Egypt 04

Day 4

Aswan
High Dam, Philae Temple, Nile Cruise

One of the few things I know about Egypt is Nasser's High Dam project. Our history teachers always make a big deal about them. Saying how this Suez Canal made such an important impact in Egypt's history, economy, politic, and international relations. We took a long bus drive along a large river. No that was not a river, our tour guide correct us. That is the lake that has been created thanks to the High Dam. What! I was initially taken aback. No wonder all the history book emphasized about this Dam. The eleven year project turned out to be quite beneficial. Receiving a large amount of help from the Russians, this has helped Egypt's most important problem: water and energy. The Nasser lake was not only deep and wide, but long. Apparently it goes pass Abu Simbel, a place where you need to drive 6 or 7 hours more down from Aswan.

Nasser, you really have done a great job.

Creating such a big dam was one thing, but taking care of their national treasure underneath the new lake was another big issue. Since a large portion of land will be drown under water, the Nasser government needed to move most people and most temples, such as this one. Now, in order to visit the Philae Temple (Ma'bad il-Fiila) you need to take a short boat ride. This Temple, however, is mostly reconstructed by the Roman in the three century period. Thus, while the building itself seems Egyptian style, if one observers closely one can see that it has been slight renovated to suit the Roman Christian Catholic Church.

And now our group separated into three groups: the Felucca, the Land, and the Cruise group. I joined the Cruise group along the Nile River. It was better than I thought. Because of the killing humid heat outside, which was now over 50 C degree, it was good to have a comforting room to return back from our daily trips. And no repacking needed for a couple days too!

This was one of the Nile River sites you can see from the Cruise. Very pretty.

One of the fun part of being at the Cruise, was that the cleaning staff left us some surprises. With the towels and the items in our room they created a small masterpiece! We almost screamed at the next big one...

...a big live sized mummy waiting for us. Apparently, he used literally everything: My hat, my glasses, mom's shoes, and our blanket. Sitting at our chair, and greeting us home.

Sampling traditional Egyptian food. Mostly beans, vegetable, or meat with rice. The first few time seem to be great but then after that I felt quite bland. I actually missed Kabob. They didn't serve us any at the boat.