Egypt

Travel: Final swing through Egypt

Jamaica Gleaner News (Laura Tanna)

Our last day with our guide, we drive to Aswan Dam, built by the British between 1898 and 1902, and then to the High Dam, built between 1960 and 1971 with the assistance of the Soviet Union, commemorated by a lotus-shaped tower. The High Dam created not only the world's largest artificial lake at the time, Lake Nasser, but necessitated the flooding and removal of some 800,000 Nubians, many of whom settled in Aswan.

We take a motorboat to the Temple of Philae, partially submerged by the dam until with the assistance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), from 1972-1980, the temple was cut into 41,000 pieces, each numbered, and reassembled on nearby Angilika Island. Temples cannot be sited randomly. Rather, it depends on how they face the sun and the god's relevance to the local area. Here, we find a Temple of Isis from which she could watch over a nearby mythical burial site of her husband Osiris, judge of the dead. The dedication involved in saving and rebuilding this beautiful temple is remarkable, but not nearly as mind-boggling as the work that went into saving the two temples at Abu Simbel.

- Photo For Today - Temple Of Kalabsha
The Temple of Kalabsha with the Kiosk of Qertassi in the foreground New Kalabsha Island, near Aswan Pylon, Temple of Kalabsha Kalabsha is the biggest of the Nubian Temples after Abu Simbel. It was originally located at Talamis, which has been submerged...

- Photo For Today: Beit Al-wali
The god Khnum Beit al-Wali, near Aswan, Lake Nasser Beit al-Wali is a small temple dedicated to Ramesses II which was moved to the small island of New Kalabsha, in the sight of the Aswan High Dam, when Lake Nasser was created. It was dedicated to the...

- Spotlight On Abu Simbel
Hello Magazine I never thought that I'd be blogging about an article on Hello magazine, or at least not on this particular blog! Just twice a year, on February 22nd and October 22nd, the first rays of the morning sun pierce through the darkness of...

- Daily Photo - Temple Of Ramesses At Abu Simbel
Over the next couple of days, the "daily photo" will be featuring Abu Simbel in Nubia. The temple complex at Abu Simbel was one of the many monuments built under the reign of Ramesses II. Both of the tombs at Abu Simbel were rock-cut into a sandstone...

- Island Of Isis: Philae, Temple Of The Nile
William MacQuitty Charles Scribner's Sons New York 1976 ISBN: 0-684-14649-5 This light attractive book is filled with beautiful pictures taken by the author of many of the temples built along the Nile. The books forward is written by the late Keeper...

Egypt