Other inscriptions carved into the ancient stones telling a new force travelling out the Nile.-There's a cross here. Times changed. And Christianity came to the shrine. In fact, this became a base, from which monks went on missions to the south to convert the Nubians and other tribes to Christianity.

Egypt was Christian for hundreds of years, until Islam swept across North Africa. Today, Egypt is home to almost 18 million Muslims. It has the largest Muslim population in the middle east. But religious strife and political conflict dog this Nile state. Liberal and conservative Muslims are battling physically and intellecturally for the soul of the country. -There is a small but not insignificant group of Islamic fundamentalists in Egpyt. They want to tear temples like these down and destroy them. They want to rid Egpyt of this pre-Islamic past. They think these places are idolatrous. These are some of the greatest treasures of human civilization. Think to tear them down would be obscene, utterly obscene.