Saturday, 10pm, a guy came to my hotel room to pick me up and take me to the train station. He decided to wait with me to be sure I got on the right one.
While we were waiting, he told me he is married to an older Canadian woman. He is 23 and she is 47. He said, "She knows I do not love her. I only married her to get my 'travel papers.'" I asked him, "Why in the world would a woman agree to that?" I asked this question knowing that a guy like him has no money or assets to offer her in return. He told me that she likes the idea of having a "man around." I'm thinking to myself, but she's in Canada and you're in Egypt.
I asked him how they met. He said that she was on holiday for 2 weeks. Seriously? A woman marries a random Egyptian guy after only 2 weeks and then goes back to Canada? I just don't get it. The thing is that this type of thing happens A LOT! Older, lonely (I assume), Western women marrying these young Egyptian guys I can only assume because they like the 
attention. It's very sad, and I don't know a single one of these relationships that has worked out. I can't even get in a cab or walk down the street without a guy trying to find out if I'm married. That's why I wear a "wedding ring" at all times.
Anyway, my train finally came. It is a 15 hour ride down to Aswan. The seats don't go back at all and the train was freezing cold. What a miserable ride. I arrived in Aswan in the morning. A guide met me at the train and to
ok me to my hotel. I had about an hour to freshen up before we (me and some other people) were picked up and taken to the Aswan Dam and Philae Temple.
The Aswan High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. It contains 18 times the material used in the Great Pyramid of Cheops. It is 11,811 ft. long, 3215 ft. thick at its base and 364 ft. tall. Its construction created a 30% increase of cultivatable land in Egypt and has doubled Egypt's available electric supply. It also created Lake Nassar, which at 500 miles long, is the world
's largest artificial lake.
Philae Temple is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was once believed to be one of the burying places of Osiris and was held in high reverence both by the Egyptians to the north and the Nubians to the south. No one but priests were allowed to dwell there since it was said the earth was part of Osiris's body, and it was
said that neither birds flew over it nor fish approached its shores.
During Roman times it was the island of the Goddess Isis and was a place of immense popularity where pilgrims would come from all over the Mediterranean. The temples were open until A.D. 550 when they were closed by Justinia
n; ending 4,000 years of worship of the pagan gods.
The "Kiosk" or Pharoah's Bed
Inside the Temple of Isis
While we were waiting, he told me he is married to an older Canadian woman. He is 23 and she is 47. He said, "She knows I do not love her. I only married her to get my 'travel papers.'" I asked him, "Why in the world would a woman agree to that?" I asked this question knowing that a guy like him has no money or assets to offer her in return. He told me that she likes the idea of having a "man around." I'm thinking to myself, but she's in Canada and you're in Egypt.
I asked him how they met. He said that she was on holiday for 2 weeks. Seriously? A woman marries a random Egyptian guy after only 2 weeks and then goes back to Canada? I just don't get it. The thing is that this type of thing happens A LOT! Older, lonely (I assume), Western women marrying these young Egyptian guys I can only assume because they like the 
attention. It's very sad, and I don't know a single one of these relationships that has worked out. I can't even get in a cab or walk down the street without a guy trying to find out if I'm married. That's why I wear a "wedding ring" at all times. Anyway, my train finally came. It is a 15 hour ride down to Aswan. The seats don't go back at all and the train was freezing cold. What a miserable ride. I arrived in Aswan in the morning. A guide met me at the train and to
ok me to my hotel. I had about an hour to freshen up before we (me and some other people) were picked up and taken to the Aswan Dam and Philae Temple.The Aswan High Dam was an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. It contains 18 times the material used in the Great Pyramid of Cheops. It is 11,811 ft. long, 3215 ft. thick at its base and 364 ft. tall. Its construction created a 30% increase of cultivatable land in Egypt and has doubled Egypt's available electric supply. It also created Lake Nassar, which at 500 miles long, is the world
's largest artificial lake.Philae Temple is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was once believed to be one of the burying places of Osiris and was held in high reverence both by the Egyptians to the north and the Nubians to the south. No one but priests were allowed to dwell there since it was said the earth was part of Osiris's body, and it was
said that neither birds flew over it nor fish approached its shores.During Roman times it was the island of the Goddess Isis and was a place of immense popularity where pilgrims would come from all over the Mediterranean. The temples were open until A.D. 550 when they were closed by Justinia
n; ending 4,000 years of worship of the pagan gods.
In 1960 UNESCO and the Egyptian Antiquity Organization started a project in order to try and save the buildings on the island from the destructive effect of the ever increasing waters of the Nile which was exacerbated by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Philae Temple was dismantled and reassembled on Agilika Island about 550 meters from its original home on Philae Island. You can still see the small number plates that were put on each piece that was moved. Some 40,000 blocks, weighing about 20,000 tons were moved to the new location which was carefully landscaped to make it resemble Philae as much as possible.
Inside the Temple of Isis
Inside the Temple of Isis
The "Kiosk" or Pharoah's Bed
Inside the Temple of Isis
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