"Travel and change of place impart new vigour to the mind"- A travel quote

River Nile and Nile Cruise

River Nile, called the father of African rivers, is the longest river in the world with a length of 6650 Kilometers. It rises south of equator and flows north in the northeast Africa, ultimately draining into Mediterranean sea.

Its basin includes eleven countries viz Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic republic of Congo, Eritrea and Egypt.

It has two major tributaries called White Nile and Blue Nile. The white Nile is considered the primary stream although blue Nile is the source of most of its water, contributing about 80% of its total waters.

The ancient civilizations of Egypt developed on either side of this great river as it supplied them with water throughout the year. Presently it is the mainstay of Egyptian tourism with cruise ships carrying tourists between Luxor and Aswan. Most of the sites are located on either side of Nile, which makes cruise a comfortable way of covering the important areas.

Journey from Cairo to Aswan is by a comfortable overnight train with individual coupe for a couple.

An interesting feature that we found was the Esna lock located in Esna city, 53 kilometres south of Luxor. Filling the lock with water and emptying it is carried out through 4 automatic gates while there is a control tower which manages filling and emptying the lock, which takes about six minutes.Watching the passage of cruise vessels through the Esna lock is an interesting experience.

A couple of interesting temples, one on each side of Nile are temples of Edfu and Kom-Ombo which are from the Greco- Roman period.

The temple Edfu built in 2nd century BC is located on the west bank of Nile and is dedicated to god Horus. It is one of the best preserved temples. Here the looming sandstone walls are covered in giant hieroglyphics and dazzling friezes.

The Kom Ombo temple, bulit between 108 BC- 47BC, is located on the east bank of Nile. It is an unusual double temple and features a unique engraving that is thought to be among the first representations of medical and surgical instruments, consisting of scalpels, curettes, forceps, speculums, scissors, medicine bottles and prescriptions

Alexandria :

Alexandria is a Mediterranean port city in the North Egypt. It is the second largest city of Egypt, after Cairo. The commercial area of the city and its main road is aligned along the Mediterranean coast, which is reminiscent of Mumbai's queen's necklace.

The city was home to one of the ancient wonders of world, the Lighthouse, which has since disappeared.

The city has Greco-Roman landmarks, one of which is the Pompey pillar. The pillar is 100 feet tall and is made of red Aswan granite. The name of the pillar is actually a misnomer as it has nothing to do with Roman general Gaius Pompey, a rival of Julius Caeser. The pillar was erected around 300 AD by emperior Diocletian and is a victory monument. The pillar is the site of Serapeum, Alexandria's acropolis.

A short distance from the pillar are Alexandria's catacombs discovered in 1900. They consist of a multi level labyrinth featuring burial niches and sarcophagii.

One common site in the morning is the local Egyptians drinking Kahwa (local black tea) in the open and workers carrying loads of local bread, either in the carts or in the special baskets, on their shoulders.

Pompey pillar

Another important landmark is the disc shape ultramodern library and cultural centre, called Bibliotheca Alexandrinaa . It is both a commemoration of old library which was lost in antiquity and to develop a centre of learning. In 2010 the library received a donation of five lakh books from France.

Another landmark is the 15th century seafront citadel, now a museum called Qaitbay.