It is Egypt's ancient center for the cult of Isis, the Temples of Philae were venerated from the Pharaonic era through the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods with each ruler making their own additions to the stones here. This sacred site has dazzled travelers since the first Nile cruises set off from Cairo and is one of Nubia's most important monument sites. Saved from a watery grave by UNESCO's rescue project during the building of the Aswan High Dam, the temples were transferred block by block from their original place on Philae Island to Agilika Island

After 10 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in Egypt is completed on July 21, 1970. More than two miles long at its crest, the massive $1 billion dam ended the cycle of flood and drought in the Nile River region, and exploited a tremendous source of renewable energy, but had a controversial environmental impact. A dam was completed at Aswan, 500 miles south of Cairo, in 1902. The first Aswan dam provided valuable irrigation during droughts but could not hold back the annual flood of the mighty Nile River. In the 1950s, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser envisioned building a new dam across the Nile, one large enough to end flooding and bring electric power to every corner of Egypt.