For our Marsa Alam tours from the beautiful Bay of Marsa Alam to the sights of the Upper Egyptian city on the Nile Aswan, we will pick you up early in the morning from one of the Marsa Alam Hotels. We make our way to Aswan, located close to the border of Sudan. Surely everyone has heard the story of our first Aswan sites, the
Aswan Dam
In the past, the banks of the
Nile River were often hit by uncontrolled floods. For this reason,
Egypt decided to start this big project in 1960 and opened it after 10 years of construction, one year after completion in 1971.
The
Aswan Dam regulates the water level of the
Nile River as well as the electricity supply to Egypt. Nowadays the
Lake Nasser, created by the construction of the
Aswan High Dam, holds up to 170 kkm3 of water!
Ask our guide about the history of
Lake Nasser and the changes in the Nubian life in this region. The
Aswan High Dam is not the first dam in
Egypt and we will continue our
Aswan Sightseeing Egypt excursion with a visit to the “
old Aswan Dam” to the
Philae Temple
located on an island. While we are crossing the "
old Aswan Dam" you can already spot the beautiful
Philae Temple, built on a rocky island in the lake. The
Temple of Philae was removed from its original location on
Philae Island when
Lake Nasser was flooded and rebuilt on today's
Agilkia Island. The most important buildings were decomposed into more than 37.000 blocks to rebuilt the
temple complex, true to its origin in a construction period of 13 years. Since 1979 the
Philae Temple is also one of the
UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Enjoy the journey to the island with one of the boats that's waiting for us at the jetty, and don't hesitate to ask your tour guide for more details about the impressive history of the
Philae Temple.
Back on land, we take a break for a traditional lunch and then make our way to the next stop on our
Aswan Sightseeing Egypt tour, the
Aswan Quarry – Unfinished Obelisk
Our way takes us to an old
Aswan Quarry where once rose granite was mined, and the famous
Unfinished Obelisk is waiting for us. If completed, it would have become the heaviest
Obelisk in the
history of Egypt.
Archaeologists assume that the
Obelisk was built during the reign of
Queen Hatshepsut and intended for the
Karnak Temple. You will notice that the lower part is still connected to the Rock from which it has cut. Here you also can see the unsuccessfully attempted 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 your accommodation in
Marsa Alam.
