Philae, Aswan, Egypt

Today, we were collected at 9am from the hotel by our guide for the next 4 days, Hany. Hany took us to the Aswan High Dam, a very important site, built in 1960s, above the low dam built in 1902. It created Lake Nasser, the source of fresh water for Egypt, and is 500km long.

Next, we went to a marina,to catch a little ferry to the island of Philae. The was the site of another temple relocated entirely to higher ground due to the dam. It was partially under water for many years, but they built a coffee dam around it, before carving it up and raising it to a small island where it now sits.

The Temple of Isis is interesting because there is much Greek influence here, by the columns, and some of the glyphs. The early Christians defaced much of the carvings,as you can see in some of the photos. The cartouche spells out the name of Queen Cleopatra.

Hany then took us to our boat, the MS Amwaj where we checked in to our room. We decided, because the temperature had hit 40 degrees, that we would forego a planned trip to a Nubian Village,and relax by the swimming pool, which was lovely. We had a peaceful afternoon, catching up on some much needed sleep. This evening,we had a buffet dinner and a few drinks, before a Nubian dance show. There was lots of drumming, and dancing by males. We have noticed that there are no women working on this boat that we have seen yet, which is interesting...

The ship departs Aswan in the early hours, and we are meeting our guide Hany at 6am for a tour to a temple, then back for breakfast. We feel fortunate, in that we have Hany to ourselves. There is a big group of 40 or more people (Americans and Brits), and we are glad not to be with them. We did meet a young lady who was so excited to hear our accent - she was in one of the big groups with all older Americans, so she was very happy to talk to us!Read more