Handpicked experience · Aswan
Aswan, Egypt
The temple stands on an island it was never built on — it was cut into forty thousand blocks and moved when the dam drowned the original.
A temple that exists because it was dismantled
An island landscaped to impersonate another one
The last place the old rites were performed
Two religions signing the same stone
A viewpoint where both halves of a national decision are visible
Three hours in Aswan: a motorboat across to the island temple of Isis at Philae, and a panoramic stop at the High Dam that explains why the temple is not where it was built.
Philae stands on an island, but not the one it was built on. The original island is underwater, and has been since the dam went up.
When the High Dam created Lake Nasser in the nineteen-sixties, the temple's site was destined to disappear beneath the reservoir. The building was already spending most of each year partly submerged by an earlier barrage — visitors in the early twentieth century rowed between the column capitals and looked down at the reliefs through green water.
So it was moved. A cofferdam was built around the island and the water pumped out; the temple was measured, photographed, cut into roughly forty thousand blocks, and reassembled on higher ground on the neighbouring island of Agilkia, which was reshaped to match the original profile. The whole operation ran through the nineteen-seventies.
You are standing in a building that has been taken apart and put back together, on an island landscaped to impersonate a different one. It does not feel like a reconstruction, which is the measure of how well it was done.
Philae has a second distinction. It is generally held to be the last functioning temple of the old Egyptian religion.
Long after Egypt had become Christian, the priests here were still performing the rites of Isis, sustained partly by Nubian communities upriver who continued to worship her. The temple was finally closed by imperial order in the sixth century, roughly two centuries after the empire had adopted Christianity. Some of the last hieroglyphic inscriptions ever carved are here, along with Coptic crosses cut into the same walls by the people who came afterwards.
The High Dam ended the annual flood. That stopped the destruction of villages and gave Egypt year-round irrigation and a great deal of electricity, and it is a serious achievement.
It also stopped the silt. The black land that gave Egypt its agriculture arrived on that flood, and it now settles in the reservoir instead of on the fields, so farmers use fertiliser where the river used to do it for free. The Mediterranean coast is eroding without the sediment that used to replenish it. And the reservoir displaced well over a hundred thousand people, most of them Nubians, whose villages and land are under the water you are looking at.
That is the honest ledger, and both halves of it are visible from the same viewpoint.
The boat crossing is short, in an open motorboat, with a step down at both jetties.
Boatmen operate the crossings and expect their arrangement to be agreed clearly beforehand. There is little shade at either the temple or the dam viewpoint, and the stone at Philae reflects a lot of heat. Photography is permitted at the temple; the dam is a strategic installation and the rules there are stricter, so follow your guide.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
No. The original is underwater. The temple now stands on Agilkia, a neighbouring island reshaped to match the old profile.
The reservoir behind the High Dam would have submerged it entirely, and an earlier barrage already left it partly underwater for much of each year.
The engineering ran through much of the nineteen-seventies, from enclosing the island to setting the last block.
Remarkably little. The blocks were numbered and the reassembly followed the original survey closely enough that the joins are hard to find.
It is generally held to be the last functioning temple of the old Egyptian religion, closed by imperial order in the sixth century.
Yes. Coptic crosses were cut into the same walls that carry some of the last hieroglyphic inscriptions ever made.
It ended the annual flood, protecting villages and providing year-round irrigation and a great deal of electricity.
The silt now settles in the reservoir instead of the fields, the Mediterranean coast erodes without sediment, and well over a hundred thousand people were displaced.