Queen of the Nile. Review on Egypt, General

I am lying in a milk bath of palatial proportions, its surface scattered with rose petals. Just meters away, huge boats, their bows carved into images of ancient pharaohs, plough up and down the Nile, the lifeline of this ancient land. My arms and legs have been rubbed with lemon quarters-said to simulate circulation-and I could easily be Cleopatra, or Nefertari!

However, I am merely a pampered tourist lying in this jasmine scented sanctuary at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo. A week back, when we were discussing where to go for our vacations, my sister suggested Egypt. She is a history scholar at the University of Queensland and this seemed just the thing she would say!! I had a few reservations because you never know when Brendan Fraser might leap out behind a sand dune with Imothep in tow :) [Yeah, I watch way too many movies]. This is our last night in the Land of the Pharaohs, and while I soak in the amazingly sensuous milk bath, my thoughts are not on Cleopatra, but on Nefertari, wife of the great Rameses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3000 years ago.

A few days earlier, we had seen Nefertari’s tomb in the valley of the Queens near Luxor. So vivid were the colors of the paintings on the chamber walls, that you could believe that after you have climbed the rocky stairs and returned to the Nile cruise boat, a whole team of workmen came with their paints to freshen up the portraits of Nefertari. These magically preserved paintings and hieroglyphs were just some of the wonders we found on our trip.

We had arrived in Cairo late at night and the next day I flung back the curtains and there, pointing to the sky, were the Pyramids! Before we could visit them, we were whisked off to the Egyptian museum. There is so much to see but the highlight is undoubtedly the finds Howard Carter, the famed Archaeologist made in the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen in 1922. I am glad we did the trip this way around. Many don’t visit the museum until the end of the journey, after the Nile cruise, but for us to see the comparatively tiny tomb in the Valley of the Kings a few days later, and be able to recall how many astonishingly beautiful and precious artifacts were crammed into a higgledy-piggledy fashion, was a revelation. Almost the whole second floor of the museum is given over to Tutankhamen’s treasures-the exquisite solid gold and lapis lazuli death mask, the bracelets, and the collars-although one of the kings three golden coffins remains in his sarcophagus at the Valley of the Kings.

Especially moving are the gold and silver flip-flop sandals which look as if they still could be worn today, and the dozens of jewels and amulets wrapped inside his shroud to protect him as he entered into afterlife. At Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, weather-beaten men galloped on Arab horses between the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Ah, the Sphinx!So glorious, so wondrous, that I was overwhelmed by its beauty and the sheer arrogant power that it projected. We were offered two large-lipped, cute eyelashed camels called Charlie and Moses :)

The best part was undoubtedly the Nile river cruise. For four fabulous days, we cruised up the Nile towards Aswan, stopping at the various and the amazingly out of the world temples that dot the river Nile. At Karnak, we walked along the avenue of the Sphinxes and stood spell bounded amid the vast columns of the Hypostyle Hall, each pillar reaching to the sky a different color, mirroring the various hues of Tutankhamen’s treasures!!

At night, we came back for the son et lumiere (the Sound and Light show), recalling the days when the god Amon was worshipped here in the ancient town of Thebes. But it wasn’t all history. We ate well, partied too much, (at least I did, the Egyptian guys are soo handsome:)), and danced into the early hours-dressed in traditional costumes at the galabia party, and made lasting friends. In Aswan, we visited the Philae, the most beautiful temple of all, which stands on its own island, and floated along in a white-sailed felucca around the gorgeous gardens of Kitchener’s island.

Had we not been flying to Abu Simbel the next morning, no force could have prised me away from the boat; I could have kept drifting down the enchanting Nile. Certainly there were other sites for us to explore, Abu Simbel is un-missable. It stands in the old province of Nubia-much of which was sadly wiped away when the Nile was dammed and flooded to create the vast Lake Nasser in the 1960’s. Here, where the river is at its’ most bewitching, two temples are carved into the sandstone cliffs, one constructed for the glory of Rameses the Great, and the other for his beloved, Nefertari.

So, Egypt cast its spell. There is something comforting in that so much has stood the test and ravages of centuries upon centuries of time, that even all these eons later, the great Pharaoh’s love for Nefertari is still so tangible in the exquisite way in which she is depicted. Some things really do last for ever.