The Nile City of Aswan, Egypt🇪🇬 | Philae Temple, Unfinished Obelisk, Elephantine Island, & High Dam

Описание: My last video in Egypt for now is finally done, and I am really excited to upload this one because it was a truly unique experience at the southern edge of Egypt in a region of the world called Nubia! The video begins with a drive from the city of Luxor down south to the last major city in Southern Egypt, Aswan. Instead of driving around the dam and then to the city center, I told my driver to just drop me off with all my things at the Monastery of St. Simeon. It might have been a bad idea, but I was able to find a local guy to take me to my hotel with his boat just across the Nile to Elephantine Island. After settling in and exploring around the island, I arranged a driver to visit the Aswan Dams and the Philae Temple. Exploring the Philae Temple could have been my favorite site not just because of the Ancient Egyptian history, but also because it can only be visited using a boat, which is pretty unique for a historical site like that. When my driver finally brought me back to the ferry transport, I decided to push on and explore around the actual city of Aswan. My first stop was a small cafe not too far from the Nile where I bought 2 portions of Falafel Pita for 16¢ each, which is by far the best deal for food I've ever had. The falafel was not any 5 star quality food, but definitely better than falafel I've had in Canada. After talking to some locals, and a good meal I vistied the largest Church in Aswan called the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of the Archangel Michael. They offer a free tour, and as a tip you can purchase at the store for a dollar or two, but it is not required, so if you are looking for a quick tour I think it's a good trade. But anyways my goal to end the day was to finally seeing the famous Unfinished Obelisk, which I have heard about 5 years ago on the Joe Rogan Podcast with Randall Carlson and after so much time I can finally see it in person. To get there you can either take a taxi from the center or just walk there for 30ish minutes. I decided to take the walk, and it was definitely worth it. After two mountain dews I finally got to the Ancient Site. The Unfinished Obelisk site is found at a Granite Quarry where the Ancient Egyptians carved blocks, and obelisks with an untold amount of weight, and somehow still transported these granite pieces to Thebes, Giza, Alexandria, and Memphis hundreds of kilometers away. To end off my tour of the great City of Aswan I took a swim in the Nile River not only to cool off from a 40 degree weather day, but also to just write that in the bucket list haha. The water in Cairo is very unsafe to swim in, and in Luxor I did see from kids swimming it is consider unsafe as well, so finally when I got to Aswan, I figured it is now or never. I loved my time in Aswan, and in Egypt I will definitely come back to meet more amazing people and one day to see the Siwa Oasis, Alexandria, Sinai, and the Red Sea.


Also I would like to mention that I didn't have more time in Aswan to see the Nubian Village, but I highly recommend it if you are visiting, and hopefully you can find a Nubian Crocodile at the village haha.


↓Check out my Instagram where I post the photos of my travels usually before a video gets released↓

  / tomgretzky  


I'm not sponsored by any companies, but they were nice enough to allow me to film, and were accommodating, which I really appreciate.

↓Here is the link for the place I stayed at on Elephantine Island↓
https://www.booking.com/Share-DhBVyh


0:00 Luxor to Aswan
2:33 Monastery of St. Simeon
11:06 Boat Ride on the Nile River
14:14 Baba Dool
17:35 Elephantine Island
19:44 Downtown Aswan
20:42 Aswan Low Dam
21:59 Aswan High Dam
24:31 Soviet-Egyptian Friendship Monument
28:12 Lake Nasser
30:20 Philae Temple
37:38 Temple of Augustus
38:55 Kiosk of Trajan
42:08 16¢ Falafel
44:30 Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of the Archangel Michael
47:59 Walk Through Residential Aswan
51:05 Unfinished Obelisk
58:15 Swimming in the Nile River