12 days was more than enough in Luxor and we had quite enough of site seeing for the time being so we headed south to Aswan. I would say that Aswan was larger than Luxor in size but probably not as famous. We didn’t stay in the town but on Elephantine island , roughly in the middle of the Nile.

This island was a Nubian settlement. It had part of the village on one side with the crops in the center and the other part at the other side along with the Nubian ruins.

It takes roughly 10-30 minutes to walk across the island depending on if you know which way to go as you find different routes each time. The village had a small pharmacy, a school, nursery, basic shops, a port, a museum with ruins and mud brick houses.

We stayed on the north-west side of the island along with the Nubian house which has a cafe. We stayed on the second floor of someones house with the usual set up. The roof terrace wasn’t as good as the last place but it had a decent view.

Aswan market:

Aswan market is supposed to be the largest market in Egypt outside of Cairo. If you wanted cheap veg, clothes, spices or the usual shop that was the place to go. It was a five minute walk from the port on the main land.

Felucca ride:

We went on another Felucca ride in the south part of Aswan for most of the day. We picked a good day too as it was the right amount of wind. We dodged rocks, avoided currents, had our lunch on another island further south until the sun was at it’s last rays of the day.

We were even serenaded by two local boys who rode around on a surf board using cardboard as paddles! They sang some English songs and it was very funny.

It was super relaxing.

High dam:

Today we were heading towards the museum on the main land, we picked the day Friday so unfortunately there was a lot of noise from the mosque (Fridays are always the worst). When we had finally pushed the pram up the hill the museum was closed for the afternoon, from 1 till 4, probably for a nap. So we took a taxi to the high dam set on lake Nasser.

When they built the Aswan High Dam in 1968 it created Lake Nasser where the Nubian’s lived so that’s why the Nubian’s have moved up north and it’s also one of the largest man made lakes in the world. Part is in Egypt and a smaller part is in in Sudan which they call Lake Nubia.We stopped and enjoyed the beautiful lake which spread so far that it made it look like an ocean.

Philae and the museum:

After here we drove to the site of Philae not far away.

The principle deity of the temple complex was Isis. It ended up underwater because of the dam so they moved it stone by stone to Agilkia island just above.

We took a small boat to reach it. It wasn’t much different from the other sites but was certainly worth going to for the beautiful setting on Lake Nasser.

Once we had finished here it was nearly 4pm so we went back to the museum.
Instead of explaining about what we read here you will I will show you the pictures-.