Philae Temple

Philae Temple is one of Egypt's most romantic monuments, a graceful temple to the goddess Isis that sits alone on an island in the Nile near Aswan, reached only by a short motorboat ride across the water. The approach, gliding toward pylons rising from the river, is half the experience.

The temple itself is a beautifully preserved Ptolemaic complex of colonnades, sanctuaries and reliefs, one of the last places where the old Egyptian religion survived into Roman times. Remarkably, the entire structure was dismantled and moved stone by stone in the 1970s to save it from the rising waters behind the Aswan dams.

Visit for the setting as much as the stonework: palm-fringed granite, blue water and a temple that seems to float. It is especially magical in the softer light of early morning.