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Aswan is the third biggest town in Egypt today and the biggest one in Upper Egypt. It is situated at the foot of the Nile Valley to the North end of Lake Nasser. It is also a favorite place for tourists to visit due to it being a major stop for cruise boats on the River Nile as well as Lake Nasser. It has a local market that is an excellent place to do your holiday shopping, also has many attractive tourist spots to visit.
Aswan takes its name from the ancient Egyptian word “swan”, meaning “the market”. This is because it was located on the main trade route between Egypt and the southern lands, bringing gold, slaves and ivory into Egypt. The governors of the 6th Dynasty sent many expeditions to explore the many African countries located to the south, and most of these started from Aswan. It was also the major source of granite, sandstone, and quartzite used in the construction of various major monuments throughout Egypt.
1st Day program:
Philae Island was a rocky island in the middle of the River Nile, south of Aswan. It was called in Hieroglyphic “Apo” which means Ivory. It was also known by the Greek “Elephantine”, most probably because it was an important center of trade, especially for ivory.
The new island was called Egilica (also called Agilika), and it was completely reshaped to imitate Philae Island as closely as possible.
Firstly, a cofferdam was built around the temple and the water was drained. Next, the temple was dismantled and transferred, stone by stone, from the submerged Philea Island to the redesigned Egilica Island. Each stone had to be numbered and then replaced, in the same position, in the new location. It was a massive, and very complicated, project taking over 9 years to be accomplished.
The Temple of Philae was reopened in 1980!
The High Dam of Aswan is one of the most important achievements of Egypt during the last century. For many years it was a symbol of the New Era of the Revolution of 1952 and provided Egypt with water and electricity and safeguarded the country from flooding.
An obelisk is traditionally defined as a tall and slender monument, with four sides converging to a mini pyramidal shape at the top. Though it’s technically a Greek type of architecture, there are few obelisks in Egypt, and the unfinished obelisk of Aswan is known to be one of the largest among them. It was constructed by Hatshepsut, the queen of Thutmose II, who also ruled Egypt as a Pharaoh from 1478 to 1458 B.C., jointly with Thutmose III, who was then only a child. This obelisk was perhaps built following the example of the Lateran Obelisk that was initially built at Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt and was later shifted to the Lateran square of Rome, near the end of the Roman Empire.
2nd Day program:
Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses The Great in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari. The complex was relocated in its entirety in the 1960s, when the temples were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt’s top tourist attractions.
