Day 19: Aswan

We arrived in Aswan during the night and headed out early for our last excursions from the boat. First stop was the pink granite quarries and the unfinished obelisk. Our Egyptologist showed us the stones the ancient Egyptians used the cut the pink granite and told Paul to give it a try. It was impossible! Seeing the unfinished obelisk was interesting, especially after seeing first-hand how difficult it is to cut into granite! The obelisk is on its side, still stuck in the quarries after the Egyptians abandoned it due to imperfections and cracks in the stones. If it had been finished, it would have been huge at approximately 42 meters in height.
Me at the unfinished obelisk.
The unfinished obelisk, still stuck in the rocks of the quarry.

We left the quarries and hopped on a little boat to the island of Agilka to visit the Temple of Philae. Our guide explained the boats are “survival of the fittest” as we played “bumper boats” to get away from the dock and then bumped our way through a traffic jam of boats to get to the dock on Agilka. Hands inside the boat at all times was an important rule here! The Philae Temple was originally built on another island that was submerged under the water of the Nile. A big project was taking apart the temple and reconstructing it on the island of Agilka. It was a beautiful spot (green with colorful flowers and surrounded by the pretty blue Nile) and a fun temple to visit.
Our driver playing bumper boats.
View of the gorgeous temple from our boat.
Another view of the temple from our boat.

Paul in front of the temple.
Picture of a cross - Christians used the temple as a church.

In the late afternoon, we took a ride on a felucca (an Egyptian sailboat). It was a lot of fun to sail along the Nile. Of course our captains were selling Nubian jewelry and camel bone letter openers and all sorts of stuff. The other members of our tour group bought a few items, and our captains played traditional Nubian music as thanks. It was a good little trip.
Little Nubian children swimming and singing next to our boat.
One of our captains.
Part of our tour group - me, Paul, Shelly and Suzanne (from NYC), and our tour guide, Mohammed.
Loving the felucca ride!

We had our “gala goodbye dinner” on the boat in the evening. Paul and I read that jackets were required, and I was a little concerned he didn’t pack a jacket. Well, he was by far the best dressed at dinner. All the other guys were just wearing t-shirts! It was a lovely dinner, and at the end, our chef brought out a desert in the shape of three big pyramids that he set on fire! Awesome. And delicious!
Our dinner table. We had a fun table - the only sad part was that seats were assigned on the first day and we were never able to get our whole tour group together for dinner.

Desert!

I will definitely miss our sweet boat as we backpack through Turkey. After every excursion we were given cold towels and juice and the food was great. We never worried for a thing. It was definitely a nice way to see Egypt, which otherwise feels pretty overwhelming.
Our great tour group!

The boat (view from the felucca ride).

The boat crew in perfect sailor uniforms.