Where the heck are we now?: November 2025

We were up early to get a flight from Cairo to Aswan where we would board our boat for a four day cruise down the river to Luxor. While we were waiting for our ride we discovered that we would be joined by three young people…Hannah from Utah, Margot from France and Andre from Germany. We were so happy because we always love to travel with younger people as they give us lots of energy to keep going…

After a short flight we met up with our guide, Michael and began a whirlwind 4 days of early mornings and many sights to be seen.

But before we started we all had to get some Egyptian pounds. As I always complain about our crappy CAD I had to take the following picture…

We all went to the ATM and took out 100 in each currency, so on the right this is how many Egyptian pounds we received for our 100 CAD and on the left this is how much the Europeans got for 100 Euros! A lot thicker handful and would someone please explain to me why our CAD is worth so little everywhere!

Our first stop was at the Aswan High Dam which was built by the Russians between 1960 and 1970. It is one of the largest embankment dams in the world and was built to control flooding on the Nile. Before that the Nile would flood annually destroying crops and villages along its banks. This project was also built to produce hydroelectric power which even to this day is exported by Egypt.

We then visited the Temple of Philae which is located on a small island in the reservoir created by the High Dam. It contains an ancient temple for Isis and was built during 380- 362BC.

Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion and is known for her special powers in that she was able to resurrect her slain brother and the divine king Osiris. She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife and was known for her healing spells. Here are some pictures of the temple and grounds…

As we approached by boat…

The entrance is guarded by two huge lions…

A huge inner courtyard…

Two locals at the temple…

This is Michael explaining that in the inner sanctuary this is the altar…this was after Don tried to sit on it!

A relief engraving of the ankh…an ancient Egyptian symbol…

This is a cartouche which are quite famous in ancient Egypt as they contained information about the king or other important member of society and were typically found in a person’s tomb.

By this time we were all tired but there was an obligatory stop at a perfume palace!

The art of making perfume was considered an art form in Ancient Egypt. The craftsperson was considered to be an artist and the profession was open to women. Today it is mostly women that still practice the art.

Of course she was a good salesperson but we did learn a lot from her about this ancient art form, though she couldn’t quite understand that we have fragrance free environments in Canada so we don’t buy much perfume!

We finally then made it to the ship and there were dozens of them lining the docks…

Our ship carried approximately 120 passengers and was quite comfortable…

The Central Staircase…

Top deck pool…

Great food every meal…

I usually chose the Egyptian food…lots of dips, olives, hot red peppers, grilled eggplant with freshly made pita bread. So tasty!

On this cruise we saw more than our share of temples with this one called Kom Omo very near Aswan..,

The Kom Ombo Temple is an unusual double temple in Aswan Governorate, Egypt, dedicated to two gods: Sobek, the crocodile god, and Horus the Elder, the falcon-headed god. Constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty between 180–47 BC, it features a unique symmetrical layout with separate, parallel sanctuaries and gateways for each deity.

Here is a relief of Sobek, the Crocodile God…one of the reasons this temple was built in this location was the abundance of crocodiles in this part of the Nile River.