Tuesday our last day

We docked in Aswan last night so we were ready to see the historic sites early this morning.  First, we drove across the famous Aswan Dam, a pretty remarkable structure that has made a huge impact on this country, finished in 1902 by the British and for many years, the largest dam in the world. Across the river is a peninsula covered with caves, Tombs of the Nobles.  During the day it isn’t extraordinary to look at, but at night it is lighted dramatically. Once across the dam, we boarded a small boat to take us to the Angilika Island where the Temple of of Philae is now located.  Before  higher portion of the dam was built, the temple was in a lower area and would have been destroyed by the river flow, but in l971, they decided to completely remove the huge temple and relocate it to the island.  The same hieroglyphics are repeated on all the temples, story after story of the Egyptian gods and their legends.  This temple has been remarkably restored and has intricate pillars and drawings. After the tour of the temple, we went back to our boat briefly before taking a ride on a traditional Egyptian sailboat, a falucca, to glide around the area of the dam and several famous islands.  We saw the Elephantine Island, which was once a famous ivory trading post. We also sailed around Kitchener’s Island which is now preserved as a beautifully landscaped botanical garden.  As we glided along, we could see the mausoleum of the Aga Khan, then leader of the Shiite Muslims.

We also saw Lake Nasser, the largest man-made lake in the world created by the High Dam and an amazing sight in the middle of desert.

This is our last day on the boat; we fly out tonight to go back to Cairo for a few days before returning home.  We have had a wonderful time with our guide, Abdallah, and our tour group from Australia and South Africa.        

We’ve had some restful times, laughed a lot, and sweated more than I imagined possible.  This is a fascinating part of the world, complex, confused and bound by Islam.  To think that we can understand this culture is naïve at best, but we’ve met some amazing people and had very hospitable treatment during this cruise.

Pictures from this day:

http://picasaweb.google.com/johnacrews1/NileCruiseTuesdayLastDay#