Island temple of Philea

Island temple of Philea
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

On the first afternoon, we were herded into a minivan for some sightseeing. I met a couple other Americans (Texans, actually) in the minivan so we passed the time talking about their experiences in Egypt. I later found out that the dude only ate at McDonald's while he was in Egypt. Nice one.
Anyways, we first visited the High Dam, which was not so much of a tourist sight, but a place of national pride for Egyptians, I guess. There are two dams along the Nile that powers much of the area, a lower dam and a high dam. We had to pay 8 LE to "see" the high dam. Imagine my utter boredom. It is not much larger than the smallest dam I have ever seen. It's actually on par with a reservoir wall. How pathetic.
The second visit was to the island temple of Philea. This had to be moved when the dam was created, as part of a massive UNESCO project. This is actually not unique to the Philea temple.
The temple was in good condition with good examples of hieroglyphics and carvings on the limestone. Our tour guide was of no use whatsoever unfortunately so I can't tell you anything about this temple.