aswan

The temple of Philae is located on a small island in the Nile. The temple had to be moved to the Island after the high dam covered it in water. Several other temples were moved for this reason. One these temples was given as a gift to the United States and has been reconstructed in the Metropolitan Museum.

One day, Hassan hired a private boat to take us to down the Nile to a remote tomb location. We climbed a rocky trail to Tombs of the Aswan Princes. Again, there were no lights in these tombs. We found beautiful Egyptian art work. One of the tombs had human mummy remains. We carefully examined a mandible and returned it to it's resting final place.

The next morning we got up at 4am to flew to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel guards the entrance to upper Egypt. In ancient times, any boat traveling down the Nile had to pass in front of this colossal monument. Abu Simbel is the only Egyptian monument where a queen, Neferari, was given a temple of equal grandeur.