Day 7
Arriving in Aswan, we disembarked the M/S River Hathor and checked into a hilltop hotel overlooking the city and the Nile.
Nubian Museum
Our first stop was a visit to the very-modern International Museum of Nubia located down the road from our hotel.
Lunch on a Nile River island
We were hustled aboard of small ferry and taken to a Nile River island for an al fresco luncheon under a tent. Afterwards, we were driven to the original Aswan Dam.
Nassar’s Aswan Dam
There are actually two dams on the Nile at Aswan. The first, the Aswan Low Dam, was completed by the British in 1902. The second much larger one, the Aswan High Dam, was built by President Nasser with the engineering and financial assistance of the Soviet Union. This created the eponymous Lake Nasser reservoir that would eventually submerge several archeologically-significant sites beneath its rising waters. But more on that in tomorrow’s entry.
Philea Temple on the Island of Agilka
Our next stop was one of the primary targets of UNESCO’s rescue effort of water-threatened monuments. Located between the two dams, the Philea Temple complex had suffered periodic low level flooding since construction of the lower dam. The new dam would flood the island year-round. So the temple complex was removed from its original “floating” island to the island of Agilka. Here, it was reassembled in its entirety and with proper orientation and is now free from encroaching water year-round.
Egypt 