Category: Egypt

Today is our last full day in Cairo and we are going to visit the pyramids.  We have driven by them several times so we have seen them in the distance but not up close and personal. We left at 7:30 in an attempt to beat the crowds. Unfortunately the day started off hazy which is typical in the winter.

We started at The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) which is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza complex.  It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one to remain largely intact. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built over a 10- to 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu. At 481 feet, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by limestone casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure.  I thought it had been built by slaves but Nahed said that most of the labor was done by farmers during the flood season.  (In ancient times there were three seasons-flood, planting, and harvest.)

Then we moved on to the Pyramid built by Khafre and the one built by Menkaure, son and grandson of Khufu, respectively.  They are both smaller than The Great Pyramid but impressive nonetheless.  We drove out to a look out to get a good look at all three.   Here’s a picture (you can see it was a little hazy).

Next we drove over to the Sphinx. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have been built during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC).

Having “done” the Pyramids, Nahed took us shopping, specifically we went to a government gift shop, a papyrus shop and a cotton shop.  We didn’t buy anything at any of the shops, although we were tempted at the papyrus shop by the pieces that had an alternate image when the papyrus was held under a black light.  We walked out of all the shops empty-handed.

At this point it was a little less hazy so we wanted to return to the Pyramid complex to get some better pictures. Our tickets were good for the day, but the car entrance ticket was a single use only.  So Nahed and our driver dropped us off at the complex entrance where we said good bye.  We walked for 45 minutes from the entrance to the outlook.  Luckily it wasn’t too hot that day.  There were lots of vendors offering to give us a camel ride or to take us to the lookout in a horse drawn carriage.  Here are much better clearer pictures of the pyramids and the camels at the outlook.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the women who are all covered up. Here’s a picture of a lady at the pyramids.  It doesn’t look very comfortable to me but it quite common to see.

After taking a bunch of pictures we walked back to the entrance and went to the Marriott Mena House, a hotel overlooking the Pyramids.  We had a very nice, relaxing lunch of Indian food there.  We ubered through the terrible Cairo traffic back to our hotel.

That evening we went down to our favorite restaurant and I gave our bartender friend, Mina, the orange I had knitted for him.  As you can tell from his smile, he liked it.

 

Today we’ll be going on a tour of Cairo.  When we got into the car I gave Nahed the strawberry bookmark I’d finished yesterday.  She seemed to really like it.  

We started in Coptic Cairo, the location of the oldest church and synagogue.  Coptic literally means Christian people of Egypt.  First stop, the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Barbara.  Sections of this church date back to the 4th century AD, but it’s been rebuilt several times.  Here are some pictures.

Next we visited the Hanging Church.  The church is considered “hanging” because it’s suspended on logs placed over the gate house of a Roman fortress built years before the church itself.  It was probably built in the late 7th century.   It is believed to have been a stopping point for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus who lived in the church for about a month after they fled to Egypt to escape the Romans.  The design of the church was significantly influenced by Islamic and Egyptian styles.  Some of the carved symbols contain traditional moorish geometry, while others (e.g. the cross with lotus flower tips) carry styles used in ancient Egyptian temples.

We stopped in a Coptic church that was holding a mass.  There was a strong smell of burning incense inside and we noticed many of the women were wearing hijabs.

Our final stop in old Cairo was at Ben Ezra Synagogue, built on the site where baby Moses was said to have been found floating in the reeds of the Nile in a basket.

We moved on to the citadel, a hilltop fortress built as a defensive position against the Crusaders, which contains the Mosque of Mohammed Ali.  Mohammad Ali lived from 1769 until 1849 and was an Ottoman Albanian commander who rose through the ranks to eventually rule Egypt.  He is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt because of the dramatic military, economic and cultural reforms he enacted.

While at the citadel Nahed gave us a primer on the basics of Islam.  The five pillars of Islam are:

1. You must believe in one god, Allah.
2. You must pray five times a day at designated times.  (The times change throughout the year based on sunrise and sunset.  The prayers are also slightly different at different times of day.  Men should pray in the mosque on Fridays if they can.  Going to the mosque is optional for ladies.  It’s ok if you can’t pray at the designated times.  Ahmed the Great told us he makes up all his missing prayers at home in the evening.  Many men have a dark spot on their forehead from pressing their head onto the floor while praying.) 
3. You must fast from sun up until sun down during Ramadan.  (Muslims celebrate Ramadan to commemorate the initial revelation by the Angel Gabriel of the thoughts ultimately documented in the Quran to Muhammad.)
4. Muslims must donate 2.5% of their annual savings to charity, specifically the poor and the needy. 
5. If financially able, Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime during the Hajj.

A cohesive family and strong community ties are very important and encouraged by practitioners of the Islamic faith.

Here are some pictures of the mosque and the citadel.

After visiting the mosque Nahed took us to a restaurant for a special lunch of stuffed pigeon and stuffed duck. We had seen “pigeon houses” through out the city where the unsuspecting pigeons nest.

I got the duck and Rick got the pigeon.  It wasn’t stuffed but was served on a bed of rice.  I forgot to take a picture of our food, but here’s a picture of the pigeon from the internet that looks similar.

I tasted the pigeon but couldn’t stop thinking about what I was eating.  Rick didn’t like the taste at all.  It was really gamey, or something?!

After lunch we went to a candy store.  The celebration of Mohammad’s birthday is November 20.  The candy shops bake special candy, mostly with nuts, to celebrate.  While there we bought some candy to share when we get home.

Next we went to the Egyptian Museum, which appeared to be in a state of disarray.  The Egyptian government is currently building a huge new museum close to the pyramids.  It will open soon and many of the exhibits are being packed up in preparation for the move. Luckily the Tut exhibit isn’t moving until the end of the month, so we had a chance to see it in Cairo.  Both of us had seen the exhibit before, Rick in New York at the Met, me in London at the British Museum.  In Cairo the exhibit was drab, disorganized and dirty in comparison.  Hopefully it’s new home will provide a better venue.

The museum is huge and we probably could have spent a couple of days there, but our time was limited that day to 2 hours.  We didn’t by a photo ticket so no pictures.

We returned to the hotel and I started knitting an orange for our bartender friend who I’d promised a gift the night before.  I finished it just in time for dinner.  We went down to the restaurant and it turned out to be his day off.  Luckily he’s supposed to work tomorrow, so I’ll give it to him then.

We started the day by visiting Memphis, a former Egyptian capitol in the Old Kingdom founded by the first pharaoh.  while there we visited the Colossus of Ramesses II, an enormous statue,  34 ft long, carved in limestone.   It was discovered in 1820 and a small museum was built around him.  He is shown lying on his back.   His legs are missing but he is still impressive.  At the museum there were a number of other artifacts unearthed in the area.

Next stop Dashur Pyramid.  Many people don’t realize that there are over 100 pyramids in Egypt.

Building the Dahshur pyramids was an extremely important learning experience for the Egyptians. It provided them with the knowledge and know-how to transition from step-sided pyramids to smooth-sided pyramids. Ultimately their breadth of experience would allow them to build the Great Pyramid of Giza, the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.

The first of the Dahshur pyramids was the Bent Pyramid (2613 – 2589 BC), built under the rule of King Sneferu.  The Bent Pyramid was the first attempt at building a smooth sided pyramid, but proved to be an unsuccessful build due to the miscalculations made on the structural weight and angle of accent. Realizing the shortcomings from the initial build and learning from his mistakes King Sneferu ordered the building of the second pyramid of Dahshur, the Red Pyramid. Once completed, the pyramid was considered to be a success, as it was a fully constructed, smooth sided, and a free standing pyramid rising to a height of 341 feet, with an angle of accent of 43 degrees. The Red Pyramid’s name comes from the red limestone that was used to construct the pyramid.  This pyramid is believed to be the resting place of King Sneferu.

Nahed didn’t walk around the Pyramid with us.  We had an armed guard walking with us.  Nahed told the guard we are American which typically results in an armed escort.  Often when we pull up to check points they tell the guards that we are British because they don’t want to wait for the armed guard.  This must explain our escort in Dendera.

We went into the Red Pyramid which has 136 steps leading to a large chamber and a small tunnel which leads to another tunnel, some more steps and another chamber.

Here are some pictures.

Our last sight seeing stop was Saqqara.  We visited the several tombs including one of Menu, a Vizier from about 4,000 years ago.  Archeologists say its colorful wall decorations shed light on how Egyptians lived back then.  Unlike the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens which show images of royalty passing from life to death, these tombs depicted daily life.  It was really amazing.  We couldn’t take pictures but here are some I downloaded.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser was in the same compound.  Built in the 27th century BC, it is the oldest complete stone building complex known in history.  Another 16 Egyptian kings built pyramids at Saqqara which are now in various states of preservation or dilapidation.  There is also a funerary complex.  Here are some pictures.

Lunch was next on the agenda.  We stopped at an open air restaurant and had a very nice lunch after which we returned to our hotel.

After relaxing a little, we decided to walk to Tahrir Square, site of many protests during the revolution.  We were accosted by vendors four times during our 1 mile walk.  They all started with, “hi where are you from”, then,  “I have a cousin who lives in…”,  eventually, “come to my store.” They all seemed to have someone getting married the next day so we actually got invited to one fellow’s daughter’s wedding on the Nile.  One person said this way to Tahir Square and misled us to his store.  Once we were in the store he left us to his colleague to give us the pitch while he went and recruited more tourists.  The colleague tried the free gift tactic but we weren’t falling for it and quickly left the store.  It was all fine, as they say, no harm, no foul.  Tahrir Square was somewhat anti climatic, here’s a picture.

Here are some other pictures from our walk in Cairo.

That evening we went to our favorite Egyptian restuarant in the hotel.  I have been knitting in the car and Nahed, our guide, asked me to make her something, so I was working on a strawberry bookmark for her at dinner.  The bartender, with whom we have become friendly, liked it as asked for something.  I’m covering Egypt with knitted trinkets!

 

 

 

We were up early to meet our new guide, Nahed, at 6:30.  We were headed to Alexandria which is about 2 1/2 hours away.  Alexander the Great established Alexandria as the new capital after he conquered Egypt. It is right on the Mediterranean Sea so it was relatively close to Greece.  Alexander died young and the Greek territories were split amongst his generals.  Ptolemy was awarded Egypt.  The Greeks integrated themselves into the Egyptian culture and ruled until the Romans conquered Egypt.

Alexandria is a very industrial town with lots of factories.  It doesn’t have a lot of historical landmarks so one day is enough to see the important sites.  We started at the Roman catacombs or Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa.  We went down a circular staircase which wound around a large shaft, used to lower the bodies down  to the tombs.  The tombs were tunneled into the bedrock from the 2nd century to the 4th century.  The tombs had a mix of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences.  It was discovered in 1900 when a donkey accidentally fell into the access shaft.

The catacombs were named Kom El Shoqafa, meaning Mound of Shards, because the area used to contain a mound of shards of terra cotta which mostly consisted of clay jars and objects. These objects were left by those visiting the tombs, who would bring food and wine for their consumption during the visit.  The visitors didnt want to carry their containers home from this place of death, so they would break them.  At the time of the tombs discovery heaps of these broken plates were found.

We couldn’t take pictures so here are some I down loaded from the internet.

While we were at the catacombs our driver bought us some falafel, traditional middle eastern breakfast food.  Rick really liked them.  I actually thought they were ok so I think we will be making falafel when we get home.

Next we went to the Temple of the God Serapis which was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III (reigned 246–222 BCE) and dedicated to Serapis, who was the Greek version of Osiris and the protector of Alexandria.  Today most of the temple is gone.  The temple contained a large library.  According to Nahed, after Cleopatra’s library burned, Mark Antony gave her 45,000 books for a wedding present.  These books were housed at this temple.  Pompey’s Pillar still stands in the center of the temple.  It is a Corinthian column that was built in 297 AD, commemorating the victory of Roman emperor Diocletian over an Alexandrian revolt.  The Serapeum of Alexandria was closed in July of 325 AD, likely on the orders of the Christian Emperor Constantine during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. Then in 391 AD religious riots broke out during which the temple was destroyed.  

Next we went to the Citadel of Qaitbay, a 15th century fortress.  It was considered one of the most important defensive strongholds, not only in Egypt, but also along the Mediterranean Sea coast.  It was erected on the exact site of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World completely destroyed by several earthquakes.

There were several school trips to the citadel.  It was mobbed with kids.  We were swarmed by many young girls eager to take our pictures taken with them.  We spent 20 minutes making photographs with the girls.  It was actually a lot of fun.

Off to lunch… Next to the restaurant was a bakery.  Here is Rick buying some Egyptian pastries afterward.

We finished our Alexandria tour with a visit to the library.  The library in an enormous, state of the art facility.  It has shelf space for eight million books and the main reading room covers 220,000 sq ft on eleven cascading levels. The complex also houses a conference center, specialized libraries for maps, multimedia, sections for the blind and visually impaired, special needs individuals, four museums, four art galleries for temporary exhibitions, 15 permanent exhibitions, a planetarium and a manuscript restoration laboratory. The library’s architecture is striking. The main reading room stands beneath a 32-meter-high glass-panelled roof, tilted out toward the sea like a sundial and measuring some 450 ft. in diameter. The exterior walls are made of gray Aswan granite carved with characters from 120 different human scripts.

After the library we drove back to Cairo.  It was a long but good day.  That evening we went to the Egyptian restaurant in the hotel.  They are starting to get to know us.

 

Today is an easy day.  All we have to do is fly to Cairo.  

It would have been a great morning to go for a falucca ride.  There are many faluccas right outside our hotel and every day we have people asking us to go out with them.  The last couple of days there hasn’t been any wind and we have seen them being swept downstream by the current, finding it impossible to sail upstream and resorting to rowing to get back to their berths.  Of course this morning there was good wind, we just didn’t have time to go out.  Maybe next time we are in Aswan.  

A note about Aswan.  We really liked this city.  It is dominated by the Nile and there are lots of boats and opportunities for boat rides.  Everyone is very friendly, it feels very safe and it’s size makes the city very manageable.

Also a note about clothing…

We have seen women in a variety of levels of cover.  All the woman have at least long pants and long sleeve shirts.  Often the shirts are long and loose.  Most woman have a head scarf or hajib.  It is not unusual to see women completely covered with just their eyes showing.  These ladies also tend to wear gloves.  Often they dress in black with some decoration, gold or silver chains and necklaces.  It looks incredibly hot, but our guides have said that loose fitting clothing is cool.

Many men are dress in galabeya.  Interestingly, when we were on the boat, the crew went swimming in the underwear and undershirts.  Most men in Cairo wear western style clothing.

Back to our activities—we arrived in Cairo and were met by Mustafa.  We drove again through the terrible traffic to our hotel.  We weren’t to far out of the airport when our driver decided to turn around and go a different way to avoid a big traffic jam.

We got to the hotel and got settled.  That evening we stayed in the hotel for dinner.  We had Italian.  For me it was a nice change because Egyptian food is heavy on the vegetables.  We have had a lot of hummus, tahini, baba ganoush, falafel, and koshari.  Not my favorite.

This morning we went to San Simeon Monastery.  Mona met us at our hotel on Elephantine Island (this name is the result of rocks on the end of the island that looked like elephants in the water).  

We took a boat to San Simeon. There were men with camels waiting for us.  My camel was in the middle of breakfast and not happy about being interrupted.  Rick and I got on our camels.  Mona preferred to walk.  Seven years ago she was on a camel while guiding at San Simeon.  Her phone rang and her ring tone was the sound of a chicken.  The camel panicked and was looking around for the chicken.  Meanwhile Mona was fumbling trying to get her phone out of her purse. The experience traumatized her as well as the camel and she has never ridden one again.  She laughs about it today but still doesn’t want to get on a camel.  

The camel ride was fine.  I can’t imagine riding one across the desert because it don’t think it would be very comfortable.  Here are some camel pictures.

San Simeon was a Roman fortress before it was converted to a monastery.  There seem to be several stories about how it was started.  One is that it was started by Christians hiding from the Romans.  Mona told us that Christians were initially persecuted by the Romans just for being Christian and later because they believed that Jesus was god on earth (similar to how they view the pharaoh) while the Romans though he was a human version of god.  Another story is that a man passed a funeral on his wedding day and  decided to renounce the world.  (Hmmm.)  Either way it started in the 7th century.  

As many as 1,000 monks are believed to have lived at San Simeon.  We saw the monks’ dormitories, the kitchen, the dining room as well as the church which still had original paintings.  The monks would grow their hair and tie their braid to the ceiling while praying.  If they fell asleep and their head dropped they would wake up as a result of their hair being pulled.  They grew their own food so they were independent and isolated.  The monks took in pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem and Mecca. 

Here are some pictures.  

We returned to our boat via the camels. Our boat took us back to the hotel and we said goodbye to Mona.  She was really an excellent guide and an outstanding person in general.  

That afternoon I worked to get caught up on the blog.  

In the evening we walked over to the market.  We thought our driver was eating pistachios the whole way back from Abu Simbel.  Mona told us they do that to stay awake.  She said we should be able to get a kilo from 40 or 50 Egyptian pounds (about $3).  Unfortunately we didn’t know the Arabic word for pistachios, but eventually we found someone who had them.  It turns out they are very expensive, 800 Egyptian pounds for a kilo or about $25/lb. No bargain so we didn’t get any pistachios.  We think Mona was talking about peanuts.  We also think the driver must have been eating something other than pistachios.  

Here are some pictures of the market.

We came back to the hotel and Rick had a beer and watched some soccer in the lounge area.  I worked on the blog.  

We met Mona this morning on the “city side”.

Today we are going to the Kalabsha Temple and the Nubian Museum.

One thing I have been meaning to write about is the weather.  Rain is rare in Egypt in general. More rare in southern Egypt.  Surprisingly one day we had  a few clouds and a couple of drops of rain.  Otherwise it has been sunny every day.  We have had a couple of hazy days.  The air temperature, even down here in Aswan, is not too bad but it is quite hot in the sun.  Much nicer than New England this year!

To get to the Kalabsha Temple we took a car and then a boat.  The temple was built by Emperor Augustus and was the largest free-standing temple in Egyptian Nubia.  Both the Romans and the Greeks built temples to show the Egyptians that they honored their gods.  This temple is dedicated to Horus or as the Nubian call him Mandulis.  There are three other small temple ruins on the same island, two of which are dedicated to Ramesses II, one of which still had some paint on the walls.  All of thes temples were moved as a result of the installation of the high dam.

Here are pictures.

We returned to the mainland via boat and then drove to the Nubian Museum.  Mona escorted us around the museum, describing many of the items.  It seems that the Nubian culture has a lot of overlap with the Egyptian culture which makes sense since the people were intermingled for a long stretch of time.

After the Nubian Museum Mona took us to lunch.  The restaurant was on an island in the Nile. We have been having interesting discussions with Mona and lunch was no different.  She is very open and honest.  Here’s some of what she told us.  

1. She thinks the revolution was a bad thing.  She thought that Mubarak was good for the country. He brought stability and reform.  In her opinion the Muslim Brotherhood worked for at least 5 years to create the conditions needed for the revolution.  They stirred up the young people to rebel against Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.  After they were in power Egyptians realized that they were going to be bad for the country.   As an example she sited their desire to get rid of the historical sites because they violate Islamic law about creating images of living things.  Of course that would have been devastating to the tourism industry.  
2. She likes Sisi. She is ok with Egypt being ruled by the army.
3. I asked about being a woman in Egypt.  She doesn’t feel any professional discrimination, but she is a strong woman.  As a wife and a mother, she feels a lot of pressure. Her husband, and most men in Egypt, come home from work and do NOTHING. They doesn’t help at all around the house or with the children.  She has to do all the cooking, buy his clothes, iron his clothes, etc.  Typical boys have similar expectations and if mom isn’t available, they expect their sisters to wait on them.  She says she raised her son differently.  I’m sure her future daughter-in-law will appreciate that. 
4. She descripbed the Egyptian people as being very flexible, especially when it comes to religion.  Egypt is 90% muslem, mostly Sunni, but they are very accepting of all religions.  They have incorporated traditions from other religions into their lives.  For instance, many of their superstitions come from the old Egyptian religion.  They also celebrate Christmas, since for them Jesus was a prophet.

After lunch we returned to the hotel and relaxed for awhile. That evening we went up in the hotel’s tower, (see below) had a drink and watched the sun set.  Here are pictures of the sunset.  

Then we crossed the river and met Matt and Lindsay for one last dinner together.  We were excited to learn that Matt will be giving a lecture at Amherst College in February so we will see him again.  

 

We were up by 3:45AM and ready to go with our suitcases at 4:30AM.  March, Nick, Lizette, and Armando were ready too.  We were  off together to Abu Simbel.  Mustafa was our guide that day..  Matt and Lindsay would follow our tracks tomorrow.

The 3 hour ride through the desert to Abu Simbel was uneventful.  The roads were good and a few of us were able to sleep for a couple of hours.  We arrived at Abu Simbel around 8:30 and we sat in front of the temple with Mustafa for about 1/2 hr while he explained what we would see.   As a guide he wasn’t allowed to join us.

The temple was a message from Ramses II to the people from the south who were coming down the river.  Essentially, I’m big and I’m powerful.  Don’t mess with me.  (Note: the Nile River flows south to north.  Upper Egypt is the southern part of Egypt.  It is called upper Egypt because it nearest to the head of the Nile, a little counterintuitive for North Americans).

Construction of the temple complex started in approximately 1264 BC and lasted for about 20 years until 1244 BC.  Ramesses reigned for 67 years, dying at an amazingly old age for the time of 92.

Inside the temple the images show Rameses transitioning from a pharaoh to a god.  One of the depictions shows Ramesses the man making an offering to Ramesses the god.  There were many scenes of him succeeding in battle.

I didn’t take any pictures of the temple interior, but here’s the exterior.

If you look closely you would see that the four Ramesses in front are aging so the one on the left is youngest Rameses and the one on the right is the oldest Ramesses, representing a thirty year time span to build the temple.

Ramesses also built a temple for Nefertari, his favorite wife.  One of the significant things about this temple is that her statue is the same size as his, showing her to be his equal.

Heres a picture.

The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 on to an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid having them be submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser.  After visiting the temples we went to the visitor center and watched a video on moving the temple.

Our visit to the temple was a real highlight of the trip.  Having seen pictures of Abu Simbel previously it was really breathtaking to see it in person and experience it.  And to think,  it has been around for over 3,000 years and Rameses, himself, must have been there to witness its creation.

We returned to the van and drove back to Aswan.  Mustafa wasn’t feeling well and slept the whole way back.  Mustafa was supposed to guide us for the next two days but decided that he wasn’t feeling well enough, so we requested Mona again and luckily she was available.  Yippee!

Upon returning to Aswan we were delivered to our hotel.  We are staying at the Movenpick which is on Elephantine Island.   We have to take a 5 min boat ride across a part of the Nile to get to the hotel.  It’s a nice retreat in the middle of the city!  Lizette and Armando were staying at the Movenpick too.

After getting settled briefly we headed out to meet Matt and Lindsay at the Old Cataract Hotel.  They are staying at a Nubian guest house and just wanted to have tea at the Old Cataract hotel.  The Old Cataract Hotel is very exclusive.   Somehow they got in and were holding a table on the deck for us.  Security at the front gate didn’t believe that we were meeting friends and escorted us in to make sure.  Only guests of the hotel are allowed to eat dinner there but Matt and Lindsay had befriended a guest while they were waiting for us.  She pulled some strings and got us a table.  So we managed to have dinner at the Old Cataract Hotel.  It was very good.

We said goodbye to Matt and Lindsay and then to Lizette and Armando and returned to our hotel via the shuttle boat.