Aswan Dam and Cathedral

We got up early for a 5:30am breakfast at the hotel before a slow drive to the airport (Cairo traffic is horrible) for a one-hour flight to Aswan in the south of Egypt. It took longer to drive to the airport than to fly to Aswan.

We visited the Aswan High dam after leaving the airport, as it was on the way to our boat, and this gave the folks with our bags (they went on a separate truck) time to unload them and get them in our cabins before we arrived. The high dam creates lake Nassar which stretches 340 miles south into Sudan.

The Temple of Kalabsha is visible from the high dam. It was moved here when the high dam was built to avoid being flooded.

We then went to our boat for the next seven days, the MS Nefertiti.

We had some free time in the early afternoon, so we walked along the Nile back towards the middle of town and Archangel Michael’s Coptic Cathedral we passed on the bus ride from the airport. We asked if we could look around and we got a private tour from a volunteer. It was built recently in 1995. It was built on the site of a previous cathedral that was built in 1960 by one of the architects working on the high dam. Interestingly, the cathedral imported American oak for the woodwork.

Across from our boat in the cliffs on the west side of the Nile are the tombs of the Nobles. These were the officials of the Pharaoh for this area. It’s the row of tombs halfway up the cliff side.

In the late afternoon, we went on a walking tour of the spice market in Aswan.

Then to bed early as we’ll start even earlier tomorrow.