Cruise on the Nile

It was a trip organised by a tour operator that satisfied us. I won't describe the stages of the journey because they are the usual ones that can be found written by other travellers much more precise than me. I just want to point out that today's Egypt seems almost impossible to be the descendant of that lineage that gave life to the pyramids and of that extraordinary society that Ancient Egypt represented. Several years have passed since the trip, but I still remember that in front of all those marvels and their majesty, I remained stunned. The ancient Egyptians were a cultured, proud people, with good taste and a marked sense of art and beauty. They had studied methods of irrigating the barren lands adjacent to the Nile that would make a hydraulic engineer of our times pale.

How do today's Egyptians manage to be the descendants of this extraordinary people? That's what I kept repeating to myself. It's clear that I can't generalise and that even in the big Egyptian cities I saw modern, active and very well-prepared people. There remains, however, a very large number of people who live both in the cities and in rural settings, I don't know whether by tradition or by customs and habits, in a scruffy way. That's why I noticed the gap between the current world and what the time of the pharaohs must have been. Of course let's not forget that in the time of ancient Egypt slavery existed and that most of the beauties we admire today cost who knows how many lives that weren't worth a straw. When some scholar comes out saying that the ancient Egyptians were Martians planted in that territory and that they then died out, I would almost be inclined to believe him.

In conclusion the trip was very beautiful and fascinating. After seven days of cruising followed another week of relaxation in Sharm el Sheikh, during which we made an excursion to the wonderful Petra. For that one, though, I refer you to the section - Jordan -.