New lighting system allows for night time temple forays

Kalabsha temple, west of Aswan's High Dam, has been given a new lighting system and the ground has been tiled with local sand stone.

During a field visit to Aswan this week, Gaballah Ali Gaballah, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), said the museum on Kalabsha island lying adjacent to the temple could now be visited at night due to the new lighting facility.

He said that a tourist marina west of the High Dam will be established giving tourist groups easy access to the archaeological sites and helping to increase the number of Aswan's tourist nights. "The area will be operational by next October," said Gaballah.

He said that the SCA is cooperating with the Nubian Antiquities Fund to restore and cleanse rock-carved temples on the banks of Lake Nasser, a project that will be completed next year.

The SCA is presently working at the uncompleted obelisk site where wastes are being removed in order to transform the site into an open-air museum depicting the way ancient Egyptians extracted granite from quarries to make obelisks.