Today was going to be a tiring day for me. I was up early as I took a flight from Cairo to Aswan. It is a one-and-a-half-hour flight to Aswan from Cairo, and as stated in my tour itinerary, I had a tour guide who picked me up from the airport. We first proceeded to the Aswan Dam, one of Egypt’s largest dams. It was made with the help of the Soviets and over 2500 Egyptian engineers. The mammoth dam is situated on the mighty Nile River. It captures the mighty Nile River and is the third largest reservoir in the world built around Lake Naseer.
The United Kingdom first paid for it, then the United States spent 56 million and 14 million to construct the dam, respectively. In total, it cost 270 million dollars to build the dam.
I then took a motor boat into the lower dam area through the Naseer Lake to see the Philae Temple complex. The Philae Temple is dedicated to ISIS, the goddess of birth, healing, and magic, as well as her husband, Osiris, and her son, Horus.
The temple is the last place where the Egyptian religion survived after Christianity swept the entire region in 550 AD. The temple complex and its walls depict scenes from the Greco-Roman Period and Egyptian Mythology. Isis brings Osiris back to life, giving birth to Horus and mummifying Osiris after his death.
The Temple Complex was a favorite spot for novelists Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill. The novelist Agatha Christie’s novel The Death on the Nile was inspired by her cruise on the Nile.
The Temple of Philae Complex has three significant temples: the Temple of Arsenophis, the Temple of Isis, and the Mandoulis.
The carvings on the temple walls depict the mythological stories of that era. The Temple of Philae is an Island-based Temple complex based on the lower Aswan Dam. The temple of Philae is purely dedicated to the Goddess of Isis.
In the evening, I boarded the ship cruise that would take me on a three-day journey across the Nile. Till then, enjoy the pictures of the Aswan Dam and the mythical temple of Philae.
