Egypt: Aswan

After a reasonable night's sleep, we arrived in Aswan after 17 hours. This hotel had a pool. We went to the Philae Temple by boat. The Temple was dedicated to the god Iris. This was very impressive as it had walls filled with hieroglyphics. The temple was actually moved block by block in the 1970s otherwise it would have been flooded after the Aswan Dam was built.

We saw the dam but it didn't look too impressive from where we stood. It was paid for by nationalising the Suez Canal.

Then, it was time for another shop visit, where we were showed how papyrus was made and invitied to buy pictures and pieces with our name written in hieroglyphics.

In the evening, we went by boat to a Nubian dinner, held in a community centre. It was cooked by families and comprised fried chicken, a vegatable & potato stew, tahini, beef in pastry and soup. It was pleasant. Then, there was the entertainment. First, there was a band with a tambourine. The dancers were all men and they danced with banners. Then, they danced with sticks. Finally, they grabbed members of the audience to dance with a stick. At the end, a man in a grass skirt shouted at people to get them to join him and he shouted random phrases, which they tried to repeat - they didn't always succed. Then, he got lots of people up to dance a conga-type routine around the room. The enterntainment was a bit cheap and relied on the audience too much but at least it didn't take too long.