Aswan, Egypt

 September 21, 2024

We returned to Aswan after Abu Simbel in late afternoon. The Old Cataract hotel is absolutely beautiful. Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile in this hotel. They apparently had a tour of her room but we missed that. We had dinner here and packed it in for the night. Below are photos of the hotel and room.

We had to check out of the hotel the following morning and were supposed to go on a tour of the Nubian village and the local market. I was still in no shape to participate in this tour so I hung out in the hotel lobby for three plus hours and waited for Ralph to return. Temperatures are still in the 40’s and incredibly uncomfortable. Ralph toured the village but skipped the market because we’d already seen enough “crappy, junky souvenirs “ and been accosted by more than enough aggressive vendors. The Nubian people were the group that lived in the land that ended up being flooded by the construction of the Aswan dam. They were all moved to various locations in Egypt outside that flooded area. 

Apparently, many of the homes and families have pet crocodiles, no idea why they have them.

Once Ralph returned from the sightseeing, we had a late lunch and headed to the airport for our flight back to Cairo. The flight was over an hour delayed so we arrived back in our Cairo hotel at midnight…a very, very long day!