Long drives, hot sun, and Amazing Ruins
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2007
1
6
15
Trip End
Nov 18, 2007
Abu Simbel,
Egypt
Sunday, November 4, 2007
We left the hotel at 3:30am to get into a convoy going to the Abu Simbel temple. We got to the convoy sight at 3:40am and proceeded to wait until 4:20am to leave. I had assumed that we would be one big line of buses and vans heading there as they had all of the vehicled lined up waiting to go... but no, as soon as the drivers got the signal, they all hopped back into their vehicles and sped off in no order whatsoever. It was a free for all. As it turns out, it seems that it is less of a convoy and more of just passing through several check points along the way where they logged every vehicle to make sure that all of them made it down there and back. Amazingly, we were one of the first to arrive at the convoy site but one of the last groups to arrive at the temple [so why did we have to get up at 3:00am?]. It worked out ok though as towards the end of our stay the crowds had thinned out and we were able to get some better pictures.
Anyways, about Abu Simbel... It is the temple of Ramses II. You have probably seen pictures of it, 4 big sitting statues of Ramses II adorn the front. It was carved out of the rock along with another temple that Ramses II had built for his favorite wife, Nefertari. They were simply magnificent. When you walk into Ramses temple there are several more standing statues [floor to ceiling] that line the walkway that just make you awe struck and know that you are in a great and meaningful place. In one of the rooms, you could see where they outlined the relief that was to be carved into the wall but never finished it. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside the temples, but think we got some good ones of the outside. The temples were actually moved from their original site in the late 60s by Unesco as they would have been lost to Lake Nasser when they built the High Dam. They now sit a couple hundred feet above where they were originally built. It is hard to believe that they were able to accomplish this task because you wouldn't really know it to look at the temples.
After our visit at Abu simbel, we headed back toward Aswan and stopped off briefly at the High Dam and then went to the Philae Temple which is the Temple of Isis. We had to ride a felucca out to the island that the Philae temple is on, also moved due to the High Dam. It was great, hardly any tourists, and had fantastic reliefs and architecture. There is a fair amount of graffiti at the various sites, mainly from the 1800s where visitors would carve their names and year. At Philae, there were Greek crosses carved into the walls in several places as it was used as a church around 500AD. So, very interesting.
Did I mention that it was hot this afternoon at Philae? It easily was 100 degrees if my Texas internal thermometer is right. I can't imagine how anyone could do this trip in the middle of summer.
As for Kev, his throat is still bothering him, but he was a trooper today. Hopefully, it will go away soon. Tomorrow, we are spending the entire day and night on a large felucca floating north towards Luxor with a few stops along the way. We will have no bathroom facilities except for a toilet tent [hole in the ground and with western toilet on top] they constuct at our night stop. So, should be interesting but very relaxing we hope.
Well, probably will not be able to post again until Tues at the earliest since we will be floating on the Nile all day tomorrow.
