Egypt Day 4: Obelisk quarry, High Dam, Philae

Though not originally on our schedule, we decided to go see the famous unfinished obelisk in the quarries in Aswan. After visiting ancient quarry sites in Greece, it was pretty neat to see one in Egypt, too.

Stone used as a quarry tool

The obelisk, if it had been completed, would have been the largest in Egypt.

Our next stop was at the Aswan High Dam and the resulting artificially created Nubian Lake (also known as Lake Nasser). Katie gave her report here on the Nubian Rescue Campaign to Save Temples. The lake was going to cover/destroy several ancient temples and so money was donated to move them. Some, like Abu Simbel stayed in Egypt, but others have been moved to Spain and even New York!

The dam produces a lot of electricity!

There were also some beautiful flowers where we stopped to look at the dam.

That afternoon we took boarded a boat to take us to the island where the temple of Philae now stands (it was one of the temples moved because of Lake Nasser).

The temple was pretty awesome.

There was a lot of Greek and Roman graffiti on the temple including this fantastic "HIC FUI" ("I was here" in Latin, though the "FUI" is hard to see in the picture).

This guy B. Mure sure got around. I saw his named carved into several different buildings in Egypt. Somebody didn't think he was too cool though:

Someone has added "is a fool" to his inscription!

Cathy gave her report on the Egyptian trickster-god Bes beneath this relief sculpture of him.

Later she found another, even better preserved, sculpture of him.

We wandered around some more. I watched these guys wheel this block over and then using a rope pulley system put it back into place.

I also had a look at Ptolemy VII's Birth House (which connected him to Horus and Osiris making him divine, too).

After a Kit-Kat ice cream with the Peers family (and our two new feline friends), it was back on the boat so we could return to the big boat.

Bye Philae!

Back at the boat, this little guy, the latest towel creature, greeted us!

After lunch we took a Felucca (small sail boat) ride around Elephantine Island.

Elephantine Island is so named for the elephant-like rocks

Another Nilometer!

Hieroglyphs!

Since there was no engine, the boat ride was quiet and peaceful. Well . . . until these guys showed up. They paddled up on pieces of what looked like styrofoam and sang to us for money.

On the way back to the big boat, the boat drivers (captains?) brought out some things for sale. It was by far my favorite and the most peaceful shopping experience I had in Egypt. 

That evening, a few of us went out to the Aswan Tourist market. Rob, the only man among us five women, heard a lot of "Hey, big man! Five wives! That's lots of trouble!" He was also often called Rambo for some reason . . . 

Check out that store's name!

When we got back to the boat, we discovered the final towel creature. We were really going to miss that boat.