It is required that any tourists going to Abu Simbel travel with the police convoy. We went along with the 430am one. Luckily it wasn't the 330am one!
The minibus was quite full and so we were shoved in the back and in the middle aisle on these tiny fold out seats without much if any back support. Despite the heat and the discomfort of the 3 and a 1/2 hour bus ride, we arrived unscathed and ready to take on Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is the name of the mountain that holds the Great Temple of Ramses II as well as a smaller one dedicated to his wife, Nefertari. The former was, as promised, very beautiful and impressively large. It was discovered within the last few hundred years (I think) and so was still in very good condion. There were fantastic scenes of the Pharaoh fighting the Hittites in his chariot and of him before sacred boats of the gods Amun and Ra. The reliefs were relatively large, a liberty allowed probably because of the size of the temple. There were many side rooms inside, and it was fun exploring them for scenes we haven't seen before (a lot of things have seemed to repeat themselves throughout all the temples we've seen).
The second smaller temple was also fascinating. The reliefs appeared even larger, but maybe because the walls were smaller. There was a very beautiful and graceful scene of a cow on a boat surrounded by papyrus that caught my attention. Of course Rames was everywhere in this temple as well. He just couldn't help himself could he.
It's interesting to know that in the mid-sixties, UNESCO decided to save the temple from being flooded by the construction of Lake Nasser and cut the temple into 807 blocks and moved them inland. What is very impressive about this is an Italian architect designed a dome that would cover the temple and mimick the original mountain from which it was carved. You can't tell unless you know it's there because it's covered with rock and sand.
We got back to Aswan (having secured much better seats on the bus by getting there early) around 1:30pm and went back to get some koshary were we had gone last night. Our waiter was pleased that we had actually come back as he had mentioned should while leaving yesterday. We'd said "maybe." He looked hopeful that we would be back "maybe tomorrow" but we are catching the overnight train to Cairo this evening. We are both pleased with our visit to Upper Egypt but are excited to get back to Noha's for two more days in Cairo. Hectic!
We wandered around the market for a while after lunch, then settled in a park by the river for a bit. We were joined by two Egyptian ladies who we think moved closer to us just to get a better look, and hear us speak in English. But we didn't mind. And we discovered that Arabic, when spoken by women, sounds much less harsh and more musical!
The sunset was especially beautiful tonight as we caught glimpses of it through the buildings and trees while we passed out of Aswan on the train. It was very orange and red. Hopefully, despite the fact that we got more sleep today than the last couple of days combined, we'll be able to take advantage of our beds on the sleeper train!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
1 comment:
Well, it seems that the Upper Egypt cruise worked out great. The ship experience was different from what you so far had been used to, but it sounds like it was worth it, and you met some very nice people.
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