We arrived in Aswan late at night so we didn’t get off the ship and go into the city until the next morning at 8 AM
The bus was always on time and waiting for us thanks to our tour guide. We rode to a place where we got on a small boat Destined for a nearby island Philae.
It’s OK to take me from one boat to another I love the water! Once on board the merchants got out all their beautiful wares for some boat shopping.. some of you may have seen this photo on our Facebook page. If you haven’t been there yet please give us a “like”!
We bought a couple things as we do most places we go. souvenirs from exotic places make great gifts!
Once again we arrived at an amazing place!! This time we learned that everything had been moved to this island because it would have been covered in water when they built the Aswan High Dam.
Now my photos are in a funny order again. Apparently WordPress “inserts” photos in reverse order from how it uploads originally – sigh – I am learning……
The Coptic Christians installed this alter in this Greek Egyptian Temple.
The column capitals are all different! Leaves Rob and I rembering our old Ellisding room set which had “similar” but matching chairs….
Right away as you enter the temple, you start to notice the “Coptic Grafitti” carved in stone intended to obliterate the homage to the so called pagan gods. And many of the Pharoic figures had their faces chiseled off.
I believe our guide referred to this as a kiosk which overlooks the River Nile.
Visible upon arrival and directly from the facility entrance, it is a grand site to see
Visiting Egypt is HOT! You find yourself hurrying to the shade.
We returned from the island re-boarded our mini bus and headed for the next stop – the essence store. They were expecting us and had a nice clean bathroom equipped with TP and hand soap.
They gave us a demonstration and then a complimentary massage with pure essential oils.
This is a display case of beautiful essence bottles, dispensers and diffusers.
Of course they had “special deals” for us. We called our daughter Suzee in Chicago for advice – it was 4 am there.
Before returning to the ship for lunch we drove across the “high dam” stopping to look over and pick up a snack The dam provides 100% of the power for Egypt and is owned and managed by the government. We were surprised that we were allowed to cross.
Some “Pyramid Pepsi” for your enjoyment!
One more very hot stop before lunch – the Unfinished Oblisk. The Pharoic temples are littered with these pointed one piece erect structures. We were told that they once had a pyramid shaped tip of a gold & silver alloy. Why?? Rob thinks that they attracted and, or transmitted energy. Our guide was not willing to consider that they were anything more than decorative record keeping. This one was being chiseled out of the earth here in this granite quarry. They believe that because it cracked – work was abandoned.
We returned to the ship to find this darling crocodile towel animal!
Washed off the culture and headed to lunch. I took a few pics of food for you!
Beginning with lots of choices of bread – none for us though, we eat gluten free.
They always had the most beautiful selection of salads – yes please! These contained various combinations of cucumber, tomato, zuchinni, onion, beets, cabbage, carrots, summer squash, and of course fresh herbs. Most included a dressing but there were delicious home made dressing that could be added! My kind of lunch!
We quickly learned that the thing to do was to grab a dinner plate and load up on salad!
After lunch we headed back out on foot because they said that the “Souk” (market) was nearby. Two of our new friends wanted to tag along. One just for fun and the other needed to purchase a suitcase to haul her souvenirs home!
Rob and I were after spices – and we found them with a little direction from a local
Cutting “the deal” was a challenge. They try to make you buy as much as they want to sell. We made them reduce the size of the package TWICE!
We had to be back to the ship by 5:00 to re-join the group for “Sunset Sailing”
Visit our Facebook Page for realtime updates! Sorry pics out of order again…..
It was dark when we arrived back at the dock – we had seen the whole sunset!
When you Travel Like an Architect you are always enjoying other architectural styles and even soaking up inspiration!
We traveled with a group of travel agents packing the week full of all the traditional tourist destinations in Egypt so that we would become your Egypt experts! I still can’t believe all that we did!
What an amazing destination! Please call us for more information. You won’t want to go this one alone… 815-516-0300