Aswan, a much more developed and buzzing city than Luxor is now and in fact always has been the end of the navigable Nile - just south of the city is the first of the Nile’s six cataracts (even though the river flows from south to north, the ancient Egyptians numbered them from north to south). The city was an important trading centre for millennia way back to the heyday of ancient Egyptian civilization located as it is at the boundary of Mediterranean focused Egypt and the eastern part of sub-Saharan Africa. Aswan is reportedly one of the driest cities on the planet, literally only receiving recordable rainfall once every 5-7 years!

The Dams of Aswan

Around the turn of the 20th century, the British built the first dam across the Nile just south of the first cataract at Aswan, a major feat of engineering for the time. The dam was enlarged over the next three decades and is still in place today. 

But it soon became apparent that the old dam was insufficient to meet the needs of Egypt’s developing and expanding economy. After the 1952 revolution that removed both the monarchy and effectively ended British occupation, plans were set in motion to build an even bigger dam. The Aswan High Dam, now the world’s second largest was built over 14 years starting in 1960 to better control the flow of water down the Nile - so critical to the well-being of Egypt’s large and rapidly expanding population (now well in excess of 100 million). The vast flooded area upstream of the dam, between the first and second cataracts, became the world’s second largest man-made lake, named for Colonel Nasser one of the leaders of the 1952 revolution and Egypt’s ruler until the late ‘60’s. 

The creation of the lake flooded much of the traditional arable land of several hundred thousand Nubian people living in what is termed Upper Nubia. They were mostly relocated further north to the area around Luxor to become as Shareen our guide explained “drivers of motorboats and feluccas taking tourists for joy rides”. Shareen, an expert Egyptologist also tells us though that President Sisi is planning more compensation for the Nubian people who were displaced by the creation of the lake. But then it’s also worth mentioning that Shareen is a passionate Egyptian nationalist whose father was head of the Egyptian Air Force in the 1980’s and is totally in love with President Sisi....!

Abu Simbel

Upper Nubia is the site of some of the most important relics of ancient Egypt. The most famous are the temples of Abu Simbel built by Ramses II - one for himself and one for his favourite queen Nefertari - some 3200 years ago. With the threat of having these stunning relics of human history disappearing for ever under 200 feet of water, the international community under the leadership of UNESCO mobilized in the 1960’s and ‘70’s to relocate 14 of the most important temples and to record and document the rest before they vanished for ever under the waters of Lake Nasser. 

The challenge in relocating the temples of Abu Simbel was that they were not built as such, but carved out of the mountain. So the temples had to be meticulously dismantled into more than 2000 massive blocks and then put back together again 300 feet higher up. To ensure that the relocated and reconstructed temples were identical on their new site to the original one, they were built into an artificial mountain constructed over a massive concrete dome. The entire project took four years to complete and must have pushed back the boundaries of the technology of the time. The result is truly remarkable! Other temples were deconstructed and put back together on higher ground, but one the 2500 years old, Temple of Amadah one was literally dragged on a system of rollers some 2.6 km to a safer location

It’s probably just as well that this remarkable example of international cooperation took place when it did. In today’s poisonous environment it’s hard to imagine UNESCO being able to mobilize a similar effort.....