Travel: Cruising on the Nile

Jamaica Gleaner (Laura Tanner)

An account of a Nile cruise.

We start looking for hieroglyphic cartuches, tall, rectangular names of rulers, repeated for posterity. At Medinat Habu, we visit the temple of Ramses III whose military exploits are recorded on the walls, many still in the original colours of lapis lazuli, red ochre, and black preserved when Christians centuries later plastered over the offending images.

We learn that arms across the chest depict pharaohs in death, while legs forward from the side depict their actions when alive. We learn to observe the blue sky and stars painted on tomb ceilings, that the pointed tip of an obelisk is to catch the first ray of sunlight, the sun, Ra, being the source of all life. We learn to look for outstretched vulture wings symbolising Upper Egypt while the cobra symbolises Lower Egypt - together they represent a unified kingdom.

With so much to learn, I welcome leaving Luxor and while some guests sunbathe on the top deck as we travel the river, I look at life through the zoom lens of a video. Feluccas, small sailing vessels with turbaned captain in robes, looking much like temple guards, glide past. Lush palm trees line the Nile and beyond the green swaths rise desert dunes, beige sprinkled with sun-baked blackness.