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An important pilgrimage site in antiquity, the island of Philae has fascinated travelers for centuries. On this rock rising from the Nile, nicknamed the "pearl of Egypt", powerful rulers have built monumental sanctuaries from the time of the last pharaohs to the Romans. Subsequently, the temples were looted, vandalized or transformed, before the successive construction of two dams in the 20th century sealed the fate of the island. To save the precious vestiges from the rising waters, an international campaign coordinated by UNESCO was undertaken in the 1970s. The objective: to dismantle the monuments stone by stone to rebuild them on a neighboring island.