Philae Temple, High Dam and Unfinished Obelisk Tour in Aswan

Your Egyptologist guide and driver collect you from your hotel in Aswan and take you first to the Aswan High Dam, just south of the city. Your guide explains why it was built: to protect Egypt from the Nile's unpredictable floods, to generate hydroelectric power and to store water in Lake Nasser. From the dam you look out over the lake on one side and the river on the other, and you hear how the project changed farming, energy and the lives of the Nubian communities who lived along the valley.

From the dock near the dam you take a short motorboat ride to Agilkia Island, home to the Temple of Isis at Philae, often called the Pearl of Egypt. You walk through the entrance pylon and the colonnaded courts of a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Isis, built and expanded under the Ptolemies and the Romans. Your guide explains how the complex was rescued from the rising waters of the High Dam and rebuilt on this higher island, and you have time to enjoy the setting.

You finish at the ancient granite quarries of Aswan, where the Unfinished Obelisk still lies half-cut in the rock. A crack appeared in the stone, and the ancient masons abandoned it. Had it been completed, it would have been the largest obelisk ever raised. Your guide shows you the tool marks and explains how workers cut and shaped granite with simple tools. After your visit you are driven back to your hotel in Aswan, where the tour ends.