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The Temple of Isis on the island of Philae was originally located on a different island. When the old Aswan dam was built in 1898 the island became partially submerged under the rising waters for all but two months of the year. Visitors would sometimes visit the ruins in small boats, rowing between the pylons and columns to see the sights. (Even today one can still see the high water mark on many of the stones.) When the new Aswan dam was built, Lake Nasser was going to rise until the temple was totally submerged. To prevent this, the entire temple complex was disassembled and moved to this new island where it would once again be above water as it was originally. The new destination island itself was even sculpted to match the original. Today it remains one of the better preserved temples, with the added bonus of its impressive setting. To reach the Temple of Isis we drove from the cruise ship in a minivan, past the new dam and other sights of Aswan, to a point where we took a small boat out to the island.
This is the courtyard and second pylon of the temple. You can clearly see the
darkened high water marks on the columns and near the base of the pylon front. The huge
murals on the pylons are in much better shape than the ones on the pylons of some other
sites (Karnak, for example).
Outside the main temple is this structure, known as the kiosk (pavilion) of
Trajan. It was originally built by the Romans. Nearby are numerous stones that have not
yet been restored to their original location.
Another view of the kiosk, as seen from the seating area where one can see the
sound and light show that is presented in the evenings. (We couldn't stay for that, though
we saw the one at Giza and two at Mayan sites in the Yucatan.)
Here I am trying to make friends with a really motley stray cat in the temple
courtyard. Unfortunately I didn't have any food with me (Power Bars don't count).
