High Dam, Philae Temple & Unfinished Obelisk Tour

Your Egyptologist collects you from your hotel or cruise and drives you to the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970 with Soviet help. Nearly four kilometres long, it ended the annual Nile flood, created Lake Nasser, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world, and brought electricity to much of Egypt. From the top you get sweeping views over the lake on one side and the Nile on the other.

Take a short motorboat ride to Agilkia Island and the Temple of Isis at Philae, one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt. After the old Aswan Dam left it half under water for decades, UNESCO dismantled it in the 1970s and rebuilt it, stone by stone, on higher ground. Walk through its colonnaded forecourt and pylons, see the elegant Kiosk of Trajan by the water, and hear the myth of Isis and Osiris that made this island a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

Finish at the northern granite quarries, where ancient stonemasons cut the obelisks and colossal statues that stand in temples across Egypt. The Unfinished Obelisk, still lying in the bedrock, would have been about 42 metres tall, larger than any obelisk ever raised, but it was abandoned after a crack appeared. You can still see the marks of the workers' tools, which reveal exactly how the ancient Egyptians quarried granite, before you return to your hotel.