Philae Temple and Aswan Tour

Aswan is the softest of Egypt’s great sites — a city of gardens, granite hills and Nubian villages, where the Nile widens into a series of islands before it drops through the First Cataract. This private full-day tour combines the most complete surviving Ptolemaic temple in Egypt with the essential Aswan itinerary: the High Dam, the granite quarries, the botanical islands and the Nubian villages.

Morning: You are collected from your Aswan hotel or cruise vessel at 08:00 and driven first to Philae Temple, the great sanctuary of Isis. Philae, like Abu Simbel, was moved in the 1970s to save it from the rising waters behind the Aswan Dam — dismantled block by block and reassembled on the higher island of Agilkia. You reach the island by motorboat, a short and beautiful crossing over the still water of the reservoir, and your Egyptologist walks you through the colonnaded courts, the pylon reliefs of Ptolemy XII smiting his enemies, the Mammisi (birth house) of Horus, and the sanctuary of Isis where the cult of the goddess continued into the sixth century AD — long after the rest of Egypt had converted to Christianity. Coptic crosses and pilgrim graffiti overlay the pharaonic reliefs, a rare double reading of the temple’s afterlife.

A short drive brings you to the Unfinished Obelisk, a colossal granite shaft still lying in the quarry from which it was cut — the largest known ancient obelisk, forty-two metres long and abandoned when a crack appeared during carving. Your guide explains the extraordinary technique of the granite workers: dolerite hammer-stones, wooden wedges, water.

Afternoon: Lunch is served at a restaurant on the corniche or on Elephantine Island. In the afternoon you visit the High Dam of Aswan — the great twentieth-century engineering project that shaped modern Egypt — with panoramic views over Lake Nasser to the south and the old dam to the north. From here you continue by motorboat to Elephantine Island, the ancient border town where the Egyptian and Nubian cultures met for three thousand years; the small museum here holds a fine collection of Old Kingdom finds. Kitchener’s Island, planted as a botanical garden in the 1890s, is a short crossing further and is best experienced in the late afternoon when the light turns amber on the water.

Evening: The day closes with a felucca sail past the granite outcrops of the First Cataract, the tombs of the Nobles on the west bank, and — on request — a visit to a Nubian village on West Aswan for tea in a family home. You return to your hotel or cruise vessel by sunset.

Photography is exceptional throughout, especially on the water in the late afternoon. Practical advice: dress modestly and lightly; a hat, sunglasses and water are essential. Family suitability is excellent from age six upward — the boats, the villages and the granite are all favourites with children. Accessibility is partial — the boat transfers involve short steps. Best months are October through April; January and February are the coolest and clearest.