Aswan & Philae Temple

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As usual in Egypt, things don't always go according to schedule. Our 7.30am train to Aswan became a 11am bus as a train had broken down the day before, which apparently stops all trains everywhere, go figure. So we arrived in Aswan with just enough time to go out to Philae Temple in the afternoon.

Aswan is described as a picture postcard place, which is certainly is. After so much desert and sand and dryness, the Nile with Palm Trees, Camels and Feluccas was just what we wanted.

Philae Temple is on an island, a Greek/Roman era temple complex that was actually moved in the seventies from Philae Island onto another because Philae Island was flooded by the building of the Aswan High Dam. Pretty much like what's happened in China with the Three Gorges as far as I can see, without quite the same environmental and social impacts.

Again, photos don't do it justice, but have a look at a few of the ones I took anyway. This one was a bit different from others because it wasn't early, but included some Greek/Roman stuff in it, one of the Cleopatras, Alexander etc. Again, I won't try waste superlative describing it, suffice to say that several years effort to move it was easily worth it. And I learnt about the Nile-o-meter. No, not a bad Egyptian game show but a way to measure how high the Nile flooded each year in order to determine the level of taxes. Simple but fair.

That night at dinner we celebrated two birthdays, so a cake seemed to be in order. However a straightforward Happy Birthday song is too basic for the locals, so it had to become an all singing, all dancing spectacular with drums and all. They certainly know how to party here!

I'm looking forward to seeing more of Aswan if this is a sample of what there is...

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