The Nubians, an ethnic group that originated from a region along the Nile river, were forced to leave their homeland in Egypt after a huge dam was built in the river in the 1960s. 

The Aswan dam created a huge reservoir that eventually flooded thousands of Nubian homes and turned the group into  the country's largest internally displaced community. 

The government of Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president, failed to fulfill promises of providing the community with proper houses, rendering them homeless in the desert. 

But some Nubians are optimistic that a new leader, after the country's first democratic election in decades would help them return to their ancestral homeland. Egyptians are set to go to the polls this week for the second round of the presidential vote. 

Jamal El-Shayyal reports from the southern city of Abu Simbel.