PHILAE - TEMPLE OF ISIS

ASWAN, EGYPT - FEBRUARY 2010


"AGILIKA ISLAND - The complex of the Temple of Isis was dismantled and relocated from the Philae Island (one of the burying-places of Osiris, and thus held in high reverence both by Egyptians and Nubians) to the nearby (500m) Agilika Island in the 1960s, when the waters of the Nile partly flooded the site almost permanently"


"TEMPLE OF ISIS - First pylons with Isis"


"FAÇADE"


"COLUMNS & CAPITALS"


"ISIS, HORUS AND A PTOLOMAIC PHARAOH"


"DAMAGE - It seems that during the late Roman Empire, after the introduction of Christianity, there was an attempt to erase all the ancient «pagan idols»; the result was that most of the figures on the walls of the temple were scratched and broken..."


"RELIEFS - OFFERINGS"


"TEMPLE OF HATHOR"


"KIOSK OF TRAJAN - And the Sound and Light Theatre"


"SOUND AND LIGHT - The S&L at Philae is probably the best show of the temples near the Nile River..."


"SOUND AND LIGHT - Façade"


SOUND AND LIGHT - Inside and the damaged images"


"LIGHTS"


"GENERAL VIEW"


"THE MYTH OF OSIRIS and the end of the show"

ASWAN - UPPER EGYPT

ASWAN, EGYPT - FEBRUARY 2010


"FELUCCA - Early morning vision of the Nile"


"FELUCCAS - All day, sometimes without wind..."


"ASWAN FROM THE NILE - Including the "Old Cataract Hotel" (top left), where Agatha Christie wrote «Death on the Nile», and where Tsar Nicolas II, Winston Churchill, Egypt's King Farouk, Lady Diana and Princess Caroline of Monaco spent some time. Closed for restoration, it will reopen as Sofitel Legend in September 2011"



"ARCHANGEL MICHAEL'S COPTIC ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL - Consecrated in 2006, it is the Cathedral of the Egyptian Christians in Aswan"


"ASWAN VIEWS - Desert, Nile, Unfinished Obelisk, Aswan Dam, Mövenpick Hotel and USSR-style monument..."


"HENRY MOORE BY THE NILE"


"EGYPTIAN LA DIGUE"



"THE DESERT IS SO CLOSE"


"THE AGA KHAN MAUSOLEUM - The pink granite structure was built for Mohammed Shah Aga Khan, who was educated in Europe and succeeded his father to become the 48th imam. He was succeeded by his grandson, Karim AGa Khan upon his death in 1957. The Mausoleum is close to Aga Khan's white villa below, and is near the Monastery of St. Simeon on the west bank"


"PRIVATE ISLANDS"


"NUBIAN VILLAGE - In the Elephantine Island. The visit may be something between peculiar and a tourist trap..."


"HOTEL ISIS - Reflection"