Egypt. Day 2-3: Aswan and around

After visiting Cairo and Gizah, we took a train to travel as far south as possible, this is to Aswan. We bought two second class tickets for only 55 egyptian pounds each (something like 7 euros) and the trip took around 14 hours!!

Once in Aswan, we checked in our hostel and booked the tour to Abu Simbel for the next day. Afterwards, we just walked downtown and visited the Nubian Museum. Here I was trying to understand some hieroglyphics.



Next day, we woke up at 3 in the morning and joined the tour going to Abu Simbel. Due to security problems in the area, all tourists have to go together and escorted by a military convoy. The distance from Aswan to Abu Simbel is 270 km and took a bit less than 3 hours. During the trip, the Sun rose in the desert, offering breathtaking images! This photo could well have been taken in Mars!



After that, we were given 2 free hours to visit the temples. This is the Major Temple:



And this is the Minor Temple:



Back to Aswan, we stopped by Aswan High Dam, the unfinished obelisque and Philae Temple. Philae Temple was the coolest of the three. It is a Greco-roman temple in the middle of an island. We had to take a boat to get there. Pretty cool!

This is what it looked like from the boat:



And this is the entrance to the main temple:



In the afternoon, back in Aswan, we visited Elephantine Island, the biggest of the islands next to Aswan in the Nile river. The island has a Nubian town there and some museums and archeological remainings. The town was real Africa! The views from the edge of the island were incredible:



This is what the island looked like from Aswan.



At night, we walked the Souq (the bazaar) and packed. This is the Souq:



Next day we were going to Luxor, stopping in Kom Ombo and Edfu.