Dramatic blooms greet visitors at the Aswan Botanical Garden on Kitchener’s Island on the Nile River in Egypt.
An arrangement of plants adorns the sidewalk of Aswan Botanical Garden on Kitchener’s Island on the Nile River in Egypt.
Impressive scenes line the water near the Aswan Botanical Garden on Kitchener’s Island on the Nile River in Egypt.
“Bet you never thought you would see a botanical garden in Egypt, did you?” our guide Hussein challenges us as we enter the Aswan Botanical Garden.
Aside from various clusters of ornamental landscaping and scattered potted plants, we’d seen mostly only the golden sand of the desert and the animated, yet plant-free, city streets since our arrival.
“You’d win that bet,” I easily concede.
We are not actually going to the garden, though, only passing through it on our way to catch a boat to a nearby Nubian village.
The garden is located on Kitchener’s Island in the Nile River. It came to be as part of a collaboration between Lord Horatio Kitchener, a British commander of the Egyptian army in the late 1800s, and the Ministry of Irrigation. Importing hundreds of trees and plants from all around the world, they covered the nearly 17-acre island with greenery.
A bouquet of pink and white blooms climbs the side of a stone building at the entrance. Nearby, a table and chairs hand-carved from tree trunks provide a sitting area. A thoughtfully-arranged collection of clay pots, perennials, palms and flower-laced vines serves as a centerpiece on the open patio.
Entering the garden, we pass beneath lattice heavy with heart-shaped green leaves, twisting white vines and lavender flowers. We follow the shrub-lined, granite sidewalk as it angles through the garden.
Around us, we note trees from India and Asia, from Madagascar, Australia and Mexico. Trees with distinctively different trunks, contrasting leaves, not only in shapes and sizes, but in shades of green and brown. Leaves that jet out in tight clusters, and leaves that dangle and cascade like waterfalls.
The heat is also our companion. The temperature is 117 degrees. It’s a difficult fact to dismiss. But the garden, and especially the shade provided by its abundant foliage, is a welcome, scenic surprise.
(Note: Marjorie Appelman is a retired English, communications and journalism teacher from Mason County High School and co-founder of the travel blog Tales from the Trip, which is on Instagram and Facebook. She can be reached at marj.appelman@gmail.com.)
