Walking in the footsteps of the Gods

Suhayl Island, located in the chaotic jumble of rocky islands that form the first cataract, is an arid and jagged outcrop of granite whose seemingly every boulder, large and small, is covered with ancient inscriptions - pharaonic graffiti if you will - left by travelers seeking the blessings and protection of the Gods on their journey.

The Famine Stella is the most famous of these inscriptions, covering the face of a large boulder and telling how King Djoser (3rd dynasty) made a deal of offerings of land and cattle to the god Khnum in order to end a 7-year drought and famine that was ravaging the country at the time. Scholars claim the inscription is apocryphal -- a retroactive claim by the Ptolemaic era priesthood of Khnum to secure the revenue from those lands they felt entitled to, and stave off any counter-claim to those self-same lands by the emerging priesthood of the Temple of Isis at Philae... How things never change!

What is not apocryphal nor propaganda, however, is the hundreds of smaller, intimate inscriptions left by long-ago travelers. As I rock hop amongst the boulders in the 100+ degrees heat, flirting with heat exhaustion and terminal thirst, I feel their presence, and that of the Gods whose benevolence they implored.