viking.com | 16
W I N T E R I S S U E 2 6
It's a valley, I realise, that explains not
only ancient Egypt but also modern
humankind. Once our forebears
discovered how to harness the gift of
this miracle river—how to turn barren waste
into fertile green—civilisation was born.
The rest, as they say, is history—lots of it.
Meanwhile, up here, scale is playing tricks.
As the world below expands, its components
become a model train-set mosaic of miniatures.
Scattered among the Monopoly buildings and
toy cruise ships I pick out the relics of antiquity:
Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, the Avenue of
Sphinxes, all now reduced to crumbling
children's sandcastles. On the West Bank,
flanking the Valley of the Kings, stands the
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut—its vast
columns that just yesterday towered above us
now a row of sand-coloured toothpicks.
Other balloons dot the still air around us;
coloured orbs, suspended like party bubbles.
I imagine them as Martian spacecraft on a
recce. What would these Martians think?
Soon we're descending. As we lose altitude,
the bustle and murmur of the waking day rises
to meet us: cockerels, donkeys, muezzins,
motorcycles. And the details of terra firma
crystallise into relief: piebald goats clustered on
a straw-strewn rooftop; three men in burgundy
jellabiyas boarding a street corner taxi; a white
confetti of egrets scattered from their roost by
our advancing shadow. Tiny toys reclaiming
their real-world dimensions.
And the shouting. It's now audible again as
our trusty ground crew bring us back to earth
—literally. They scamper below, chasing our tail
rope across tarpaulin-smothered fields of
sundried tomatoes until at last they catch hold
and start reeling us in. Back to the ground; back
to the present; back to our own dimension.
GETTING THERE: The 12-day Pharaohs
& Pyramids roundtrip itinerary departs
from Cairo.
Mediterranean
Sea
Red
Sea
Cairo
Qena
Luxor
Edfu
Esna
Aswan
Kom Ombo
NILE
–
C r ui s e
•
–
•
A ir
••
O ve r night in Po r t
EGYPT
VIEW
VOYAGE
Clockwise, from
top: Hot air
balloons prepare
to take flight; the
Mortuary Temple of
Hatshepsut
