The Temple of the Goddess Isis at Philae was submerged by the Rising waters due to the construction of two Aswan Dams.

In the 1970s, the island of Philae, and the earthly home of the Goddess Isis was submerged by the rising waters, due to the construction of the two Aswan dams . The first dam had been built by the British in 1906.

Because of the dam, the only time Philae Island wasn't flooded was from July to October  when the dam sluices were open. And so if you wanted to visit the earthly home of the Goddess Isis during the Winter months, the only way that you could see the temple was by boat.

In 1960 UNESCO started a project to try to save the buildings on the Island.

A large coffer dam was built using  one million cubic meters of sand. Then a survey of the temples was made so that they would no exactly how to reconstruct the complex of temples.

The temples were cleaned as they had a lot of sediment on them from the River, and then all the  buildings on the Island were dismantled into about 40,000 units and then transported to the nearby Island of Agilkia, that was on higher ground a short distance from Philae Island near to Aswan.

The Complex of temples on the original Island were built during the last two centuries of the Greek rule of Egypt and the first three centuries AD of the Roman invasion and rule of Egypt. Both the Greeks and early Romans embraced the worship of the Goddess Isis, and in all of Egypt the Temple of Isis was the last temple to be closed, when the Emperor Justinian outlawed the worship of the Egyptian Gods, and some of the chambers inside the temple of Isis were converted for the use of Christian worship. In one relief that I noticed in particular of the Goddess Isis, her face has been completely obliterated by a deep cut Coptic cross to subdue her ancient powers.

In this photograph the tourists are just passing the Kiosk of Tragan that is also known as 'Pharaoh's Bed'. It was built by the Roman Emperor Trajan, and the reliefs inside the kiosk show Trajan as a pharaoh making offerings to the Goddess Isis, her husband Osiris, and their son Horus. The kiosk has 14 massive columns that have beautifully carved floral capitals.