Majestic Island-Temple
Nile Valley, Egypt
Dramatically saved from the rising waters of the Nile, Philae - centre of an Isis cult - remains the draw it was when wealthy Victorian travellers visited during their winter holidays. These early western travellers were only doing so in the footsteps of countless others who had been making pilgrimages to what is one of Egypt’s most romantic temples.
Background
With a history dating back to the 7th century BCE most of what we see at Philae today is of a later period, when the cult dedicated to the worship of Isis was at its height. In the early Christian era the cult was still alive providing a rival to this new religion and indeed even as late as the 6th century AD the temple was in use. It was closed in 550AD by Justinian. The construction of the old Aswan Dam created a reservoir behind it which flooded the temple bi-annually, so, with the coming of the High Dam, UNESCO carefully de-constructed it moving it to an island landscaped to resemble the original, but some 20 metres higher.