Aswan, Temple of Isis, Nile River Cruise

The morning began very hot in Aswan. The afternoon temperature eventually hit 100. But early in the morning, we bused to the Lower Aswan Dam, built by the British in the late 1800s and then to the new Aswan Dam, built by the Russians, with Egyptian help, starting in 1960. It's considered one of the world's engineering marvels. All I saw were kilometers so I can't tell you how long and high it is...but, take my word for it, it is long and high.

The water behind it is now called Lake Nasser after Gamul Abdul Nasser, president of Egypt during the period it was built. It's a hydroelectric dam providing, depending on which expert you believe, either supplies Egypt with 100 percent or 40 percent of its total electric needs.

First, some interesting facts about the Nile River. Did you know it's the only major world river that flows south to north? Most rivers flow north to south. But the Nile has two headwaters: one (called the White Nile) begins in Lake Victoria in Uganda. The other, the Blue Nile comes out of Lake Tania in Ethiopia. They merge at Khartoum, Sudan and then flow north through Cairo to the Mediterranean.

Our next stop Saturday morning was the fascinating Temple of Isis, also known as the Philae Temple. Isis was the goddess of magic.  It was flooded by the rising waters of Lake Nasser but archeologists convinced UNESCO to provide the money to transfer it to higher ground. So, from 1980 to 1985, divers cut apart the temple's pillars, stones, walls, and moved them about 200 yards away to a small island. Then, they painstakingly reconstructed everything exactly as it was built in 200 B.C. The interesting thing about the original temple is it was built by the Greeks. Why would the Greeks build a temple to honor one of Egypt's gods(goddesses in this case)? Because they wanted to win the hearts and minds of the natives and building a temple to honor one of their goddesses was a good way to do that. The temple features a lot of heiroglyphics, statues, and reliefs of Egyptian gods. It even features a High Altar far back in the temple where only the highest of priests was allowed to go (sort of like the Old Testament Holy of Holies).

The rest of the day was spent on our cruise ship. I've never seen anything like it. It's a large rectangular shaped ship with five levels. It holds around 100 passengers and 65 crew. It features a topside pool and covered cabana seating where we held a communion service this afternoon. Lovely spot as we're cruising up the Nile.

After 10 days of non-stop walking, touring, and events, it was a relief to be able to sit back and relax for awhile. In fact, I stayed in the pool from 3:30 p.m. until well after sunset - which here is around 5 o'clock. I ordered a frozen margarita which was neither frozen nor a margarita. Why did I ever think an Egyptian Moslem would know what a margarita was? My bad. Then a beautiful sunset followed by a cool breeze as we cruised up the Nile at around 5 knots (or so I was told by a couple of Navy vets). Incredible scenery as we pass the bullrushes (think Moses in his basket) and palm trees. But, just yards beyond the Nile's river banks, you see nothing but sand. Green lushness with camels and cattle grazing and then nothing but desolate sand. Interesting contrast.

                                      Camels are a common sight along the Nile.

A small part of the Temple of Isis, Egyptian goddess of magic. The entire temple was deconstructed and then reconstructed in order to save it from rising waters following completion of the High
Aswan Dam.

Typical scene along the Nile. Beautiful blue water flanked by two banks of deep green bullrushes, palm trees, and grass. You'll see cattle, camels, and goats grazing in the lush greenery.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we have the most well-preserved temple along the Nile, the temple of Edfu. Then, on Monday, we move on to the city of Karnak/Thebes/Luxor - which is all the same city, just known by different names. We'll see the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. Then our last two days will be in Cairo before flying from Cairo to London to Houston early Thursday morning.