Deep Down in the South

Just getting round to cleaning up the photos on the Mac after Christmas and getting the blog up to date as I have been a bit lax recently.  When we went down south to fish for big 'uns  in Lake Nasser we had a couple of days in the main city of the region, Aswan.  

It has a beautiful setting on the banks of the Nile.  I mainstay is tourism but judging by the number of hibernating cruise boats times are tough in the tourist industry now.  A really nice place, a bit hassley but no different from Cairo (not excessive like Luxor).  Heres some images from our stay, did not have time to do any dedicated photography but its worth doing there im sure. 

Parked cruise ships, feluccas, motor boats and rowers - the Nile is the lifeblood of Aswan.

Numerous Feluccas await tourists.....

The shadow family at the unfinished obelisk

The unfinished obelisk, left in the granite quarry as it developed a tensile fracture whilst being quarried.

Young T and Mrs T wondering about the genesis of the T-type Nubian granite 

More fractured Nubian granite on the way to Philae Temple

Arriving at Philae temple, moved onto this island to escape the Aswan Dam water rise.

Philae Temple

The Chrisitans took over the temple and vandalised the heiroglyphs

Orisis with two balls !?!

The tourist crush outside the main Philae Temple

More vandalism, this by the French soldiers shooting (19C)

Nice

The small print

The guard was like a coiled spring.....

Sunlight

View from the temple

Greek, Roman and Egyptian style side temple.

View from the tower of the Movenpick, sunset with beer in hand - great

Sunset over the Nile

Three free Feluccas

Aswan by Night

The Lemon man, Aswan Market. 

The Movenpick hotel on an island in the Nile.  Built by the Russians, they knew how to be sensitive to local culture in their architectural desgin - based on a traffic control tower? 

Boys with hand-paddles

This is Aswan