A Nubian Village and some Birds of Egypt

Live Crocodiles!

When the Aswan Dam was constructed in the 1960’s 50,000 Nubians were displaced, losing their ancestral homes along the Nile. They have been resettled, for the most part down stream from the dam, and many at Kom Ombo, but there are still scars that remain. Egypt Today: 52 Years Later Scars still Remain.

Before we departed Aswan our Viking group boarded small river boats near where our Viking Ship Osiris was docked in Aswan and rode up through the rapids at the First Cataract of the Nile. It is a beautiful setting, with the clear waters cascading past islets, big and small, a sanctuary for various kingfishers, herons, ducks, eagles and other birds.

Pied Kingfishers waited on rocky outcrops for prey.

We eventually reached an area where the Nile ran deeper and slower, docking on the west shore.

The homes are colorful multistory structures built around a large open courtyard, housing three generations of Nubians. These families formerly lived in lands now inundated by the waters of the Aswan Dam. We were welcomed in to explore their home.

We quickly were drawn to a large tiled basin in the central courtyard. Crocodiles!

Nubians keep baby crocodiles as pets, until they get too big, then release them. These guys were getting pretty big!

This little one was very friendly! You can see above that the interior walls were painted brightly with scenes that no doubt reminded them of their former lands.

Our Brilliant Guide provided us with quite a bit of information about the Nubians. They seldom intermarry, preferring only other Nubians as mates. The bride groom must buy a piece of gold for his future mother in law as well as for each of the bride’s sisters. Their weddings last for a week!

The newly-weds live with the bride’s family for several years, to insure that he treats her right! Their blood lines are very pure, and their civilization is one of the oldest.

There is no crime and they never sue each other. All disputes are resolved by the Village Sheikh. No work for a lawyer here! They are excellent swimmers and drink right from the Nile without apparent ill effects.

---

We have made many wonderful friends on this cruise. Two of them are Sharon Wang and George Qin. They are accomplished birders and photographers, and shared some of their brilliant photos with me, including the two kingfishers above, and the ones below.

WOW I love this White-throated Kingfisher shot!

Look at the tail on this Africa Green Beeeater!

Sharon has quite the photo set up! She and George are quite the team.

This is a Nile Valley Sunbird. Beautiful shot Sharon~!

Thanks so much Sharon and George! Great work!

We are back in Cairo now and will board our plane home in a few hours, so I must cut this short. I plan to write up at least three more journal entries on the Nile, then I hope to prepare an outline and index back to all the articles to help organize the thousands of years of history that were covered by this amazing trip.

I definitely will include an article on the Great Egyptian Museum (GEM) that has just opened at the foot of the pyramids. Some of us spent two hours there this afternoon. Incredible!

We’ve heard there’s some snow at home. I must say the weather here has been absolutely perfect.

Thanks for traveling along! So glad you’re here!

Apologies on the typos in the last journal. We have good internet now in Cairo so I hope those troubles are behind us. It’s always better to read these posts in the free Substack App as that always has the most current version and the photos load faster.