Abu Simbel

Travel overland to Abu Simbel for an overnight stay. Upon arrival, we’ll explore the ancient relics and structures for which the area is known. We’ll see this ancient wonder fully intact, with its huge guardian statues and elaborate depictions of famous battles on the inner walls of Ramses’ Temple. It has been said that this famed king was something of a narcissist—we’ll see ample evidence of that here in the sheer number of objects depicting him, including a mammoth statue in which his head appears to support the weight of the entire temple. The massive colossi of Ramses II were an expression of Egypt’s might and its dominance over the Nubian kingdom.

When Lake Nasser was created as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, some 100,000 Nubians were displaced. Not only did the High Dam’s construction upend the lives of Nubians, but it appeared that the massive temples of Abu Simbel—hewn out of the solid cliff in the 13th century B.C.—were doomed to vanish beneath the rising waters of Lake Nasser. But the entire complex was cut into 1,036 blocks (weighing eleven tons each), and thanks to the labor of 25,000 workers over three years, was moved 200 feet up the cliffs and safely re-established above the new water level.

Abu Simbel is a temple built by Ramesses II (c. 1279-1213 B.C.E.) in ancient Nubia, where he wished to demonstrate his power and his divine nature. Four colossal (65 feet/20 meters high) statues of him sit in pairs flanking the entrance.

The four colossal statues of Ramses in front of the main temple are spectacular examples of ancient Egyptian art. By means of a complex engineering feat in the 1960s, the temples were salvaged from the rising waters of the Nile River caused by erection of the Aswan High Dam.Read more