20091214 - Aswan

This morning we visited the Old Dam and the High Dam of Aswan. I had forgotten that the Russians helped build the High Dam after the US and Eisenhower refused to aid the Egyptians in this effort. We walked around the monument dedicated to the cooperation between Egypt and Russia near the dam. We also stopped at an observation point on the High Dam to look at it and to take photos.

Our next stop was at the Philae Temple. To get there, we boarded boats that took us to the temple’s island. This temple was being submerged by Lake Nassar after the High Dam was built. To rescue it, another higher island was shaped into the same shape as the original island and the temple was moved to it between 1972 and 1980.

The Philae Temple of Isis features courtyards flanked by granite lions and walls covered with depictions of ancient gods and goddesses. The island’s most recognizable sight is Trajan’s Kiosk with its 14 majestic stone pillars.

The temple itself is very impressive. It contains several rooms with carvings on all of the walls and ceilings.

 

We left the temple on the same boat and then drove to a large jewelry store where Ann and others bought souvenirs of Egypt.

Then it was on to lunch. We got onto another boat and cruised along the Nile taking a scenic route to the island where our lunch was waiting. We ate outside under a tarp in a semi-tropical setting. The island supports several trees with local fruit some of which we had for lunch. Our buffet had the typical Egyptian menu – salads, eggplant, fish, grilled chicken and a variety of honey-saturated desserts.

On our ride back to Aswan City, we enjoyed the water birds – egrets, blue herons, ducks and something that looked like a cormorant. Samy said that crocodiles have been spotted, but we didn’t see any. We also saw many Egyptian sail boats called felukas – wide sail boats with triangular sails.

We were driven back to our hotel for an afternoon of welcomed down time.

For dinner, we all decided to ask our bus driver to take us into town for Egyptian pizza.  We ate in and outdoor restaurant with many locals. The pizza chef put on an entertaining display of dough twirling. I had a pizza called roomy. It was a stuffed pizza with very thin crust. The filling included a sharp cheese, olives, sweet peppers, eggs and other delicious things. It was very tasty.