Philae Temple
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Nubian Monuments From Abu Simbel To Philae (1979). The Temple Of Isis, The Last Place Where The Ancient Egyptian Religion Was Still Practised Into The Sixth Century AD, Moved Block By Block To A New Island When The High Dam Flooded Its Own · Aswan, Aswan
The temple of Isis at Philae was the last place where the old Egyptian religion was still being practised - inscriptions here run into the sixth century AD, long after the rest of Egypt had become Christian, and the Coptic crosses cut into its walls by the monks who eventually took it over are part of the record. Then the dams came. The first Aswan dam left the temple standing in water for most of each year, and the High Dam would have submerged it permanently, so between 1972 and 1980 the whole complex was dismantled into some forty thousand pieces and rebuilt on the neighbouring island of Agilkia, which was reshaped to match the original. You reach it by motorboat from the Shellal landing, which is half the pleasure: a Ptolemaic temple on a granite island in the middle of the Nile, approached across open water, with Trajan's kiosk standing at the edge of it. Negotiate the boat fare before you step in.
On Agilkia island in the Nile above the old Aswan dam, reached by motorboat from the Shellal landing, Aswan, Aswan, Egypt
Open daily from early morning to late afternoon, shorter in winter, with an evening sound and light show that is reached by the same boats and is one of the better ones in Egypt. Boats run from the Shellal landing south of Aswan whenever there are passengers, and the fare is negotiated rather than fixed - agree it, and the waiting time, before boarding, because the boatman controls your return. Mid-morning brings the Aswan tour groups and the cruise-boat excursions together; the first hour after opening and the late afternoon are much quieter and the light is better at both. Taxis from Aswan take about twenty minutes to the landing. The site itself is small enough to see in an hour, which makes it an easy pairing with the Unfinished Obelisk or the High Dam on the same trip.