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Around Aswan : Egypt : Trip Report
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Around Aswan

Quote of the day: Do we have to worry about West Nile Virus if we stay on the east side of the river?

Aswan was the last stop on our Nile Cruise and the city is famous for being the source of all the granite used in the various temples around Egypt.

After visiting in Aswan we flew Egypt Air to Cairo. The first interesting the about that flight is that the Aswan airport has an Sbarro Pizza in the terminal however the pizza was the worst pizza of our lives. The second was that the plane had actual duct tape holding the armrest of my seat together. The flight itself was fine.
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Walking around Aswan.
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Spice store?
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When in Egypt?
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A Coptic Christian church.
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Some square near where the boat docked.
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Yup, this is the right line.
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Unfinished Obelisk

We paid a short visit to a granite quarry in Aswan where we saw the famous unfinished obelisk. It was being quarried by the Ancient Egyptians and was to be the largest obelisk in the world made from a single piece of granite. Unfortunately while trying to cut it out it cracked in two places and was abandoned. If it didn't crack the obelisk would have been about 130 feet in length, nearly twice as large as the largest obelisk ever erected.
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Starting the climb up the hill.
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View on the way up.
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Top of the obelisk.
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There's one crack.
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Melanie and Lily at the obelisk.
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Panoramic view of Aswan from the top.
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A view of nearly the entire obelisk from above.
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Michelle and Carmen.
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Lily pretends to work out for Tony's benefit.
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High Dam

We also made a very short visit to the High Dam which was completed in 1970. As the waters of the Nile were kept back it created the huge Lake Nasser behind it. Lake Nasser is now the largest man-made lake in the world and stretches south into Sudan.

On the way to the dam is a very large sculpture of a Lotus flower made to commemorate the co-operation between the Egyptians and Russians, who helped Egypt build the dam. The dam finally tamed the Nile by both stopping the summer flooding in lower Egypt but also allows excess water to be released in the dry winter months to prevent drought.
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Lily at the high dam with Lake Nasser behind her.
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Looking north towards the town of Aswan.
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Lotus flower sculpture symbol of co-operation between the Egyptians and Russians who built the dam.
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Temple of Kalabsha relocated to an island near the dam.
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Felucca Ride

The final cool thing we did in Aswan was take a Felucca ride. At first I thought it was be boring but it wasn't. It was relaxing to take in the surprisingly interesting terrain around the Nile Cataracts. The Cataracts are mini islands and rocks in the middle of the Nile. When the level of the Nile was higher the Cataracts caused the Nile to have rapids but now with the river level controlled they are just nice islands.

The funniest part is there were local boys in home made boats would row out to passing feluccas to sing songs for tips. Their paddles were either their hands, pieces of plastic or even cardboard. The songs were sorta recognizable tunes with words in various languages mixed up into often amusing songs.

Up on a hill on the west side of the Nile on a hill is the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, a leader of a sect of Islam who settled in Aswan. Below it is a temple that's not open to the public.
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The boats for Felucca rides.
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Uh, sure.
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Not sure what this was supposed to mean.
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The keel is raised and lowered by this.
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The lever is held in place by a valve.
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Nile river grass on one of the islets.
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The skipper and the crew.
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Feluccas with Sahara sand dunes.
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Young boys in hand made boats.
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They would sing to passing tourists for tips.
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Felucca postcard shot.
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The dunes looked like they could be fun for sandboarding.
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Mausoleum of Aga Khan.
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Temple of Aga Khan.
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Video available:
On the Felucca ride the crew entertained us with some traditional Nubian music. (4 minutes 31 seconds)
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Next: Visiting the Temple of Isis at Philae.
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