This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw.

Saturday October 31, 2015

Egypt: Day 10, Part 1 – Philae Temple

It was another early day, and the food for breakfast wasn’t that great. Now I’m not a breakfast person anyway, but even their potatoes were tasteless. Then it was time to board a bus to Philae Temple. When arrived we were once again accosted by numerous sellers. And this was before we even exited the bus! After Mikel got us tickets we had to run the gambit of numerous sellers all the way down to the water. (In fact I think one guy was still selling to us as we boarded the boat!) But once we were on the water it was calm and quiet again. (Although it was sad to see hundreds of unused boats tied up in the marina.)

View of the original island that would get flooded.

philae_firstview

Tip, if you want to see the temple from the water, sit on the left side. I got chills as we moved towards the island and the Pylons came into view! I could also see the columned courtyard! (I was struck by the memory earlier in the year when I visited Toronto’s ROM and they had a detailed model of this temple.)

philae_hathpor

philae_pylon2

philae_pylon3

philea_pano1

philae_pano2

When we got off the boat and started walking around it was apparent we were the only people there. Mikel tried to give us a tour, but we were all so awestruck that we were darting this way and that to explore and take photos. Mikel kept reminding us that we’d have plenty of time to explore later.

copticcross_2

He showed us how early christians had defaced the carvings, and even carved their own crosses and alter into the stones when they lived and worshiped here to escape prosecution.

philae_inner2

philae_inner1

philae_scantuary

philae_h5

philae_hadrian

We saw the inner sanctuary and then exited to the back. The ruins at the back were dedicated by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (which include a wall built by Hadrian). We then had free time. I knew I wanted to spend a lot of time at a ruin known for another Roman Emperor’s, Trajan’s Kiosk, so I decided to run amok the rest of the island first, taking photos, before spending the last while at the famed Kiosk.

philae_inner3

philea_columns1

I roamed around, essentially alone. The 16 people in our group all split off, and so I would see at most one other person at any one time. Occasionally you’d bump into someone and ask them to take your photo. But beyond that, you just explored on your own.

philae_pylon1

philae_clumns2

philae_columns4

philae_columns3

So of course I took many photos!

trajan_3

Then I finally made my way to Trajan’s Kiosk. In college I had taken an Ancient Architecture and Art class, as well as a Ancient Egyptian culture class. So I knew a lot of the Roman Emperor Trajan, and was geeking out. After taking more photos here, I headed to the small shopping/cafe to meet the others. It was hot so I grabbed some ice cream, (a weird but delicious combination of chocolate-brownie on one side and vanilla-caramel on the other) and happily ate it on the way back to the boat. I could have probably spent a few more hours exploring this little island, but it was time to go. On the way back I suggest sitting again on the left side, so you can get a shot of the famous Trajan’s Kiosk view of it on the water.

trajan_water