TRAVEL: Nile Cruise, Egypt (Part 3) - Aswan, High Dam & Philae

Before you start, make sure to read my last Egypt blog here! 

Our journey continued as we travelled overnight to Aswan, the furthest point South on our journey and in the morning hopped on a coach to see some of the city's sites. Our first point of call was a granite quarry, famous for the unfinished obelisk still held in the rock. To be honest, there wasn't much to see but it was interesting to get an idea of how the ancient Egyptians carved and transported massive structures along the Nile. It reminded me slightly of the Maoi in Easter Island, and how there's still so much mystery surrounding their creation - if you want to read about that journey, you can here! 

Next was the High Dam which holds Lake Nasser on one side, which we were told was another lovely destination for cruising. You used to be able to go down and see the turbines, but this has been closed for eight years now, with speculation being that this is because only one of the twelve turbines actually works. This made me pretty sad, to think about all the wasted potential energy the country could be getting but cannot due to various corruptions within the government. However, as the highest point in the country, it did afford nice views all around. 

We continued to the temple of Philae, accessible only by small speedboats. I found this temple particularly interesting, as were it stood was not where it had been erected. As far as I'm aware, the construction of the dam would have led to the island it had previously been on to be covered by water, so they simply decided to move it to the nice island over which was on higher ground. Looking at it today, you'd have no idea this was the case with the only exception being water marks on the walls and eroded carvings where the water line was. 

I'll never fail to be amazed by Egyptian carvings due to their intricacy, and different styles, with some carved into the rock and others appearing to come out of it instead. Here we were told the story of Osiris and his evil brother Seth, who out of jealously had killed Osiris by inviting him and 73 others to a party where each guest was encouraged to see if they fit in a golden coffin, which Seth had made specifically to his brothers size - a bit like a twisted Cinderella story I suppose! When Osiris was discovered to fit, Seth shut the coffin and threw it into the river. 

Osiris' faithful wife, Isis, scoured the Nile to find her husband, eventually finding him in the Mediterranean. She brought him back to life, but Seth found out and killed him again, chopping him into 14 pieces and scattering these about the country. Isis again searched for her husband, and found 13 pieces of his body with one missing - his penis. She fashioned another one out of clay and silt, brought him back to life, had a son (the god Horus), and then Osiris was allowed to die on his own terms to become King of the Underworld. To ensure Seth could not foil their plans, they made a fake burial place for him at the temple of Philae, and so you see why the temple is of importance. I'm sure our buildings of importance back home don't have such interesting stories behind them! 

On the way back, we stopped at the 'Essence of Life' perfume factory - what a delightful name! Walking in, I thought it looked quite small but in fact twisted and turned across multiple floors scattered with thousands and thousands of perfume vials. We saw one of these being made as a worker lit up an excruciating hot flame and twisted and blew Pyrex, at one point even exploding a glass bubble before our eyes, to create a beautiful design in just a minute or two, and with no goggles or gloves to be seen. Once again, health and safety just doesn't apply! 

We were shown a few essential oils and told that they could make any famous perfume here, from Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss to Jo Malone and Lancôme, and give it to us in its purest form ie before only 10% is used mixed with 90% alcohols, which is what commercial perfumes are. Not knowing what any of those perfumes smell like, I decided simply to purchase a beautiful glass vial which I'll display with pride.

After lunch, we were free for the rest of the day, so what better thing to do than sneak into the Movenpick hotel (as in Movenpick ice cream) for some ice cream. The swanky hotel is sat in the middle of the Nile in Aswan on Elephantine Island, and so requires a shuttle boat to take you across. Look like you're meant to be there, and you'll have no problems! One happy Ciara later, and we raced back along the banks of the Nile to the Legacy to catch the sun as it went down. 

No themed dinner this time, but they did have Nubian dancing in the bar afterwards. I went along to see what it was like, but one can only take so much audience participation and it seemed like I was a favoured volunteer, so I quickly took myself off to bed. Besides, we had a very early start the next morning... coming very soon to the blog!

I hope you enjoyed today's travel blog! I'll be back with more very soon so make sure to stay tuned on my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and drop me a message in the comments below with any comments or questions you may have about my adventures - thanks for reading!