The lake is not scenery — it is the reason everything at Abu Simbel is where it is. When the Aswan High Dam closed in 1970 it created a reservoir roughly 500 km long, stretching from Aswan deep into Sudan, up to 35 km wide and 180 metres deep. It gave Egypt reliable irrigation and electricity. It also drowned Old Nubia: 44 villages, thousands of years of settlement, and very nearly the temples themselves.
What is left is one of the emptiest and most beautiful stretches of water in Africa. The shoreline is bare sandstone and desert; there are no towns for a hundred kilometres at a time; crocodiles bask on the sandbanks and Nile perch weighing over 100 kg live in the deep water. From the terrace at Abu Simbel the view is simply hard blue water, hard yellow rock and nothing else at all.
Top things to do at Lake Nasser
See the temples from the water
Lake Nasser cruise boats between Aswan and Abu Simbel moor overnight in front of the temples. Seeing the facade from the lake — the angle the Nile traveller was meant to have — is a completely different experience from arriving by bus.
Watch sunset from the temple terrace
Late afternoon light turns the sandstone orange and the lake almost purple. Anyone staying the night in Abu Simbel gets this to themselves.
Fish for Nile perch
The lake is a world-famous sport fishery, with catch-and-release safaris out of Aswan chasing Nile perch and tigerfish across empty water.
Look for the drowned monuments
Several rescued Nubian temples — Kalabsha, Beit el-Wali, Wadi es-Sebua, Amada — were relocated to new sites along the lake shore, and are reachable on longer Lake Nasser itineraries.
How to get to Lake Nasser
- At Abu Simbel the lake is right there: the temple terrace stands directly above it, and the village has a lakeside promenade.
- Lake Nasser cruises run between Aswan and Abu Simbel over three to four nights and are the most comfortable way to see the shoreline temples.
- Nile cruises between Aswan and Luxor sail the river rather than the lake, but most add an overland or air excursion to Abu Simbel.
- Do not swim. Lake Nasser has a healthy Nile crocodile population and the shore drops away steeply.
- The lake is at its most photogenic in the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset, when the water goes from white glare to deep blue.
- Bring binoculars if you are on a cruise — the shoreline birdlife is exceptional, and the temples are best picked out from a distance.
Best tours & tickets for Lake Nasser
These top-rated experiences are the easiest way to see Lake Nasser:
Private overnight tour From Aswan: Abu Simbel 2-Day Private Tour with Felucca Ride
The antidote to the 03:00 start. Spreading Abu Simbel across two days lets you visit the temples when almost everyone else has gone, and adds the thing most day trips cut: an evening under sail on the Nile, drifting past Elephantine Island as the granite hills go pink. Rated 4.8 by travellers, and the closest thing on GetYourGuide to a proper Nubian mini-break.
- Two unhurried days instead of one exhausting one
- Traditional felucca sail on the Nile at Aswan
- Private guide in Arabic, English, French, German or Spanish
Nile cruise from $390 From Aswan: 4-Day Nile Cruise to Luxor with Abu Simbel & Balloon
The classic Upper Egypt itinerary, with Abu Simbel added at the front. You board in Aswan, run the overland excursion to Abu Simbel, then sail slowly downstream to Luxor, stopping at Kom Ombo and Edfu on the way and finishing with a balloon flight over the Valley of the Kings at dawn. Meals, guiding and site entries are handled; you unpack once. At 4.5 stars from 500+ travellers it is the best-reviewed way to combine Abu Simbel with the rest of the Nile.
- Three nights aboard a cruise ship, full board
- Abu Simbel, Philae, Kom Ombo, Edfu and the Luxor temples
- Sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the Theban west bank
