Aswan , Egypt

Right after breakfast, we checked out from out luxury cruise stay ....bye bye good food, bye bye comfy bed and bye bye clean toilet :(

Aswan, Egypt's southernmost city, the place look more clean and peaceful...

from the river side to our hostel was just 10 minutes walk away

and 3 minutes away from the main train station

this is the typical look for 80% of the buildings in Egypt

our hostel in Aswan. Only 50EGP / night for 2 pax. The owner is the cousin to the Manager of the Luxor hostel that we stayed.

Boon : i want my old bed back ...hehe

after we settled in..time to explore as we only have 1 night in Aswan

just in front of the hostel building is the famous Aswan old bazaar.

In fact its ancient name of Swenet, if translated literally  from symbols of the time, means 'trade'

best time to get a good bargain @ the old bazaar is in the morning where not much tourists are seen yet.

:)

there are also a market where the locals shop for daily grocery,

from pots and pans to freshly laid eggs

here you can find almost anything, Egyptian Hitler

even local own Carrefour super market

we then walked along the river and enjoyed the peaceful scenery

but that lasted only 5 minutes then came at least 5 men to asked us whether we want to go on a felucca.

no matter how many possible ways you can said that you are not interested, they never listen

the best way is to go to the Tourism Police...boy i love them.

Just one look from the Tourism Police they won't come bothering you anymore :)

not being rude but we've tried the nice way but lets just say this works better ..hehe

a mountain of RUBBISH

Egyptian Muslim are very spiritual in my opinion. No matter where they are, when it's time for praying they will go down their knee and pray, i mean ANYWHERE! by the road side, in KFC, in the desert and etc.

there is also a Archangel Michael's Coptic Ortodox Cathedral consecrated in 2006

we then walked further and reached the Nubian Museum. As they don't accept our student cards we decided not to enter. We seen enough of museums anyway

then we walked back to the main train station and took a taxi to visit the Philae Temple. Because of it's location which not far(about 10-15 minutes) but out of the way, we need to hire the taxi driver for 2 hours cost 40EGP(include waiting for us at the jetty, 5EGP taxi entrance fee and return trip to the main train station)

the Philae Temple is a bit tricky. It's built on a island, so after you have purchased your entrance ticket( 25EGP for student and 50EGP for normal ticket) you then have to deal with the boat people. We were told that we could share a boat with other tourist but bad luck when we got there, we were the only tourist at the jetty...damn!

so we then bargain and bargain from 120EGP for 2 person  finally after whole 15 minutes bargaining the price go down to 60EGP for 2 person 

finally to the Philae Temple

boat ride only 8 minutes to reach the island

the Philae Temple was built on a island called Elephantine(probably because it was an important center of trade, especially for ivory. The Ancient Egyptians built a beautiful and magnificent Temple for the Goddess Isis but the Temple became submerged after the first Aswan damn was built in 1906, and it was not until the 70s 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 water level around their chosen island

the new island and it is completely reshaped to imitate the old Philae Island as closely as possible

the old temple was dismantled, numbered and stone by stone were transferred from the submerged Philae Island to the redesigned Egilica Island. It was a massive and very complicated project which took over 9 years to accomplished

amazing!

the Temple of Isis is one of the greatest Temple in Egypt and occupies about a quarter of the island. It is the main Temple on the island, with its huge complete pylons and beautiful scenes

there are also other monuments here, like the Kiosk of Trajanm the Chapel of Osairis, the Tmeple of Horus....etc

the temples were neglected and some were even destoyed after the persecution of the Christians by the Roman Emperors. During the reign of the Emperor Justinian (527-565 A.D) the main Temple was converted to a church

the open forecourt. 

The temple's caretaker told us that on the left side of the court which has scenes depicting the birth of the God Horus by his mother Isis

inside the 2nd Pylon

details

Boon was fascinated by the carving on the wall

i think i know why...hehehe

the oldest remains, of the temple, date back to the reign of King Taharqa (25 dynasty) who built the 1st chapel for the Goddess Isis. might look small from far but it's actually quite massive

1 last shot before leaving

we had only about 1 hour to visit this Philae Temple though it was a bit rush but we manage to go back to our taxi driver on time...god knows how much he would charge us if we were late.

Egyptian villa by the lake?

overall the whole trip to Philae Temple was expensive, from the taxi, entrance fee and the boat ride almost cost us 200EGP. worth it? not really. The temple was just ok since we've visited many other great temple in Luxor.  The boat ride was totally cut throat and taxi oh well...

tip: bargain for 3 hours instead of 2 hours because the boat ride bargaining might take alot of time

next day to Abu Simble...woo hoo!

~ Tesbahey ala Khear ~