Near the city of Aswan, the Great Nile Dam, inaugurated in 1971, forever changed the geography of an entire region and the destiny of a population with its incredible past. Only the good will of UNESCO and the collaboration of the European states, tore the priceless treasures, testimonies of millennial civilizations from the waters of the nascent Lake Nasser, in a race against time more important than the Nile Valley, which would otherwise have sunk irreparably into the depths.

Entirely dismantled and reassembled over the course of twenty years, in a position set back from the shores that were progressively conquered by rising water levels, temples and monuments of various Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, Hellenistic-Roman, Coptic and Ottoman eras, the undisputed jewels of Nubia, were the subject of the most colossal safeguard campaign ever carried out. Sailing aboard a dahabeya and sailing between the first and second floodgates of the Nile, an area occupied today by the Nasser reservoir, we can only thank, for still being able to enjoy such a archaeological prodigy. If the need arises, the history of saving such architectural treasures adds even more pathos to the wonder cruise!