Fatemah Farag encounters a submerged land of mystery, passion, cruelty and redemption, as she sails through Upper Nubia "Poirot stood in the glass-enclosed saloon looking straight ahead. The Karnak was going through a narrow gorge. The rocks came down with a kind of sheer ferocity to the river flowing deep and swift between them. They were in Nubia now." Agatha Christie could not have chosen a more apt setting for the crescendo of deadly events in her 1938 mystery Death on the Nile. The further Hercule Poirot and his fellow holiday makers on the dahabiya Karnak move into the wild land of Upper Nubia, the more deeply they become ensnared in their own blood-stained destiny. As the detective Christie made famous would tell the murderess as they pass the First Cataract: "You have chosen, Mademoiselle, the dangerous course. As we here in this boat have embarked on a journey, so you too have embarked on your own private journey -- a journey on a swift moving river, between dangerous rocks, and heading for who knows what currents of disaster." South of Aswan, the First Cataract long symbolised the last frontier of Egypt proper. Beyond lay Upper Nubia: stark in landscape, rich in mines, traversed by an untamed Nile, its waters crashing against huge black boulders, gateway to Lower Nubia and the Sudan. For millennia, nature ruled supreme here, while man toiled away in one corner of the vast canvas, building temples, fortresses and hand-painted mud-brick villages, of which even the greatest appeared but tiny specks in an immense landscape. Yet, for all you will see when you next head down to Nubia, I might as well be describing a land of pure fantasy. For in the early 1960s a no less dramatic history was inaugurated, determined this time by man. The protagonists were development, non- alignment, independence and a great leap forward, and it all culminated in the construction of the Aswan High Dam. As a result, today, all of Upper Nubia lies submerged beneath the waters of Lake Nasser, a great man-made body of water reaching from behind the Aswan Dam down to Abu Simbel. All the temples between Abu Simbel and Kalabsha were destined to disappear beneath the waters, along with the houses and livelihoods of the people who had been their neighbours for several millennia. Yet, thanks to a no lesser heroic effort than the building of the dam itself, they were moved to higher ground, just in time. UNESCO's General Assembly, aided by the tireless work of Tharwat Okasha, the first Egyptian minister of culture, was able to mobilise international cooperation, lots of money, and hundreds of men to slice and transport these monuments of rock, defying the heat of the desert, assorted predators and the waters that were soon lapping round their feet. As a result, some part of old Nubia and its architectural heritage still survives today. What has been lost for good, though, are the villages, a large section of the Nubian population having been relocated as far north as Kom Ombo. What we know of their lives comes from accounts and drawings such as those to be found in the recently published Nubia: Sketches, Notes and Photographs (AUC Press), a collection of letters and sketches by Egyptian-born Australian Margot Veillon� documenting the area during trips she made there between 1936 and 1964. In a letter to Swiss art historian Doris Wild dated 30 April 1960, Veillon describes her surroundings as follows: "Nubia, a land condemned to die, offers itself to our view from the boat that we have been on for 12 days now. Before us lies a sequence of dry, harsh ripples in the desert sand and black mountains. The houses built upon this land are a perfect style, totally adapted to their surroundings and with a rich variety of decoration on their windows and façades. One could spend forever studying these designs and learn more than one would ever need to know about ornament." Nubia for Veillon was "painfully beautiful to witness". But in spite of the amazing international effort summoned up to save the temples of Nubia, they have not received much mainstream tourist attention since -- with the exception, of course, of Abu Simbel. In fact, it was not until a pioneering businessman -- owner of Belle Epoque Travel -- obtained a permit to launch a luxury cruise boat from Abu Simbel to the High Dam and back again, that these temples became reasonably accessible. In fact, when the cruise first started, the guards did not even have any entrance tickets to sell visitors -- an oversight which the Antiquities Authority finally remedied a few years ago. There are good reasons, however, for the reverence with which Lake Nasser has been treated, a reverence that has perhaps protected it from the ravages suffered by the Nile between Luxor and Aswan at the hands of tourism unchained. The lake has long been considered a highly sensitive area in terms of national security: not only is it part of our border with the Sudan, but the condition of the water it contains has a direct impact on the security of the High Dam. Furthermore, it is standing water, which makes the threat of pollution particularly dire. So far, the authorities have been wise enough to issue only six permits for boats since the Belle Epoque's launch. However, rumours now circulating across the placid waters of the lake claim that next year, the powers that be may choose to increase the number of permits -- a decision that would signal the beginning of the end for much of what now draws people to Lake Nasser and its environs. THE CRUISE: This is a trip which takes you back in time -- to an era when dahabiyas such as that which carried Poirot and his ill-fated companions were the only way to travel the Nile in style: a quiet, serene, and thoughtful mode of locomotion which left space for their guests to take in all the beauty around them. The Eugenie, run by Belle Epoque Travel, is much larger than a dahabiya, and is definitely driven by an engine, but it still has all the grace of old world travel. The first cruise boat to be launched into the waters of Lake Nasser some 10 years ago, The Eugenie boasts a wood-panelled bar/lounge with big comfortable velvet sofas and a piano, a well-designed two-tier deck, and rooms which each has its own little balcony complete with deck chairs for more private sunning. And it is all just a bit frayed, a bit imperfect around the edges, which is why they pull it off with grace. No cheap Pharaonic motifs, no brass and no crass -- and thank God, no galabiya party, that perverse ritual which has come to characterise only too many of the liners that travel between Luxor and Aswan. We chose the longer of two available itineraries: five days, four nights from Abu Simbel to the High Dam. The return trip takes three nights and is the more popular. So while we were 17 passengers heading out across the lake early this December, the boat was carrying its full load of 100 on the return trip back to Abu Simbel. Pick up is prompt at Abu Simbel Airport, and a little ferry boat takes us out to where the ship is moored -- just around the corner from the temples of Ramses II. And while check-in is scheduled for noon, the staff are sympathetic to our sleepless state -- a consequence of having to take a 4am flight (see travellers' notes) -- and ready our rooms within a prompt half hour, offering us breakfast in the meantime. And here I must veer off track and comment on the service. It was impeccable. At every twist and turn, from the boat's rayis to the manager to the man who made up my bed twice a day, each time twisting the sheets and towels into a different shape (a giant pyramid, a swan wearing my sun glasses, an abstract work incorporating my pyjamas), we found the people who run and staff the Eugenie unfailingly friendly, obliging and helpful. And that is saying a lot, when you consider that throughout large sectors of the five-star tourism industry in Egypt today, service is simply shoddy, erratic and in many cases intrusive and annoying. One reason for this achievement is doubtless the fact that everyone we spoke to had been on the boat since it came into water. Even during the bad seasons, when tourism would be down and everyone else would be laying off staff, those manning the Eugenie were given job security. "The boss said, as long as there is some food in my fridge everyone keeps their jobs," confided one staff member as he pointed out the stars to us one night. The result is that you do not feel harassed, as you so often do elsewhere. There is none of that constant pressure to put your hand into your pocket and dole out that bakshish. No surprise then, when two days into our trip, one of my companions remarked that this cruise was the only five-star experience he had had which he felt was actually worth the money. It was midnight, and we sat sipping cognac and eating chocolate mints. All our fellow passengers had gone to bed, but I was feeling puckish, and the chef had just obliged me with a very decent sandwich accompanied with a stack of French fries tiered like a matchstick castle. So I had to agree -- it does not get much better than this. A big part of cruising is food. Three meals, a high tea and some sort of cocktail hour on most days. The chef of the Eugenie is an enterprising man with vision, although he may not always have the means to achieve the results he aims for. Breakfast is basic, bordering on the mundane, and I feel that items such as fresh fruit juice should be made available on a cruise of this calibre. Also the "high tea" was lame: tea and packaged fruit cake every day. Lunch and dinner, however, were always extensive and interesting. Many of the meals were served out on deck, in what is a perfect setting, both day and night. Two dinners were served seated in the dining room: our European companions appeared wearing ties, and we were treated to such items as smoked salmon wrapped in spinach crepe and cream cheese resting against a crab leg balanced with caviar. As far as recreational activities on board go, Eugenie offers a pool and Jacuzzi on the top deck, a Turkish bath and sauna, as well as an assortment of board games and the use of a tiny but well chosen library. Included in your package are the services of a tour guide, who turned out to be excellent. We were also offered the opportunity to go out onto the lake in a small motor boat and see if we could catch some of those mammoth Nile Perch it is famous for. We headed out late afternoon and kept trying until nightfall, but despite our diligence, all we had to show for our efforts was a small pile of green weed and a sun tan. Nature did not entirely turn her back on us, though, and we did sight a baby crocodile, as well as a swarm of gnats so thick it looked like a cloud of smoke. Of course, all this comes at a price. During the high season, it costs LE980 for an Egyptian single room per day full board including all excursions but excluding drinks. The prices come down drastically in the summer, but it is in winter that the weather is most tolerable. Still, we had to be careful sitting out on the deck -- while the breeze was cool, the sun was devastating, and that was in December. TEMPLES: The Eugenie programme allowed us to visit the temples at Abu Simbel twice -- once during the day, with our guide, and then again after nightfall to attend the Sound and Light. Abu Simbel is too well known for me to need to emphasise its historical and architectural magnificence. The site consists of the Great Temple of Ramses II, dedicated to the gods Ra, Amun and Ptah, and the smaller temple built in honour of his favourite wife Queen Nefertari and dedicated to the cow-headed goddess of love, Hathor. Both temples were carved out of the mountain on the west bank of the Nile between 1290 BC and 1224 BC. By the mid-1800s the sandstone cliff face and temples were almost totally submerged in sand. When work on the High Dam began, it soon became clear to the international community that something must be done to save these amazing works of man from disappearing forever beneath the water. A world-wide appeal was launched in the early 1960s and eventually enough money was raised to cut the temples up into over 2,000 huge blocks weighing between 10 and 40 tonnes each and reconstruct it at an alternative site 65 metres higher than the original, out of the way of the encroaching waters. The new site of Abu Simbel opened in 1968 -- a testimony not only to ancient genius, but to that of modern engineering and determination, too. The whole story, ancient and modern, is told in vivid colour to dramatic music and using high tech lighting techniques on the outer walls of the temples during the Sound and Light show -- a must see. The night we went the majority of the audience was Japanese which was thus the language used, but we were quickly equipped with functional translation devices. When the lights go off and the temples disappear into darkness, do not forget to look up at the sky and take in its panoply of stars. Next on the itinerary is Qasr Ibrim, an ancient fortress that has housed Pharaohs, Mamelukes and Hungarian mercenaries. While your boat docks beside the island, you are not allowed to walk around it because the site is still being excavated. The next day the first destination is Amada -- a temple that was moved on rail tracks built especially for the purpose. A donkey is provided if you tire of the walk, and while there is no one to sell you souvenirs, some of my companions were offered advice regarding the advantages of using the private parts of crocodile in powdered form to enhance male performance. The vendor was promising eight hours, but who wants it? We had better things to do... In the afternoon, you reach the temples of Derr and Wadi Seboua. Camels are provided to get you from one temple to the other. Once journalists had been identified amongst the crown of tourists, those who guard the temples wasted no time in coming forward and presenting their complaints to the world. It appears that, despite many years of service out in the middle of this no-man's land, they had yet to receive full employment status with the Antiquities Authority, and had no statutory rights to sick pay or any form of paid leave. As we enjoyed the splendours of these distant outposts of our ancient civilisation, it seemed a shame that our modern authorities cannot find the means to properly employ even the few people required to look after them and make them accessible to visitors. At night the temples are illuminated and passengers are invited on deck to partake in wine cocktails and enjoy the vista laid out under the stars. On the last day, the boat draws close to its destination, and you stop to visit the temples of Kalabsha and Beit Al- Wali right behind the High Dam. The latter has amazing wall drawing depicting animals such as giraffes and elephants, which are said to have once roamed this area. If you want to round out your visit to the temples saved by the Nubia Campaign, you can complete your trip by stopping off at Philae Temple on your way into Aswan town. Situated on an island and reachable only by boat, the setting is perfect, and if you are staying on in Aswan, they have a Sound and Light show too. Once described as the temple with the most vivid colours in all of Egypt, the temple was submerged most of the year following the construction of the first Aswan Dam in around 1920, and all of the paintwork has long since been washed away. The 1960s campaign provided the opportunity to move it once and for all, and it was reconstructed on nearby Agilka Island. For more information on the history of the area, and evidence of its extraordinary heritage, a visit to the Nubian Museum in Aswan provides a fitting conclusion to this journey through the past.
