On the third day, we took an early flight from Cairo to Aswan. Sparing little time, we were then brought to tour the High Dam of Aswan, the Nile Falls, and the granite quarry in Aswan. The quarry contains the Unfinished Obelisk. This is an obelisk about 42 meters long laying on its side, making it larger than any erect obelisk in Egypt. During its construction, it cracked, so it was abandoned.
We were then checked in to a cruise ship that we would live on for the next few days while cruising the Nile.
Two of us then took an optional excursion by felucca boat to the Island of Philae to see the ruins of a Temple of Isis. This was one of the things I was strongly looking forward to, and it did not disappoint. Seeing it in person was awesome. It's one thing to see pics online and another to stare up at the pylons.
I'm really glad that we went with a tour guide to Egypt. I had not done much reading of Egyptian history, and he was great at constantly filling us in on the history and mythology. He said that being a tour guide in Egypt requires four years of university and a battery of exams for licensure, so he was super knowledgeable about the history of everywhere that we went.
At the end of the day we returned to the cruise ship.
