Abu Simbel

Up at 3.30am for a 4.15am departure to see Abu Simbel which is only 50Km from the Sudanese border, travelling through a real life desert. As we drove, we also passed acres and acres of crops growing in the middle of the Western Sahara!! This is apparently due to them having to use some of the water from the dam when there’s too much, so rather than just “opening the flood gates”, the water is diverted to literally the middle of nowhere to grow crops. The intention is that by 2030, Egypt will not only be self sufficient with grains, corn, potatoes etc but they will have enough to export.
At about 8.15am we arrived. Fortunately we all
slept most of the way.
Abu Simbel is the site of two ginormous temples built by Ramses II around 3500 years ago. The four colossal statues of Ramses II in front of the main temple are absolutely spectacular with each one being about 25m high. In yet another example of engineering brilliance , the temples were relocated from the rising waters of the Nile River caused by erection of the Aswan High Dam. There was apparently 50 counties involved in dismantling and re-erecting the temples on higher ground. It’s amazing what can happen when people work together.
I reckon the process of relocating the statues, the entire temple labyrinth and the actual mountain itself is almost as impressive as the construction of the original temples.
It was moved 200m and 65m higher than the original location. Inside each temple there are loads of rooms all decorated with amazing hieroglyphics showing battle scenes and offerings to The Gods as well as massive statues and all this is inside a mountain - an actual mountain that was moved, bit by bit by bit over 5 years. Wow!
Next to Ramses II Temple is one he built for his favourite wife, Nefatari.
Man am I learning a LOT!
I’m also feeling a lot better after being quite out of sorts yesterday which is a relief.
On the way home we requested a stop at a perfume factory which is something Aswan is famous for……….yes we bought some delectable scents; Lotus flower, Papyrus, Amber Night and Ramses II beauuuutiful!!Read more