Egypt at it's best!

We travelled form Cairo to Aswan in aprox. 13 hours. We took the train at 19:00 and arrived at 8:00 the next day. Also, the price for the train varries from $3 to $9 ( from 47 to 142 egiptian pounds ).

Day 1,

We arrived in Aswan's train station and immediately rented a car, because we decided it's best to visit the prestigious Abu Simbel first. The car costed around $18/day ( 284 egyptian pounds ) and the fuel costs from $9 to $14 ( from 142 to 221 egyptian pounds ). We arrived in 4 and a half hours, at 1 p.m. It was worth the ride. Sitting on the bank of Lake Nasser, not far from Egypt’s border with Sudan, sit the twin temples of Abu Simbel. These temples were built by Ramesses II over 3,000 years ago, to display the might of ancient Egypt. When the Aswan High Dam was constructed in the 1960’s, the rising water levels threatened to flood the temples. Both temples were painstakingly dismantled and then reassembled on higher ground. The inside of the temples was beautiful ( I also showed some photos of the temple ) and the allmighty temples themselves were huge. You can get there by land or by plane ( faster, but more expensive ), as there is an airport called Abu Simbel Airport. After visiting Abu Simbel, we drove back to Aswan. We arrived at 7 p.m and decided that we stay one more day to visit the beauties the city offers. My friends and I booked rooms at Marhaba Palace Hotel. The starting price for a room is $40/night ( or 631 egyptian pounds ) and it's located near the city center. We ate dinner at the hotel and chilled in our rooms for the rest of the day.

Day 2,

The second day was a nice, relaxing day with just a few places to visit. First, we walked to the Unfinished Obelisk, the largest known obelisk in the world. It still sits in a stone quarry in Aswan since it cracked during excavation. This obelisk is famous for the material used for it's construction, the red granite and for the immense lenght of it, 41 meters. After seeing the Obelisk, we took a pleasant ride on the Nile river to see the Philae Temple, one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt. Near the Philae Temple, there is a nice restaurant, which offers an amazing view over the temple. We ate lunch there, the food was delicious and the services were decent. We ended the day with a visit to the Nubian Village. Some people love a visit here, some think it’s a tourist trap. We liked it, but it was fun arriving by boat, shopping, and seeing the camels that walked through the city streets. We dined at Al Dokka, a restaurant with great food, service and amazing views of the Nile River and Elephantine Island. Then, we walked to our hotel and watched a match of soccer in the hub.