The morning started with a motor boat trip upstream from the Viking Aton. We passed through many habitats holding a myriad of birds. Quite satisfying. Along the way, we passed the former residence and mausoleum of Aga Khan III, who was the head of the Shia dynasty and died in 1957. Eventually, we visited a Nubian village. The Nubians are a dark-skinned race in southern Egypt and northern Sudan that was displaced by the rising waters of Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High Dam. About 100,000 Nubians were relocated, most to the Aswan area. There we were allowed in a home. Very colorful, but I had to wonder if it wasn’t embellished a tad for tourists. We also visited a Nubian pre-school. The children were so cute singing us children’s songs in English and French. Even at this age, they are taught English, Arabic and Nubian, in addition to math and science.
Next, we were bussed to Philae Temple. An island-based temple, it was constructed around 525 BC. However, like the Temples at Abu Simbel, Philae Temple was threatened with inundation by the rising waters of the reservoir behind the low dam. So as part of the international effort to save as many archeological artifacts as possible it was moved to its current island location. We finished the morning tour with a visit to a papyrus art business. It is a fascinating process to make the paper-like papyrus, and the art printed on the sheets was beautiful.
After reboarding, the Viking Aton sailed a short distance downstream to Kom Ombo where another brief temple tour was offered. We decided additional cabin rest was more important at this point.