And later that same day…
The group split on arrival in Aswan just after 11am. Half the group used the opportunity to walk to the Keylany Hotel the other half of us decided to take a cab. Three cabs later and a spot of haggling with the grand price of 5 Egyptian Pounds we found ourselves in a cab heading for the hotel.
Our room wasn’t quite ready, still one could hardly complain since they had just sprayed for bugs. That is certainly to our benefit. We arranged for a mini bus to pick all of us up after lunch for a round trip out to the Temple of Isis then trouped upstairs to wait for our rooms to be ready and the rest of the gang.
Philae - Temple of Isis
Getting to Philae to see the Temple if Isis is interesting since you have to first pay for your ticket then walk through the usual security, while I’m not sure exactly what all the metal detectors and baggage scanners are for since they beep and carry on but the warnings are ignored by the guards. However saying that they are very helpful at shooing the hawkers away and keep them at bay.
After going through security we ended up on the pier and walked down towards the waiting boatmen. The ticket for the temple is not inclusive of the boat ride over to Philae so we negotiated with the boatmen on our price. It was perhaps over what we should have paid but still less than was originally demanded.
It only takes a few minutes to get to the Island of Philae, just as well for the poor engine on the boat has seen better days and most of us wondered if it had too many more.
We were all kind of excited on our first sighting of the Temple of Isis with the ancient hieroglyphics and pictograms detailed on the side of the Temple and crowded the plank on landing to get off the boat. We were advised that we could stay as long as we wanted and our ‘lift’ would wait for us, probably a legacy of how much we paid but still handy.
The temple while simple was great to see being the first real life Egyptian Temple that most of us had seen, although Es, Lil and Deanna have already been to Giza ahead of us. We ran around staring with wonder at the huge symbols and figures carved into the walls and posing for photo’s. I couldn’t help but wander as I walked around how the heck they had managed, all those years ago to build this structure and what it must have looked like way back when it was first built.
I also can not believe the effort it must have taken to move the temple, stone by stone from its original partially submerged location to locate it 20m higher to its current new home. Still I’m glad they did.
Unfinished Obelisk
The quarries at Aswan are home to some of Egypt’s finest granite used in ancient times for statues, temples and pyramids. Within the quarry is the Unfinished Obelisk. The Unfinished Obelisk is exactly what its name suggests, a large (42m long) incomplete obelisk carved out of the bedrock on three sides.
The original intent for the obelisk remains a mystery since there are no hieroglyphics on the obelisk to give archeologists and scholars clues. It just sits there abandoned by it creators due to a flaw in the stonework. They say if it had been complete that it would have been one of the largest of its kind.
We skipped the High Dam and were content to just look at it from a distance.
We went for a relaxed dinner that night right on the Nile. We wondered at first where everyone was since we were the only ones who appeared to be eating at all. We found out later since people started arriving and pouring into the restaurants just as we were leaving. Too early by local standards to eat diner, again. Still we have an early start tomorrow so that is probably just as well.
