After a shower to recover from the neverending train journey, we head out to the Old Cataract Hotel where many of the rich and famous have stayed, including Agatha Christie, who allegedly wrote ‘Death on the Nile’ during her stay. We had high tea and beer (contradiction of terms?) and watched the sun set over the Nile which was beautiful – the rich green of the palms and blankside flora in such dramatic contrast to the desert sand directly behind and the clear flowing Nile in front.
Everyone had decided to dress up in the traditional men’s Jalabea’s (ph. sp.) for the evening which looked great, to the general amusement of the locals – and by the time the sun had set we were in the right frame of mind to catch a boat over to see the sound and light show at the temple of Philae.
The temple (332-30BC) was dedicated to the goddess Isis but would have been flooded following the construction of the Aswan high dam, so UNESCO took the entire temple apart piece by piece and relocated it (including the temples of Isis and Hathor and the kiosk dedicated tothe Roman Emporer Trajan) to the neighbouring Aqilika Island, which was a pretty amaing feat in itself.
The sound and light show was completely cheesy, the ‘voice’ of the Nile speaking to Isis to outline the history of the temple, with coloured lights illuminating various parts of the temple as you walked through – but it was fun enough and good to see what might have been ‘just another temple’ in such a different way.
It was an early start the next morning, so after the boat ride back it was an early night in our hotel.
-Sarah
Sarah