After arriving in Aswan and getting hit with 36 degree temperatures, we went directly to our excursions instead of the hotel or cruise ship, in our case. The first stop was the High Dam. It’s the modern dam that controls the flooding of the Nile River. On the other side of the dam is the man-made lake Nasser Lake. This lake was built as a reservoir to hold the Nile overflow and was at one time the world’s largest man made lake.
Our main attraction today was Philae Temple. This was built for Isis, the goddess of health, marriage, and love. The complex was originally built on Philae Island but that island was in jeopardy of flooding. So as part of a UNESCO heritage project, the entire complex was moved one block at a time to the neighboring island, Agilkia where it stands today. Before the revolution a couple years ago, this landmark saw upwards of 14,000 people per day. Today while our group of 10 were there, we saw maybe 10 other people in total. While this is horrible for Egyptian tourism and economy, it allowed us basically have the entire temple to ourselves.
Tonight we checked into our Nile River cruise. This was an optional upgrade on our tour. We will spend three nights aboard the shop and sail to a couple more site on our way to Luxor. Only three of us from our group took this upgrade. The rest are salt suing in a hotel tonight and will board a Felucca tomorrow to for two nights. A Felucca is a very basic, open air sailboat. Everyone will sleep on the deck under the stars in sleeping bags. There is no bathroom or shower on board. Another boat will follow them with those facilities and will periodically come along side for use. Since camping is not one of Eduardo’s favorite things to do, we chose the cruise. The photo of the sunset is from the window of our cabin on the shop. I’ll take a photo of the outside tomorrow.
amazing!!