Aswan

Friday morning we were taken to the Temple of Philae. This temple was different from all the others we had seen because it was on an island. Although the Temple of Philae is a Greek temple, parts of the temple are nearly six thousand years old. The Greeks merely renovated and expanded the temple. It was a welcome chance to be surrounded by water instead of sand. The temple was actually submerged in the 1960s when the High Dam was built. During the 70s UNESCO took apart the entire temple and moved it to a nearby island, where it now resides. After being ferried back to land our tour bus took the group to the High Dam. The High Dam holds back the largest artificial lake in the world, Lake Nassar, and it also controls the Nile's annual flooding. The most curious aspect of the dam was the high security it possessed. Armed guards stood on each end of the dam and no zoom photos or video taping was permitted.

Before returning to the boat for lunch Josef took us to a "perfume factory" where we could buy the pure ingredients of designer fragrances for only a fraction of the price. Luckily this would be the last time that our time was wasted with this type of business. After lunch we took a felucca ride on the Nile. We sailed around Elephantine Island and the botanical gardens of Kitchner's Island. From the river we could see the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan and the Tombs of the Nobles perched in the mountains to the west. It was a very peaceful ride. We even took the time to visit a Nubian village on the west bank of the river. The Nubians' homeland was consumed by Lake Nasser after the building of the High Dam so the people of Nubia we repatriated to Egypt and Sudan. The village was basic but tidy. All of the men were out working so the only inhabitants we saw were the women and children, who all appeared shy and unaccustomed to visitors.

Saturday morning I took an early flight back to Cairo, where Rob met me at the airport. He had a course to teach in the evening but we spent the day walking around Heliopolis. I told him about the trip down the Nile as well as my thoughts and impressions of the whole trip. It was very different to the traveling that I had done in Venezuela, where time was much less of an issue. Had I lived in Egypt I am sure that I would have been less concerned about seeing as much as possible at the museum or trying to visit Saqqara and Giza in the same day. I did feel like I saw a lot but I could never shake the feeling that I was being rushed and missing things that I should have been devoting time too. Perhaps this is just the nature of being a tourist though. Next time I will just have to plan on staying longer…