Nile Cruise — Touring Philae Temple Complex 1

This past Friday I left you with a little mystery: When in Philae Island not Philae Island? The answer is this: When Philae Island is Agilkia Island. Although the island upon which the Philae Temple Complex currently sits is billed as Philae Island, the real Philae Island became endangered following the construction of the Aswan Low Dam in 1902. And on that island sat the Philae Temple Complex. Philae Island flooded frequently, and that flooding was exacerbated by the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970. A cofferdam was built around the island until a permanent solution could be implemented.

That solution was both simple and complex. The simple idea was to just relocate the temples to another island. The complex part was actually doing it . Thus was born the plan to disassemble the immense Philae structures into 40,000 very large pieces, relocating them to the nearby Agilkia Island, and then piecing the temples back together. I won’t bore you with all the fascinating details. I’ll let this artcle do that for me: Philae Temple Relocation Process. After you’ve pondered that article, take a look at this inscription:

Greek? Nope. Roman? Guess again. Try French. It’s an inscription commemorating Napolean’s invasion of Egypt. Now for today’s photo gallery/slide show:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)