Egypt - Aswan

Perfume bottles at the Aswan Market

Aswan market - Man selling lemons

Aswan Market

Hookahs (sheeshas)

Spices at the Aswan Market

More Spices at the Aswan Market


Philae Temple

Philae Temple

Abu Simbel

Pizza place in Aswan. It was fun watching him make the pizzas.


Views of Nasser Lake from Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

We took a flight to Aswan at an ungodly hour and we were exhausted by the time we arrived at the hotel. We hired a car and guide for the afternoon to see some of the sights in Aswan. Aswan is a more laid back town with a strong Nubian influence. Our hotel was off the mainland so we took a boat every day to cross the Nile River to reach the mainland. The three main sights in Aswan are : the Philae Temple, the Unfinished Obelisk and the High dam. Philae temple is located on an island and the temple was relocated to another island as the high dam flooded the original location of the temple. This temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis. Sherri, our guide recounted one of the more famous Egyptian myths about Isis, Osiris and their son Horus, Sindhu was fascinated by this story. Many of the temples have some connection to one of these gods, so the story is reinforced multiple times during the trip. The temple is really quite beautiful especially due to it's location on the island. The 2nd sight, the unfinished Obelisk is a little less interesting but you get an idea of what a quarry looked like and the children enjoyed the open space and climbing the stones. Later on, Sindhu was able to identify obelisks at other locations. The high dam provides 90% of the power in Egypt and it has produced the world's 2nd largest man-made lake called Lake Nasser. The Nile River which is the only source of water in Egypt (it doesn't rain in Egypt) is impressively clean. All the towns, cities and farm lands are located along the river or along Lake Nasser and the rest is dessert and pretty much uninhabited. The importance of being close to a source of water is very evident in this country unlike anywhere else we've been to. That night we went to the Aswan market. It was less crowded and the vendors were more friendly than at the Khan el Khalili market in Cairo. The more popular items were spices, perfumes and perfume bottles, I bought a few small statues for my Bommala Koluvu collection

The next day we went to Abu Simbel which is located about 3 hours from Aswan. It was all desert right up to Abu Simbel. It is a must to go in a convoy which is a caravan of cars escorted by two police cars for protection. As a tourist, you can't stay overnight at Abu Simbel, you have to go back with the convoy. There are several locations in Egypt that don't allow tourists to stay overnight, probably for the safety of the tourists and therefore do not cater to tourists and are frozen in time. Driving through the dessert, we experienced first hand what a mirage was. Depending on the landscape of the dessert, there were several times that we thought we saw a lake or a small body of water when in fact there was nothing but sand there, it was very deceiving. We could appreciate how difficult it would be to survive in the dessert, you see miles and miles of sand and nothing else.

Abu Simbel is very impressive, the tall statues are mind boggling. This was another site that was relocated as it would have otherwise been submerged under water due to the high dam. The view of Nasser Lake from Abu Simbel is beautiful. If you have the time, Abu Simbel and Aswan are definitely worth a visit, you see a more serene and peaceful side of Egypt. That evening we had Egyptian pizza which is quite tasty, all the cheese and vegetables are placed inside the pizza dough and not on top. We observed that most restaurants have an English menu with separate pricing for tourists and a menu in Arabic for the locals. It might be worth learning Arabic numerals as Egyptians list the pricing of items in Arabic unlike in most other countries, the prices are in English even if the menu items are listed in the local language.

The next day we headed to Luxor by car. We visited a Nubian village at a nearby island on the Nile River in the morning and then headed to to Luxor but stopped at Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way. All coming in up the next post.