by Isis. A hypostyle hall leads down to the sanctuary. Apparently you can access the roof where there is sited a shrine to Osiris, but I found all the dark stairways forbiddingly gated off.

The remainder of the island is dotted by the architectural follies of a string of Roman Emperors, including Augustus, Trajan, Claudius, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and Diocletian. The most eye-catching is the Kiosk of Trajan, a square roofless shrine which - with its angles thrown into clear relief by the afternoon sun, looks to have been designed by MC Escher. It has been nicknamed 'The Pharoah's Bedstead', for reasons that become clear upon viewing. Make sure you save space on your camera for one more shot of the Kiosk as you leave, as the boatride circles the isle to the east, offering a magical view of it overhanging the water.

On the trip back you may have pointed out to you some metal rods protruding from the water. This was the original site of Philae Island. After the British built the first Aswan dam in 1902 the temple would be submerged for half the year - tourists would peer down at the angles of masonry below them in the water. Once it became clear that the new Soviet-funded High Dam would drown the temple complex forever a UNESCO-sponsored operation dissasembled the brickwork and reconstructed it on the higher Agilka Island, painstakingly landscaped to resemble the topography of the original. The only difference is that its orientation no longer looks west towards Osiris's holy isle. Instead the god's remains are underwater somewhere to the east of Agilka Island.

Entry is E£40, but this does not include the cost of transport. The doorman at our hotel organised a Mercedes taxi to take us to the landing stage for another E£40 roundtrip - this included boat fare which our taxi driver arranged for us (but not the baksheesh expected at the end of the trip). If you do organise a return make sure you are clear when and where your driver will be waiting for you. We had an anxious ten minutes contemplating a sweaty walk back to town when ours failed to turn up as expected.

Philae also hosts a son et lumiere show several times an evening. I did not go, but those of my friends who did rated it very highly - it takes you on a tour of the temple whilst relating the myths behind it. They also said that the voiceover was 'narrated' by a donkey, but I think they were pulling my leg... Tickets for this cost E£60, which is not much more than a normal unescorted ticket, and so works out as a pretty good deal.

For those of you into ancient remains, Philae is *the* site to see between Luxor and Abu Simbel. Moreover it is a darn sight easier to reach than Abu Simbel. At the very least its atmospheric columns and pylons, sited in the middle of a lake, make for a memorable visit. I think a trip will appeal to children in particular.

It had been arranged for us to travel upstream to Sehel Island on the Tuesday night. Sehel is home to a thriving Nubian community. Recognising that their culture is very different to that of the lighter-skinned Egyptians, the Nubians have taken to tourism big time. All along the Nile you will see Nubian felucca crew, musicians, and hotel staff well out of proportion to their actual population.

Dinner trips to Sehel Island for a traditional Nubian meal are one facet, and probably one that you will be offered whilst in Aswan. The great thing here is that you will be dining with a local family, and so you are guaranteed that any money you spend will go directly into the community rather than being divided up by a sea of middlemen.

Omar and his family were to be our hosts for the evening. 4.30 saw us climbing aboard their launch on the Nile, looking tiny and toy-like where it was tied up between two monstrous cruise ships. Casting off, we were steered upstream for our 45 minute boatride. Other than the ride across to Philae that afternoon this was my first experience of sailing on the famous river Nile. Even within the limits of Aswan itself there was plenty to see as the sun started to dip. We puttered past the back end of Elephantine Island to see the smoothed boulders that did indeed resemble a bathing heffalump. Then we went up past the famous Old Cataract Hotel - and from the river the balconies and palms make it look every bit as lovely as it is supposed to be. It was a lovingly-crafted antique among the bland concrete constructions that often pass for hotels. I could really envisage a stay there in the '20s, sipping an iced tea on the verandah, Agatha Christie writing 'Death On The Nile' off to one side, Winston Churchill daubing watercolours on the other. I really was born a century too late!

Once past the Old Cataract with dusk bruising the sky the crew pulled out handheld drums. We were treated to - and had to join in with - Nubian entertaining to get us in the party mood. Their music is strong on rhythmic drumming and call-and-respond singing: or at least the version offered up to visitors is. Ohh-a-lay-lay!

Sehel Island has streetlamps, but not much in the way of streets. Climbing the trail up through the sandy scrub from the beach leads to a cluster of building built in a squarish stucco style, similar to that of the Nubian Museum. There were a few taller blocks (one of which we visited as it held the school, with a playground on its flat roof - rain not being a common problem here) but largely the houses were similar to Omar's. Passing through a blank doorway revealed a sprawling compound of courtyards - as the family expands, so too does the family dwelling, spreading up the hillside as each new generation adds on their own annex upon marriage. This stepped nature meant that when we were settled on rugs (shoes off please!) we were in what could only be described as a roof / yard.

Our meal had been paid for before, but there were other things to buy. Soft drinks (no alcohol) cost E£3, and a selection of souvenirs - embroidered skull caps, carved wooden crocodiles - were produced. One of the women of the family also offered henna tattoos - E£10 for a solitary image, E£25-35 for an entire hand. She could not draw freeform however, and your tattoo has to be picked from a book of designs. Three of our party opted for tattoos. Rather than the reddish hue I associated with henna these came out very dark, lightening over the next fortnight. More entertainment came in the form of an overly-inquisitive toddler who delighted at our reactions when shot with his toy gun. I do hope we weren't encouraging him!

The food arrived en masse. Salad, rice, pasta, fried potato slices, veg casserole, flat bread, and finger-lickin' spicy-coated chicken. I'm assumimng the spicy chicken is a Nubian speciality as I was to have it again before reaching Luxor. Which was fine by me! Refills of food kept coming until we gestured for them to stop. It was all very tasty.

I can't remember how much we paid for the meal - I think E£30 per head - but it was definitely great value compared to a restaurant. Plus you got the experience of dining with a Nubian family on rugs in the open air, the noise of village life (the hum of a generator, a dog barking in the distance, a dimly-heard snatch of music) drifting up around you. As we sailed back down to Aswan we lay on the roof of the boat counting the stars, the sky as big as our bellies.