We have taken up residence on the Nile Cruiser Oberoi Zahra for the next week. Currently located in Aswan, it will take us to several nearby sights and return to Aswan before sailing down the Nile (North) to Luxor over several days. This is a comfortable boat, very smooth with a nice crew. Kim and I have been traveling alone for two weeks now so it came as a bit of a shock to come into contact with groups of other Americans. All I can say is sometimes the cliches are true.
We have a dedicated guide for our time on the cruise, Mohamed. Or as he called himself, “Yet another Mohamed” since the name is so common here. My kind of guide, we are off to a good start.
Our first stop was Philae Temple which was known as the “Pearl of Egypt”. Getting out to Philae requires taking a boat, where we departed from was organized chaos, lots of boat bumping to get out…
Philae Temple is called the “Pearl of Egypt” and is located south of the city of Aswan. It was flooded in the early 20th Century by the completion of the British Aswan Dam, now known as the Aswan Low Dam. Visiting was still possible either in a boat or in a drier situation when the Dam’s sluices where opened in the summer. Eventually it was decided to relocate the temple to the island now known as Bigeh. The islands in this area are extremely rocky so lots of dynamite was utilized according to Mohamed.
Built during the reign of Ptolemy II in Greco-Roman style, it is dedicated to the gods Isis, Osiris and Horus. The temple contains many scenes from the myths surrounding these deities. and other hieroglyphs. Later as times changed the temple became a church and crosses can be found carved in the columns. The temple was a bit crowded but tolerable. What was more annoying was the instagram types for who posing was very important…
Our second stop of the day was a visit to the Nubian Village just north of the Aswan Low Dam. This required another boat ride, very pleasent and requiring a bit of skill since we had to navigate thru the First Cataracts of the Nile. The water was quite active here and I can only imagine what it was like when the Nile ran wild.
More of a touristy place than a true village, we were lucky to visit on a quiet time of the day to see the families actually interact. We enjoyed a cool drink, I held a crocodile, had a walk around then beat a hasty retreat back to the boat in Aswan.
