The waters of the Nile weave past the island of Agilkia where the Temple of Philae now stands, its thick granite columns visible behind desert brush. The first thing you’re likely to encounter are the majestic granite lions, their features fearsome despite being eroded by relentless desert winds. The gateway is a gaping 18m tall access flanked by two towers and raised reliefs featuring the Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos in the midst of heroic acts of courage. Past the First Pylon lies the Forecourt and the Birth House dedicated to the god Horus. Each turn brings you to sketches cut away from the granite by the determined tip of a chisel, the harsh brown stone worked away carefully by the devoted hands of craftsmen. The Second Pylon then, is the final frontier before you make your way to the inner sanctum of the gods. Vestibules to the east and west hide further tales of the gods and the rulers of the land, provisions for the priests and other remnants of life back then. There is little evidence that the temple was once at risk of being completely submerged. The construction of the High Aswan Dam had in fact threatened to sink this tremendous monument and necessitated a fantastical rescue operation. This involved constructing a wall around the expansive temple grounds before forcefully pumping the water out from within. Stone by stone, the temple had been painstakingly shifted to safer grounds as an exact replica of its original layout. Surviving an architectural impossibility, past a dozen conquering regimes and the merciless claws of time, the Temple of Philae is one of the final gateways to the ways of a monumental human civilization.