THURSDAY, JULY 29: ASWAN AND KOM OMBO

• Breakfast onboard
• Visit to Philae Temple (slide show)
• Lunch onboard
• Visit to Nubian Museum (slide show)
• Visit Kom Ombo Temple (slide show)
• Dinner onboard while sailing to Edfu
• Overnight in Edfu

From Ancient times, Aswan has been a frontier, a gateway, a meeting place of cultures. The First Cataract of the Nile (basically a stretch of whitewater rapids) served as a natural barrier to travel to or invasion of Upper Egypt by the Kushite kingdom in what is now Sudan.

You’ll get a look at two aspects of the Aswan region’s long history today. The Nubian Museum presents cultural gems and touchstones from Nubia’s prehistory into the 20th century. Nubia, known in ancient times as Kush, spanned the Egyptian-Sudanese border and was greatly affected — a large swath of its land submerged — when Aswan dam was built. The Temples of Philae (slide show), on Aswan’s Agilika Island, are a memory of the region’s worship of Isis, the goddess of magic and maternity, during Greco-Roman times.

General Info / Wikipedia

»» Wikipedia: Egypt »»

»» Wikipedia: Aswan »»

»» Wikipedia: Aswan Dam »»

»» Wikipedia: Cataracts of the Nile »»

»» Wikipedia: Nile »»

»» Wikipedia: Nubia »»

»» Wikipedia: Water Resources Management in Egypt »»