As our train pulled into the station in Aswan, we hopped off and weaved our way through the bustling crowds. Our van brought us near the bank of the Nile. Winding our way past the trinket-selling merchants, we hopped on a boat to Philae Island. Actually, it was Fake Philae Island. The real island is now submerged under the waters of the Nile thanks to a couple of dams (see below). The island was deemed important enough that they took all the structures apart and moved them to a higher island. The temples here were from the Greek and Roman […]
Tag Archives: Aswan
All Greek to Me
While traveling around the Aswan area, we went to the island of Philae containing a Greek Egyptian temple. Everything there had actually been moved from another island a few decades ago because when the dam was put in, it submerged the original island. Therefore, everything was moved to a higher island so we can still enjoy it. Speaking of the dam, the Aswan High Dam was our next stop. This massive dam on the Nile River provides a large amount of electricity to modern Egypt. It’s an impressive modern engineering feat. The next day (Tuesday), we hopped on a bus […]
Transportation Day
Sallah, I said NO camels! That’s FIVE camels; can’t you count? Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Sunday evening in Cairo we hopped on a sleeper train to head south to Aswan. This was an efficient use of our crunched time. We were served supper and breakfast and had a nice clickity-clackity sleep on board. Arriving Monday morning in Aswan, we hopped on our new bus for another day of adventures. Our first stop was an ancient granite quarry. Stones were cut here and floated down the Nile to wherever they would be used. An unfinished obelisk was […]