Aswan

Today, we had a guide taking us to the most important sights in Aswan. Aswan is the southern most major Egyptian city on the Nile, bordering with the Nubian kingdom - which are distinct people with their own language, dating back to the time of the Pharaohs. First, we visited unfinished obelisk that lies in a major granite quarry dating back to 2000 bc. The obelisks usually would be carved in a single piece from the granite and then loaded on the barges to be transported. This one cracked and that’s why it was left unfinished. We then saw the High Dam - in 1964 it was built to control yearly floods of the Nile, thus creating the biggest man made lake in the world. The lake displaced 100,000 Nubians and flooded some beautiful ancient temples. Astonishingly, some temples have been relocated to higher ground - took 10-20 years and multiple countries led by UNESCO. We visited the Philae temple that was moved. That temple was built by the Ptolemaic kings in 300 BC, before the time of Cleopatra. It was later converted to the church by the Byzantine and many carvings were scratched out, to remove signs of idolatry. Incredible temple with lots of gorgeous carvings. We then quickly visited the Nubian museum, had early dinner at the delicious fish restaurant and spent an evening relaxing in our hotel on the Nile.Read more