Unfinished business

Today has been rather sedate, as we have spent it in Aswan again, as the boat prepares to turn around and head back up the Nile to Luxor. That reminds me, I really need to arrange a hotel room for Luxor....

This morning I did a bit of sunning myself on the top deck, while reading up on Cairo, so I am fully prepared for the assault on my senses the city will provide! Also, I need to make a mini check list of what I want to do while I am there. I have a rough idea, but not sure how long each thing will take.

Anyway, regular readers might recall we were supposed to go to the unfinished obelisk yesterday, but our tour guide preferred instead to take us to some Nubian aromatherapy shop instead. Well, today he was back on the boat preparing to take a new party out on the Philae tour, when I tackled him about this, and said I want to go in and see it!!

I was arguing quite well because the lieutenant in charge was also getting involved and eventually the tour guide, Mahmud, agreed to take the tour to this site first. I should mention that today is also a turn around day when all the people on the three night cruise depart and a new group gets on. Because i am on the 7 night cruise, i get to see all the temples twice.

So, I pity the poor sods on this tour whose first day it is, as in all likelihood, my insistance that we went to the unfinished obelisk has meant they will probably have to sacrifice another part of the tour....like Philae temple. Note: I have not said they would sacrifice the aromatherapy part of it, which is a permanent fixture, methinks!!

Anyway, we went to the unfinished obelisk, and it really is what it says on the tin, an obelisk that is not quite finished!! It is quite impressive though as, had it been completed, it would have stood a fully 45 metres high and weighed about 1200 tonnes. The reason it was not finished is that the stone masons noticed a crack in it and realised that it could not be raised without breaking.

The top-down view - that is a big crack
i think i would have noticed sooner.....

I have added a shot of people in for perspective; generally I do not like the hoi polloi in on my photographic masterpieces, but this really helps to emphasise the size of the bloody thing. Also, so you get an idea of the scale, for those who have been to Rome, the obelisk in the Vatican city is only 23 metres....

The bottom-up view - bloody big bugger!

After that I got a taxi back to the boat, which is moored near a bottling plant for Coca-Cola, but when I arrived the boat was not there.....the captains of these Nile cruisers seem to change mooring positions at the drop of a hat, and I was not informed of this at all, so I spent a full hour wandering around in the blistering heat (and it was absolutely searing hot today) trying to find the boat!