Travel: Lake Nasser

canada.com (Peter Wilson)

For those wanting a quieter stretch of Nile cruising, a three- or four-night cruise on Lake Nasser is the perfect way to discover the wonders of ancient Egypt. The world's largest man-made lake, Lake Nasser was formed by the construction of the Aswan High Dam, near the popular tourist destination of Aswan. Spread out deep into what was the ancient Nubian kingdom in Upper Egypt, the lake is some 550 km long and 35 km across at its widest point near the Tropic of Cancer.

The dam was an incredible 12-year construction project, but equally impressive was the major relocation program led by UNESCO teams that saw important archaeological sites dismantled block by block and moved to higher ground as the Nile waters began to rise.

Abu Simbel was probably the most significant and certainly the most impressive site to be rescued. Part of a Lake Nasser cruise itinerary includes a visit to the fabulous spot, along with visits to other rescued projects that are more remote and less visited, such as the temples of Dakka and Meharakka at Wadi El Seboua and the Temples of Amada and Derr and the tomb of Penout, all at Amada.

While a Lake Nasser cruise offers access to these important sites, the good news is that the massive lake has only a half dozen cruise ships working its waters. With those kind of numbers, it's not surprising that aboard the MS Kasr Ibrim you feel the lake and the surrounding desert landscape came straight out of the pages of an Agatha Christie novel.

See the above for more. If it is of any interest, I summarized the practicalities of the trip I took to Lake Nasser in March 2007 on a post on the blog last year.