Egypt - Abu Simbel

The flies are attacking me!  The air is much cleaner than Cairo, yet now we have pesky flies all around, all the time.  Agh!

Situated just 43 km from the Sudanese border, this small Nubian town of 7,000 people has two colossal temples as its claim to fame.  The monumentous temple of Ramses II and the smaller one dedicated to his wife Nefetari, constructed in 1250 BC. 

What is incredulous about this temple, yet very much true, is that it was moved.  Entirely!  It's current location is not the original site.

When Egypt decided to build the Aswan dam, which for a long time was the biggest dam in the world, the water behind the dam rose to become lake Nasser.  Unfortunately, someone didn't think that King Ramses II and his beautiful wife would end up buried under water.  So in the late 60's, with the water levels of the lake rising fast due to the completion of the dam, they decided to move the entire temple with the mountain to a location 210 meters further inland and 65 meters higher up.  This ensured that the temples would survive the man-made threat.  And so the incredibly delicate engineering process began by literally cutting up by hand and machine the entire mountain, meticulously numbering the blocks and reassembling them on safer higher grounds.  Kind of like playing lego!  The UNESCO financed project was completed in 1968.

The story goes that Ramses II loved himself.  Loved himself a lot.  After all he dedicated four big statues to himself, positioned at an entry point to the kingdom, to scare of intruders.  And when you enter the chambers inside the temple, you will find more statues of him.  He even went as far as dedicating a smaller temple to his wife Nefetari, which is adjacent to him, yet out of the six statues in her temple, four are of him!

And to top it all, he built her temple first.  Not because he was selfless, but because he used her temple as a test ground for his much larger temple.  Who needs such love?

Before you exit the grounds, don't overlook the visitor centre that has some amazing photos and video on how they disassembled the two temples and then reassembled them further inland.

Part of me feels that that is still the most amazing part of this Ramses II saga!

How to get there:

> Egyptair flies from Cairo to Aswan and then on to Abu Simbel.  Our flight left at a god-awful hour of 4am to arrive at Abu Simbel around 7:30.  The reason the flight leaves so early is that it is timed for the tourists to arrive at the colossal statues for sunrise, since most people come here for a day-trip.  Yet it is worthwhile spending one night.  This enables you to see the statues at sunrise, during the day and at dusk.  BTW, try and sit on the left-hand side of the plane, for just prior to landing, you will see the temple of Ramses II beneath you bathed in morning light.

> the dilemma: if you want to see the temples bathed in morning light, go at sunrise, yet you will not be alone.  Far from it!  Throngs of day-trippers fill out the space at the foot of the statues.  That's why you need to stay for the night and revisit the temple for sunset, when the grounds are much calmer, even though the statues are in the shadow by then.

> there is also a sound and light show at night, telling the story of King Ramses II, which is worthwhile seeing.

Where to stay:

> Eskaleh Lodge:  a typical Nubian home, situated right by Nasser lake and close to the airport, this is one of the few accommodations available.  They have a beautiful verandah from where you can marvel at the lake, a vegetable garden right in front of you and the noise from the few passing cars, for the main road is right above you.  The place is peaceful and the design typical of the area, which makes it special.  The rooms are spacious yet simple.  The two Nubian boys that work there add to the atmosphere.  Always smiling, always laughing and provide charm and warmth to the home.  Plus, free wifi!  And as we proceeded to walk around the area, we noticed that we were really close to the temples of Ramses II.  You quickly realize that they weren't lying when they said 7,000 people lived here.  It's very small yet wonderfully memorable.