Still in Aswan folks, but I couldn't change the city name here, as it's past the date. This was an extremely tiresome day. I actually logged walking 10.2 miles.

We got our luggage out and turned our keys in.

Our breakfast was delicious. We had omelets, made-to-order and a huge variety of pastries. The coffee is quite unusual. It takes a lot of milk to lighten it. It's not very strong, but has a really good taste. I found it amusing that the hash brown potatoes are actually scalloped potatoes.

After breakfast, I headed outside to take a few pictures. The infinity pool was just gorgeous. The grounds are well kept. I really could use one more night here.

So, we loaded up on the buses and headed over to our ship, the M/S Renaissance. At first, Ellen and I thought it may be a bit old, but looked clean enough.

It was quite different walking through other cruise ships to get to ours. Ours was parked on the outside, so we had to go through 2 other ships to get to ours. The ones we walked through seemed very nice, quite small though, compared to the cruise liners I'm used to.

Omar passed out all of our keys and we made our way to our cabins and the luggage was already there. Great! There were no washcloths and I asked the cabinsteward for washcloths. He acted as if he didn;t know what I was talking about but then he motioned his hands and said, "small?" I said, "yes." Then he said, "no." The cabin were very small and didn't seem exceptionally clean. The televisions didn't work, so I heard. We never turned ours on. The bathroom was not the best. The towels looked as though they'd seen many days, working at Mr. Majic. For all of you non-Clevelanders, that's a local carwash. The single bar of soap was that yellow soap, I think it was like that old Dial soap. There was one single hand towel. Ellen and I thought, "are we to share this?" Hmmmmmmmmm.

After I'd thought about that a while, then I remembered, that I was going to give Sayed, our housekeeper in Cairo those Huggies disposable washcloths for his baby, but the box was badly crushed in my luggage. I was extremely happy that I didn't.

Anyway, there was no time to b**** now. The food was crusty and I mean crusty. Thank goodness for those PayDay and granola bars. Anyway, there was no time to b**** now. We had to head down to lunch. I was a bit apprehensive about lunch, just looking at the dining room set-up. My thoughts hadn't failed me, the food was less than "Survivor" quality. I started with my old stand by, dates. Then I got a small salad. The dressing seemed to be mostly oil, not too much vinegar, so I had to add salt. The soup was very bland. Campbell's makes a better one. Nothing was appealing, so potatoes it was. I still can't eat the desserts, as they are extremely sweet. Egyptians love sweet stuff.

After lunch Gladys came to herd us out and to the busses. "Isis, Isis, this way Isis." This is the name she'd given our group.

The Temple of Philae

Philae Island was a rocky island in the middle of the River Nile, south of Aswan. It was called in Hieroglyphic "Apo" which means Ivory. It was also known by the Greek "Elephantine", most probably because it was an important centre of trade, especially for ivory.

The Ancient Egyptians built a beautiful and magnificent Temple on this island for the Goddess Isis, but the Temple became submerged after the first Aswan dam was built in 1906, and it was not until the seventies that many nations attempted to save the Temple. All these countries, together with UNESCO, selected a suitable place, but they had to wait until the completion of the High Dam, in 1971, which would stabilize the level of the water around their chosen island. The new island was called Egilica (also called Agilika), and it was completely reshaped to imitate Philae Island as closely as possible.

Firstly, a cofferdam was built around the Temple and the water was drained. Next, the Temple was dismantled and transferred, stone by stone, from the submerged Philea Island to the redesigned Egilica Island. Each and every stone had to be numbered, and then replaced, in the same position, in the new location. It was a massive, and very complicated, project taking over 9 years to be accomplished.

The Temple of Philae was reopened in 1980!

The Unfinished Obelisk

The Unfinished Obelisk lies, in its original location, in a granite quarry in Aswan. It is 42m in length and was most probably abandoned when some cracks appeared in the rock, during its construction. Had this obelisk been completed, it would have been the heaviest obelisk ever cut in Ancient Egypt, weighing nearly 1100 tons! It is believed that it was constructed and abandoned during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty).

During the earliest ages, the Ancient Egyptians knew the so-called " Pn-pn", which was a pyramidal stone with a pointed top and according to their beliefs the "Pn-pn" symbolized the primeval hill from which the world first appeared. Then, in the course of time, this Pn-pn evolved to be an obelisk usually made of granite with a pyramidal shape on top.

During the 5th Dynasty, the obelisk began to play an important role inside the temples of Ra; the obelisk being a sacred symbol of the cult of the sun. They were erected on a great base in an open court, and then as the suns rays fell on its pyramidal top, the bright light filled the Temple, giving the people a symbol of the power of the sun.

One of the most important obelisks, which still stand in pride in the district of El Mataraya, was erected in front of the entrance of the vanished temple of Re at Heliopolis. King Senwosret I, to commemorate the ceremony of the "Heb-sed", dedicated it to the temple.

In the New Kingdom, especially at the time of the 18th and 19th Dynasties, the Kings used to erect obelisks in front of the different temples for religious and political reasons.

The High Dam
The High Dam of Aswan is a great project. In fact it was one of the most important achievements of the in the last century in Egypt, even for many years it was a symbol of the New Era of the Revolution of 1952. It provided Egypt with water and electricity and secured the country of the risk of the destructive inundation.
The Aswan High Dam was a great project! In fact it was one of the most important achievements of the last century in Egypt, for many years symbolising the New Era of the Revolution of 1952. It provides Egypt with water and electricity, and secures the country from the risk of the destructive inundation of the River Nile.

After the revolution of July 1952, President Nasser announced his proposal for building the High Dam, but was met with Western refusals to co-operate, so he turned to the Soviet Union for both technological and financial aid. The result was the present rock-filled structure. The work began on the 9th January 1960 and the completed dam was opened in the spring of 1971. This gigantic building is 111m tall, 3.5Km in length and about 1Km wide! It has a Hydro-electric plant, with 6 turbines, capable of producing 2.1 million kilowatts.

As a result of its construction, a great lake was formed, Lake Nasser, which is about 10 km wide in some places, and 500km long. extending between Egypt and The Sudan - the worlds largest man-made lake! This lake also has an immense fish population, which is commercially exploited. Because raising the water caused the damage, and loss, of so many of the Nubian monuments, great efforts were made by the Egyptian Government, aided by UNESCO and other countries, to save the most important monuments ofNubia.

We made our way to the tourist bus parking lot. We'd all piled out of the bus and I'm usually the last to get off. The policeman had waved me to come towards him, as he was leading the people from our bus to the dock area.

When I got close to him, this idiot pulls out from the sidewalk and pulls his car into the back of my knee. The policeman quickly grabs my hand and yells some harsh words and waves his hands to the driver, like, "what are you doing?". The driver says something back but stops because he probably wasn't sure if I was hurt or not. The policeman asks me, while holding both my hands now, "alright?" I nod and say, "shuk-ran" and keep stepping on through the crowd.

We then took a felluca ride around Elephantine and Kitchener Botanical Islands. The island was given to Lord Kitchener as a thank-you for his services in the Sudan Campaign (1896-1898).

With the aid of the Ministry of Irrigation, Kitchener rapidly transformed the small (approx. 750-meter-long) island into a paradise of exotic trees and plants and carefully planned walkways. It later passed into the property of the Egyptian government and was used as a research station for examining different food and cash crops. Today, a biological research station is present at the southern tip, which is closed to visitors.

This is the Mausoleum of the spiritual leader of the Ismailis, a Shi'ite sect (as were the Fatimid) based principally in India but with followers around the world. It is a very elegant pink granite structure of late 1950 origin, which also resembles the Fatimid tombs in Cairo. Members of this sect consider themselves to be the direct spiritual descendants of the Fatimid. The Mausoleum has an excellent view, including Aga Khan's white villa below, and is near the Monastery of St. Simeons on the west bank at Aswan. His Begun, or wife, still lives in the villa three months of the year.

The Aga Khan was extremely wealthy. On his birthday in 1945, he was weighed in diamonds which he then distributed to his followers. It should be noted, also, that he was a large man. Every day that his widow was at the Villa, she places a Red Rose on his white Carrara marble tomb. His widow, Omme Habibeh, popularly referred to as "The Begum" died on July 1st, 2000. The other months, a gardener fills this function, and it has been rumored that at one point, not a single rose could be found in Egypt, so for almost a week, roses were flown in from Paris by private jet.

Mohammed Shah Aga Khan was educated in Europe and succeeded his father in 1885 to become the 48th imam. He was succeeded by his grandson, Karim AGa Khan upon his death in 1957. The Mausoleum is no longer open to the public.

While sailing around, we were in awe of the policemen that rode on the boats with us. They were armed. The guns looked truly ancient and looked as if they'd never been fired.

We were really surprised when a Nubian Man dumped out a bag of handmade (maybe) jewelry onto the floor of the boat. Our tour guide told us to only shop at the shops she takes us to, but we were wondering where the heck this guy came from. I did buy some postcards though.

One thing I hate is the bracing myself up for the millions of vendors awaiting our arrival from the boat. These guys and children are relentless. I think they're actually worse than China. Like 1 billion times worse. Most of the stuff was junk anyway. And I don't need anything that needs dusting.

This was another exhausting day and at 93 degrees, we all look toasted.

Druged down to dinner, which was still crusty and almost looked as though it was leftovers mixed with more leftovers. Just awful. I'm eating plenty of bread. Glad I packed that case of Pepsi. nuts and Paydays.