35,000 workers (451 died), ten years and help from the Russians dammed the world’s longest river with this 6km long dam that created the biggest artificial lake in the world-550km long (150km of that in The Sudan) and 35km wide at the max. It will still hold the most water even after China completes the Three Gorges dam. Philea Temple, Abu Simbel and all the Nubians living in the valley had to be relocated and they suffered the most. The Nubians are regarded as the first tribe of Egypt and look very different than most later Egyptians with their darker skin and different facial features.
The Nubians now run the motor boats that take us to the new island on which the temple of Philae had to be relocated when the dam flooded the Upper Nile here. 50 motor boats try to dock at a landing that has space for 20 but there is no organization or queuing agreement, it is a mini Cairo with no road rules, so they all just thrust nose first to the dock with their load of tourists and rev their two stroke outboards until the air is blue with smoke and noise and their shouting. All part of the fun.
We go on an evening sail to the Kitchener Island/Botanical Gardens on a Felucca (wonderfully romantic looking sailboat of a design used by Nile fisherman for hundreds of years). Lord Kitchener based himself here during the British campaigns in The Sudan and fell in love with the spot and built a house and garden with imported trees and plants.
Back to the boat for tea. Aswan, the city, looks nice at night. We would like to come back another time and sail Lake Nasser South to the Sudanese border.
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