Egypt: Philae and Aswan
Our next stop was our southernmost port on the River Nile, Aswan. The large river boats can go no further up the Nile, due to the twin Aswan dams - built in the 1950’s both for flood control and hydroelectric power purposes. Behind the dams lies the enormous, artificial Lake Nasser.
There were many things to see in Aswan, even though the name is usually only associated with the dam. A felucca sail across to Kitchener’s Island takes you to a beautiful botanical garden. The felucca trip itself is an adventure as the sole local operator fights to catch the briefest gusts of wind (at least when we were there), whilst dodging dozens of other felucca’s and motor boats, and the huge river boats themselves.
It is a short trip to the unfinished obelisk, where we saw how they cut huge obelisks from the bedrock. This particular one was never finished and removed fully from the bedrock, once a huge crack appeared down one side. All their work wasted.
The main attraction was a boat trip out to the Philae Temple on an island in Lake Nasser. The temple was sunk when the lake was created, and the whole complex was moved a couple of hundred feet on to higher land. The Temple is in excellent condition, dedicated to Isis, but there are substantial addons by the Romans, such as Trajan’s Kiosk, and Hadrian’s Gate, marking the southernmost point of the Roman Empire.
