From Cairo’s Giza station we boarded the Wagon Lits sleeper train for Aswan, about 600 Km up the Nile. This is quite a nice sleeper train: you get a two-person cabin complete with a hot-water ready wash basin and dinner and breakfast served to you by the cabin boy. The price? USD 60 per person. Little wonder then that almost all of the passengers are foreigners.
カイロのギザ駅からワゴン・リーの夜行に乗って、ナイル川上流の町アスワンへ。この夜行列車は、2人部屋でベッドもふかふか、お湯が出る洗面台も付いていて、ボーイさんが夕食と朝食を運んでくれる豪華版。お値段ひとり60ドル也。乗客はほとんど外国人旅行客だった。
We arrived in comfort at a not too early 9 am. It should not surprise then that we were somewhat taken aback by the children suddenly demanding “baksheesh” from us as soon as we stepped out of the station in the direction of our hotel. “Baksheesh” translates as something like a “tip”, but in Egypt it is often demanded of foreigners in exchange for something (even the slightest thing), whether requested or not. Here though children were demanding a “tip” in exchange for nothing at all, save the fact of their existence.
快適なワゴン・リーで朝9時頃アスワンに到着。駅からホテルに向かおうと歩き始めると、普通の子供が寄ってきて「バクシーシちょうだい」と手を出してきたのには面食らった。バクシーシとはいわゆるチップのことだけど、エジプトでは何かにつけてバクシーシをくれ、と要求される。でも道端で通りすがりの子供にチップをくれと言われるとは思わなかった。
The Wagonlits/ワゴン・リーの車内
The sights of Aswan are all on the outskirts, and in fact for us there was only one sight we wanted to see during our one-night stay, the Philae Temple to the south. The temple was originally on Philae Island, an island associated with Osiris, god of the afterlife and son of heaven and earth. But due to the construction of a dam which put Philae underwater, the temple was relocated to another island much more accessible to tourists. Build it and they will come-by the hundreds! The temple itself is of a typical, Egyptian, enormous scale whose interior is replete with stunning reliefs, reliefs which, unfortunately, us being guideless were completely indecipherable. That said, we were quite satisfied just taking in the ancient Egyptianess of it all. One thing that does really stand out here is the good condition of the reliefs, except of course for those parts (especially the faces) that have been ignominiously erased from history by ignorant Islamic invaders bent on eliminating all traces of idolatry.
アスワンの見どころは郊外に散らばっている。アスワンには1泊しかしない私たちは、アスワンの南部にあるフィラエ神殿（Philae Temple）だけ見に行った。この神殿は、古代エジプト時代に死後の世界と天地の神オシリスの島とされていた、聖なる島フィラエ島に建てられたもの。現在は、ダム建設のため水没することになったフィラエ島から隣の島に移されて、旅行者が大勢訪れる有名な観光地になっている。大きな神殿には古代エジプト時代のレリーフがたくさん刻まれていて、ガイドのいない私たちにはレリーフの意味がさっぱりわからないけど、古代エジプトの雰囲気は十分に味わえた。偶像崇拝を禁じるイスラム勢力がこの地にやってきたときに、レリーフの人物像（特に顔の部分）が削りとられてしまっていたのは残念だったけど。
Aswan/アスワン
Philae Temple/フィラエ神殿
Relatively modern graffiti/19世紀の落書き
By the by, unless you are part of a tour, to get to the island you have to charter both a taxi (to and from the port) and a small boat (to and from the island). That was easy enough, but for some reason unknown to us, the boat we chartered did not show up to take us back from the island! This was not good because we had the taxi driver on a 1 hour standby, any longer and we would have to pay a pretty penny more. After a little while on the dock it because clear that our boat guy was not coming, but somehow we found another way in with another couple who were similarly stranded. We got back a little over an hour, but, as luck would have it, our driver did not ask for any extra cash, phew.
ちなみに、この神殿に行くには、アスワン中心部からフィラエ神殿行き専用の船着場までタクシーを往復チャーターし、船着場からはフィラエ神殿のある島まで船を往復チャーターしなくてはいけない。でも島から戻ろうとしたとき、往復チャーターした私たちの船がどこかへ消えてしまっていた。タクシーの運ちゃんとは船着場で1時間待機ということで料金の話をつけてきたものだから、1時間以上待たせると待機料を上乗せされてしまう。結局私たちの船は待てど暮らせど現れず、同じようにチャーターした船がいなくなってしまった別のカップルと一緒に、なんとか別の船で船着場まで戻った。1時間以上待たせたタクシーの運ちゃんからは料金アップを要求されなかったのでホッ。
Hey, wait for us!/おいてかないでー！
If there is a particularity about Aswan, it is probably the so-called “fuluka” (sp?) boats that ply the Nile around here. We couldn’t be bothered with the negotiations for these boats, but just watching unfurled fulukas set sail on the Nile from our hotel rooftop was quite a site. Double that at sunset.
アスワン名物はフルーカという船でのナイル川クルーズ。私たちはフルーカの客引きおじさんとの値段交渉が面倒で乗らなかったけれど、ホテルの屋上からナイル川を眺めると、大きな帆を上げたフルーカがたくさん揺れていて、本当に美しい。特に夕焼けをバックにナイルに漂うフルーカの姿は最高だった。
Fuluka on the Nile/ナイルを漂うフルーカ
The next day we set out for the famous Abu Simbel Temple (which is the only real reason people come to Aswan, if you ask us) near the Sudan border. The temple complex is about 3 hours south by car, but because it can reach excruciating temperatures in the day, almost all tours to Abu Simbel leave in the wee hours of the morning and return midday. Ours was no exception: departure was a deplorable 3 am. And with that it seemed that every tourist in Egypt was on the road, caravan style, heading to Abu Simbel. From then on it was just lines of tourists everywhere, from the ticket booths to the toilets. It’s enough to make the Pyramids blush.
翌日、スーダン国境にほど近いアブ・シンベル大神殿へ。この神殿はアスワンから車で3時間ほど南下したところにあって、日中はとても暑くなるため、アスワンから早朝に出発して昼過ぎに戻ってくるツアーが一般的。私たちのツアーも朝3時に出発。この時間でもすでに団体観光客を乗せた大型バスがアブ・シンベルに向けて出発していた。アブ・シンベルに着くと、駐車場にはものすごい数のバスが並んでいて、チケット売り場もトイレも大混雑。ピラミッドより混んでいたかも。
Modern desert caravan/バスの大群
Actually, there are two temples at Abu Simbel, a big one and a small one. Both were built by the busy Ramses II, referred to in our last post. Indeed, Ramses II, was not content here with just one enormous, 20 meter-high statue of himself here at the big temple; no, there are four (count ‘em, four) such statutes gracing the entrance to the temple (well three as half of one has since fallen to the ground). It’s hard not to detect a touch of narcissism here. Fittingly, what you get inside are numerous reliefs outlining the many victories of Ramses II over the enemies of Egypt and parading the many prisoners of war from various barbarous lands. There’s no doubting who’s in charge here. Next to the big temple is the small temple, dedicated to Ramses II’s wife Nefertari. Though dedicated to his wife, here too Ramses II just couldn’t help himself: there are four major statutes, two of his wife and two of himself, with some small ones at the bottom representing the children for good measure. As we noted before, Ramses II actually had over 40 wives, and so the fact that this gorgeous temple is dedicated to just one speaks volumes about Ramses II’s love for Nefertari. The interior of this temple has a correspondingly feminine atmosphere about, complete with a colonnade of goddesses. Big or small though, the big theme here as at almost every other tomb and temple is death-the ancient Egyptians were just fascinated with it, and spent countless man hours and treasury monies in pursuit of what they believed was after it. What gives?
アブ・シンベルには大神殿と小神殿がある。どちらも前のポストで書いた多忙な王様ラムセス2世が建てたもので、大神殿の入り口には高さ20メートルもあるラムセス2世の巨象が4つ並んでいる。彼の自己顕示欲の強さが一番よく表れている建築物。内部には、敵を蹴散らすラムセス2世を描いた戦闘場面のレリーフ、入口の近くには捕えられた戦争捕虜のレリーフなど、強い王様としての存在感を存分にアピールしている。隣にある小神殿は、ラムセス2世が王妃フェルネタリのために建てたもので、入口には奥さんの像2体と自分の像2体、足元に子供たちの像が彫られている。正室が40人もいたラムセス2世だけど、こんな立派な神殿を作るなんて、フェルネタリへの愛情は特別だったんだろうか。内部の列柱は女神の像になっていて、比較的女性的な雰囲気。それにしても、古代エジプトの王様たちはどうして死後の世界にこだわり、神殿やお墓にばかり莫大な労力とお金をかけたのだろう。
The Big Temple/大神殿
The enslaved enemies of Egypt/戦争捕虜のレリーフ
The small temple/小神殿
We returned to Aswan just before 2 in the afternoon. And so after dining on some Egyptian kosharee and killing some time we were off to our next destination, Luxor, capital of ancient Egypt.
アブ・シンベルからアスワンに戻ってきたのが午後2時前。エジプト名物のコシャリを食べたりして時間をつぶし、夕方に電車で次の目的地、古代エジプトの首都ルクソールへ。
Kosharee/コシャリ