This Luxor Tours takes us from the attractive city Luxor located on the Nile River to the no less impressive city Aswan in Upper Egypt. Early in the morning, we pick you up from your accommodation in Luxor and make our way up the Nile to Aswan on the border to Sudan. You might have already heard of the story of our first Aswan sights, the
Aswan Dam
This impressive dam regulates the
electricity supply in Egypt and is used to control the water level of the
Nile River. In earlier times, the banks of the Nile were often hit by uncontrolled floods. For this reason,
Egypt decided in 1960 to build this big project, which opened after 10 years of construction, one year after its completion in 1971.
Nowadays,
Lake Nasser, created by the construction, holds up to 132 km3 of water! Ask our guide about the history of
Lake Nasser and the changes in the life of the
Nubian people.
The
Aswan High Dam is not the first dam in Egypt - we continue our
Aswan sightseeing Egypt tour with a visit to the "
old Aswan dam" on our way to the
Temple of Philae
The
Temple of Philae is located on an island. While crossing the
old Aswan dam, you can already spot the beautiful
temple complex of the
Philae Temple, located on a rocky island in the lake. When
Lake Nasser was flooded, the
Temple of Philae was rescued from its original location on
Philae Island and rebuilt on today's
Agilkia Island. For this purpose, the most important buildings were sawn into more than 37,000 blocks to rebuild the
temple complex true to the original form in 13 years of construction. Since 1979, the
Temple of Philae is one of the
UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Enjoy the journey with one of the boats that are waiting for us at the jetty and don't be afraid to ask your guide for details about the interesting history of the
Philae Temple.
Back “on land” we take a break for a traditional lunch and continue our tour to the next Aswan sights, the
Aswan Quarry - Unfinished Obelisk
We drive to the
old Aswan quarry where rose granite was mined and where we can see an
unfinished obelisk. If it was completed, it would have become the tallest
obelisk in the
history of Egypt.
One thinks that this
obelisk was built under the reign of
Queen Hatshepsut and intended for the
Karnak Temple. During the tour, you will see that the lower part is still connected to the rock from which it was cut and traces of the unsuccessful attempts at division. Allegedly, material defects prevented the completion of the unfinished obelisk.
With impressive memories of
Aswan, we leave the
Aswan quarry for our drive back to
Luxor to your accommodation.
