Photo album: "Egypt: Aswan"

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On Thursday, April 4, 1975, in the evening, we board an overnight train to Aswan. We arrive on the morning of Friday, April 5. A sandstorm has just risen and it will not be possible to get to Abu Simbel either by plane or by boat. The program of our stay in Aswan is thereby changed. After depositing our luggage at the hotel, we go to see the great dam. Then we go to the island of Philae, where the temple of Isis is being dismantled in order to be transferred to a higher nearby island, out of the Nile's reach. We then go into an old granite quarry where were carved obelisks. The next Saturday, April 5th, we visit the mausoleum built in memory of Aga Khan III and the botanical garden on the island Kitchener. In the evening we take an overnight train to Luxor.

When we arrive in Aswan, we are greeted by a sandstorm. These storms are becoming more and more frequent since the High Dam has been put in service. The accumulation of the Nile water, upstream of the dam, has created the lake Nasser. The very hot temperature provokes a high amount of evaporation and this has caused a major change in climate, no longer very dry. The other consequence for us is that we cannot go as planned, to visit the temple of Abu Simbel.

The purpose of the High Aswan Dam is to control flooding and generate electricity. This is one of the largest dams in the world. Its construction lasted about 11 years with a major participation of the Soviet Union. It covers much of the country's electricity needs, with a total capacity of 2.1 gigawatts. But this structure has also many negative aspects from an environmental point of view: modification of the Nile Delta, heavy use of fertilizers to compensate for the lack of silt brought by floods, development of bilharzia in the many backwaters, salt rise in farmland, etc.

We are now on the Nile between the High Dam and the first Aswan Dam: this first dam, located south of the city of Aswan, at the level of the first of the six cataracts of the Nile, was funded by the British and inaugurated in 1902. Our boat is heading to the island of Philae.

A young guide is joking with an elderly guide.

The temple of Isis on the island of Philae. Since 1902, the building of the first dam, the beautiful temples on this island were partially submerged for several months of the year. After the construction of the High Dam, Philae lies permanently beneath the water level.

Another view of the Temple of Isis. Since 1971, work has been undertaken to drain the island by surrounding it with a dike and pumping water. When this work is finished, the temples will be dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt on the neighboring island of Aguilkia located above waters reach. The island of Aguilkia which was remodeled to resemble Philae, will be later renamed Philae.

View from the island of Philae in the direction of the High Dam.

We leave Philae. We can see the temporary metal dike that protects the island and the pumps that keep it dry. When the work is completed, within two years, the temples will again be reflected in the waters of the Nile as they did for about 2300 years and will have nothing to fear from its floods.

Rock on the banks of the Nile.

Near Aswan, we visit a granite quarry in which we can see an unfinished obelisk. Its weight is estimated at 1,200 tons. It has certainly been abandoned because of defects encountered in the granite structure.

Side view of the obelisk showing how the granite was dug to separate the obelisk from the rest of the mountain. When one knows that the Egyptians did not possess tools of steel, one can only marvel at this work.

Downstream of the first dam, we cross the Nile on a felucca similar to those moored along the shore.

After the death of the Aga Khan III, in 1969, according to his last wishes a tomb was built so that he could rest on this land of Egypt where he liked to stay. Below, the villa of his wife la Begum.