May 2019

After a night flight to Aswan and a good night sleep we started a new day. Today it was on to the Aswan High Dam and the temple of Philae. The Aswan dam was nice, you passed the friendship monument between Egypt and what was still the Sovjet Union back then and you ended on the High Dam which gave a nice view over the Nile on one side and Nassar Lake on the other.

We went down to the lake by bus and by boat we went to visit the temple of Philae in Lake Nassar. It is an amazing temple, very different, so if you have the chance you should visit. It is part Egyptian, part Roman. And mostly known because it was cut to pieces and replaced and rebuild on the island of Philae piece by piece, because the temple was partly under water because of the building of the Aswan Dam, but was on the edge of disappearing completely.

We had lunch at a place called Aswan Moon. Good food for a reasonable price and the fresh juices are really nice as well.

In the evening we visited a Nubian village, it was about 45 minutes by boat to get there. It is partly rebuild, the oldest and smallest cottages were abandoned and the people live in larger houses now. We had dinner with one of the families (i think it was the best dinner we had all trip) and were invited to taste the famous hibiscus tea. It was very sour, and in this case cold.