The High Dam of Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 25) 02D19

Aswan High Dam – The World's Largest Embankment Dam | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After reaching the Aswan High Dam, we got off our bus to experience this manmade miracle, an impressive two-mile engineering feat of the 1960s.

The Aswan High Dam was built during the reign of Gamal Abdel Nasser, with Soviet help (400 Soviet experts and engineers worked on the dam). At a cost of 1 Billion dollars, construction started in 1960 and ended in 1970.

The Dam is 3,850 meters (12,565 feet) long, 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) wide and 111 meters (364 feet) high. The volume of the dam's body is 43 million cubic meters of cement, iron and other materials, and a water flow of up to 11,000 cubic meters of water can pass through the dam.

The Aswan High Dam has Lake Nasser, which is the largest artificial lake in the world, on the south side and the Nile River on the Northside. The idea is to stop the Nile from flooding and reserve the water in the lake during a flood and use the water during a drought.

The Aswan High Dam virtually eliminated the danger of floods and can hold 132 cubic kilometres (31.7 cubic miles) of water in Lake Nasser, generating 2.1 gigawatts of hydropower at the dam wall.

We had limited time to view the Dam. It had picturesque views on both sides, with the sun reflecting on the waters. I spent time taking pictures and videos.

I saw Egyptian Army troops guarding the Dam with heavy weapons. There were also police working with them.

We would be heading to the Philae Temple from here, which is located on an island.

Breakfast at a Restaurant in Aswan Near the Airport | Aswan

Just Arrived in Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 24) 02D20

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Our bus stopped at the Aswan airport to pick up our tour mates who flew overnight from Cairo instead of taking long bus trip. However, they had to leave the Oasis hotel in Giza so early (around 4 AM) that my long bus trip was not all that bad in comparison.

My sun blocker was in my bag, which was in the luggage compartment of the bus. I asked our tour guide if I could take it out from the bag. He mentioned that there are regulations that busses cannot open the luggage compartment (or at least busses that not are commercially licensed to operate at the airport) in the area, so I had to wait for us to leave the airport to get my sunscreen.

Today’s breakfast was included in the tour package. The restaurant was a large separate facility in the airport area, but not connected to the airport. Our bus parked right in front of it in the parking lot.

I went to use the washroom to freshen up. The line was not too long. Once I returned, I saw most of our tour mates sitting together. Our tour guide handed us our pre-made breakfasts one by one.

It was nothing fancy. It looked like a pita bread stuffed with falafel or something like that. It tasted OK, but nothing great and not too spicy.

The free breakfast catch was that it didn’t come with a drink, so everyone was forced to buy an overpriced drink. I already had bottled water, so I only bought a coffee. The coffee was not that great either, but after a long bus ride and no sleep it felt like heaven.

From here we would go to the famous High Dam of Aswan. We were scheduled to go to the hotel first, but due to lack of time we were to finish all our excursions first and then go to our hotel.

Desert Stars - 16 Hours Overnight Bus Continues | Cairo to Aswan

Overnight Bus to Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 23) 01D20

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After the last stopover, our tour bus kept moving and the highways took us cutting through the desert. This was the first time I experienced skies full of stars in the middle of the desert. 

What I regret about this is that I was not able to take pictures or videos because the bus was in motion. I have never thought that stars can be that bright and skies can be so close to the earth.

It felt like the sky was falling over head and the stars looked like they could be touched by hand. The desert in the middle of nowhere, the pitch black surrounding, the skies, the bright desert stars above us - the whole environment felt like I was on a different planet.

I saw that my other tour mates were sleeping and they missed these unique moments, which they would probably never get another chance in life to observe.

The star-moments didn’t last too long. Very soon our route took us away from the desert and the stars were gone.

A little later, I started to see the sun coming out and the world outside started to unfold in the daylight. We were passing small towns and villages and I started seeing people on the street or outside their homes. The general population in this southern region seemed to be darker and have distinctive features.

We were supposed to go to our hotel first to freshen up, but we were already behind schedule so our tour guide decided to finish sightseeing first and then check in at the hotel.

We were heading to the airport to pick up our other tour mates who flew over, instead of taking the bus.

Lots of Police Check Posts - 16 Hours Overnight Bus Continues | Cairo to Aswan

Overnight Bus to Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 22) 01D20

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After a couple of hours, long bus ride fatigue started to kick in. I can never sleep when I am on the move. I noticed most of my tour mates were sleeping comfortably.

It felt like a never-ending, long, dark night. What was annoying was that every hour or so there was a police check post. Our bus had to stop and get approved by the police to pass. I haven’t seen this type of stringent police checking anywhere else. This pointed to Egypt’s large-scale problem with terrorist threats. However, this time-consuming process also in place for tourists’ safety.

At one check post, the police took the armed officer inside and hold the bus for so long that I got worried. I had a bad feeling about this long holdup. After endlessly waiting, the officer came back and the bus started again. Later on, I was told the long wait was a result of an expired bus permit, but it was resolved, and that’s what caused the wait.

We had 3 breaks overnight, usually every 2 hours. The Highway Rest Areas or highway service plazas felt different in Egypt because of their location in the middle of the desert. The first service rest area was big with lots of stores and eating places. As we moved further, the services stops were small with minimal facilities.

I got off at each stop to walked around, used the washroom, and had coffee or tea. One of the 2 armed officers kept a strict eye on me and escorted me when I walked back from the plaza to the bus. Most of the other passengers stayed on the bus and slept.

What do stars look like in the middle of the desert? Coming in the next post!

Overnight Bus to Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 21) 01D19

16 Hours Overnight Bus Continues | Cairo to Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Once the bus started to move, I settled in on the top level near the window. Everyone sat far from each other, so I had all the seats in my row to myself. There was traffic, so it took more than an hour to pass Giza and reach Cairo.

It was already dark and the vistas from Cairo’s nightlife started to unfold in front of my eyes. The intense, chaotic, noisy, and crowded streets were mind-blowing. I was mesmerized by Cairo at night and fell deeply in love with the city.

There were bazaars and roadside shops all over the place. Places were so crowded that I couldn’t grasp the extent of it. Tea stalls and cheap restaurants were all over and really crowded. There were fish markets and fruit & vegetable markets on the streets everywhere.

Cairo seemed to be getting crowded as the night was maturing. The ancient, sprawling mega-metropolis has another face at night. The city streets were flooded with too much bright lights and the streets were vibrant, colorful, and full of life.

One of our tour mates wanted to stop by a confectionary to grab water and snacks. Two armed officers followed her to the store while the bus was stopped. I doubt tourists anywhere else get this type of royal treatment.

The tour coach operators took a break too. I saw them smoking and drinking tea from a tea stall. There were two operators to give one another break; the journey was too long for one operator to make it. They were well dressed in a suit and tie.

As we crossed the city perimeter, darkness took over. We would continue through the night and will stop at 3 service stations before reaching Aswan.