This morning we arrived in Aswan after an over night train from Cairo that was just as bad as our Bangkok-Chiang Mai experience. Probably because we thought we had a sleeping compartment like last time and wound up in seats in a car with 100 other people that was loud and had the lights on all night. Ahh, the fun of traveling.
We arrived around 10:30 and found no one waiting for us at the station as we were told. After everyone else had cleared the platform, we started to head inside the station when someone finally walked up to us and asked if we were with Amigo Tours. We told him yes and he said to follow him inside the station. He then proceeded to almost run through the station into the terminal. Since we were carrying all of our bags, we moved a tad slower than this:)
Inside we were met by Omar, a representative of Amigo Tours and from there we walked around the corner to our hotel. After getting settled in, we got into our room, dropped off our bags, grabbed some lunch and headed out for our first day of tours. The first stop was the 'High Dam'. This is not to be confused with the 'Low or British Dam' which is about a 4 miles down river from the High Dam. The Low Dam was built by the British around 100 years ago and the Nile has breached the top on a few occasions, each time causing the dam to be increased in height by a few meters. Finally in the 1960's, a new 'High Dam' was built with aid from the Soviet Union. Seems the US wasn't interested in the deal at the time. (more about that later).
The Dam is a pretty amazing piece of engineering and has created the largest man-made lake in the world behind it. Lake Nasser spans across the border into Sudan and has enough water that if the dam ever ruptured, everything from the dam to Alexandria would be destroyed within hours. This includes Cairo. As you might imagine, security is pretty tight around there.
The dam is shaped like a long pyramid with a base that's over 3,000 feet wide and 370 feet tall. The power produced from the dam greatly exceeds the need of the entire country and so it has been sold each year since the dam's completion in 1971. There is now a project underway, funded in part by the US to replace the old turbines with more efficient ones. Part of this deal includes new power lines being laid below the ocean floor to provide power to Europe and the US. Pretty grandiose plans, but if you've ever seen the things built in Egypt, you know they never do things on a small scale!
As with any major project like this, there are benefits and drawbacks that are realized afterwards. Our guide went over many of them, but the one that stuck in my mind was that there are now over 15 million crocodiles living in Lake Nasser. That does not sound like a very friendly place, and I would think that swimming is not a healthy hobby there:)
After the stop at the dam, we visited the Temple of Philae. This is one of 24 temples that was relocated when the dams were built to save them from permanent submersion. This particular temple was partially submerged when the first dam was built and was entirely submerged when the high dam was built and had to be removed using divers and underwater equipment. It's very impressive and water stains can still be seen on many of the stones.
Tomorrow we have a 2:30 am wake-up call and we need to be on a mini-bus by 3:30 for a 3 hour drive to Abu Simbel. This is a drive that is done in caravan style with police escorts each way. Seems they are a bit security conscious around here.
For now, we need some sleep after the train ride last night and a day of touring in the heat
Until next time, get some sleep!
Eric
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