Nile Cruise III

On our final day, we explored Aswan. In the early morning we visited the Nasser dam, overlooking the Nasser Lake; and later, the temple of Philae. The Nasser dam is a pretty impressive public works project built in the 1960s to complement a previously built dam (built by the Brtiish in 1901). It was constructed by the first elected Egyptian president, Nasser. As I explained in a previous blog entry, the dam was important for at least two reasons: to control the flooding from the Nile, and to generate electricity.

Our guide explained that Nasser tried to get money from the US to build the dam, but since Egypt was purchasing weapons from the USSR, the US refused. Desperate to build the dam, and finding himself with no funds, Nasser turned to the only source of revenue he could find: the Suez Canal. The canal was managed by the British at the time. Most of the revenues (two thirds) accrued to them. Nasser nationalized the canal in order to reap all the revenue, triggering Britain's anger, and more generally, western anger. He did, however, succeed in building the dam, which also created a 580 km long artificial lake, the largest in the world.



From the dam we went to the temple of Philae, most of which also was built during Ptolemaic times. Interestingly, the temple was submerged by the first dam built by the British in 1901. That dam didn't fully work, but it did create a small artifical lake. The lake covered the precious temple of Philae. Fortunately, UNESCO financed a large project to move the temple from its original location (now underwater) to its current location. The job was done by a team of Italians who took the time to mark each stone and transport it to the new location one at a time. The job was so well done that they even made the new island look like the old one!



In the afternoon we went on a short sail boat (called "felucca") ride along the river. It was peaceful, although it is sad to see how dirty the river is, even here, in Aswan, the southermost Egyptian town. We also observed some interesting views of the west bank of the river, where some nobles were burried. Their tombs are visible from the river.