Our last day on the cruise ended at Aswan. We were now in Nubian territory. We filled up on yet another amazing meal and then loaded up the bus to head to Philae Temple. To reach the temple, we took a short boat ride. Philae is located on an island and is a UNESCO heritage site. Philae means love, so it is located on the island of love.

Originally, the temple was located on a different island but when they built the new Aswan dam, it would have submerged it. In its original location, it got flooded and so you can see black silt on the columns leading to the entry; the silt must be removed by hand. When it became clear that the temple must be moved, several plans were proposed. One was to build a glass dome to protect the temple! Not very practical. Instead, 40,000 stone blocks were numbered and then moved to the new location. By 1978, the temple had been rebuilt.

The rebuilding started with the holy of holies and went out from there. There are monument from many different eras, from the Pharaoh Ptolomy to the Romans. The exterior is Roman since it was built last.

As is true of all temples, there is much symbolism seen.

There is also graffiti at the entrance stating “Bonaparte was here” in 1798.

There is a church inside. Until the 4th century Christians hid here.

Lots more symbols to see:

I stopped to pet a cute kitten and its mama as we exited the temple. There was a man that offered me a few nuggets to feed it them. Of course, he wanted money for the service…

We were given free time to wander before loading up the boat and heading to lunch.

Walid told us it would be a 2-hour ride, but he was kidding; it was about 5 minutes to our restaurant which had a lovely view of Philae Temple.

After lunch, we were driven to the airport to head back to Cairo for the final day of our tour.