Since the temples were on an island we took a boat taxi. There were so many of them waiting to pickup passengers.
The driver's boat wasn't in the best mechanical shape. This was the shifter for the transmission. He used a rope to tie it up for most of the trip, but when we got close he used his foot. Classic Egypt.
Thank you tour for your insistence of wearing bright orange life jackets. On second thought, maybe it was the right call after seeing the boats.
Beautiful day at the temple of Isis on the island.
Beautiful day at the temple of Isis on the island.
Just think, each one of these blocks were removed from the old structure, labeled and repositioned in the correct order. There were a total of ~40,000 blocks for this temple.
Mmmm, ankh. Isis giving the key of life to the pharaoh.
Notice the small cross in the lower left hand corner. Early Christians marked this as a place of worship.
Our guide pointed out this carving and claimed that Egyptians created baseball. You can judge for yourself.
Missy in front of a monument. Can't remember what it was for.
The temples at Philae were a really nice break. The breeze and what felt like cooler temperatures were fantastic after what seemed like a week of really hot/dry weather. It almost was surreal to be boating around on this reservoir, it didn't feel like Egypt.
***After visiting the temple, we visited the old Aswan Dam.
The Old Aswan Dam. Built in the early 1900's. Obsolete shortly after.
What the first cataract of the Nile looks like just after the Old Aswan Dam.
Missy was so happy to buy this Nubian hat for me. I was almost as happy to wear it.
Missy was so happy to buy this Nubian hat for me. I was almost as happy to wear it.***
Since we are on a tour we had to chance to stop at a papyrus factory. It was a nice opportunity to see how this ancient "paper" was made (and perhaps buy a piece...). The stems of the plant were flattened and soaked in water for a period of time. Next, they were placed (more like weaved) in a crossing pattern and pressed until dry. We purchased a small piece. It showed the Dendera zodiac we saw a couple days before.
Papyrus factory demo.***
Aswan High Dam. You can't tell, but it's huge.
Next we stopped at the High Aswan Dam. This dam was built in the 50's/60's with help from the Soviet Union. It really is massive. Over two miles wide and nearly 3/4 of a mile thick at the base. This dam formed Lake Nasser in Egypt and Lake Nubia in Sudan. The lake displaced thousands of Nubians (60,000 estimated from Wikipedia) and submerged ancient monuments (which were rescued by UNESCO). However, the dam provides protection from the yearly flooding of the Nile and has greatly increased the available water for irrigation. It also has provided a substantial amount of electricity for the country.
Aswan High Dam. You can't tell, but it's huge.***
In the afternoon we headed towards downtown Aswan to take a ride in a felucca. It's a traditional boat that has been around for quite some time. It was a joy to be so near the water without any engine noise. There was a pleasant breeze to keep us cool and great scenery to check out. We even had some musical entertainment. There were younger boys paddling on the river with Styrofoam rafts that would sing songs that you almost could recognize. Yes, we did have to wear our bright orange life jackets.
Did this group have to wear life jackets? Nope.
A felucca, the River Nile and some sand. This is Upper Egypt.***
I don't have anything in our notes for this evening so we were most likely in bed early. Tomorrow's 5:00AM departure time to Abu Simbel had a lot to do with that.
Scene on the River Nile around Aswan(entry done by Dave)
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