We boarded the MS Emilio in Aswan for our 3 night cruise down the Nile to Luxor. The ship was pretty nice and a lot better than some of the other ships we saw. We decided to upgrade to a suite which allowed us to sit on the lounge in our air conditioned room, but with the full length glass window open as we travelled down the Nile rather than having to sit on the roof deck where it was very hot and windy. The ship was full of French people with only about 8 English speakers on board, but it wasn’t an issue and we had a pleasant 3 days on board.
Our guide for Aswan was also our guide in Kom Ombo and Edfu and was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. The temples are a lot more meaningful and interesting if you have a guide to explain everything to you and are well worth the money.
In Aswan we took a trip on a felucca to view the Aga Khan Mausoleum and the botanical gardens, and then took a motor boat to visit a Nubian village. The Nubian’s have very colourful homes and are pretty friendly. We took a walk through the village and had a look at one of their homes which was a pleasant way to fill in the afternoon.
The next day we visited the High Dam which was built to esnure a constant water supply and created Lake Nassar in the process – the biggest man made lake in the world. It is huge, but does not look so big as most of it is under the water. You need to see the diagrams of it to understand its size.
Philae Temple was next on our list. It is located on a small island near Aswan and was also moved as a result of the flooding caused by the construction of the High Dam. There are a number of structures with various pharaohs adding their own bits through the centuries, all of which are thousands of years old. It was an impressive temple with plenty of statues, columns, engraved scenes and hieroglyphics. It is amazing to think so many of these ancient sites have survived thousands of years. A lot of the temples though have been defaced by the early Christians who erased faces and sometimes whole bodies of the various gods depicted.
