June 23, 2015

We spent yesterday in Abu Simbel, Egypt…it was awesome!  We flew to Aswan from Cairo and after a very early flight we got here and got checked in to our hotel.  We had pre-arranged a day trip to Abu Simbel for the afternoon, so we had a few minutes to get in, get settled, and have some breakfast before we needed to get ready to take off again.  At 10:30 we met up with our driver/guide to head down to Abu Simbel.  For security reasons (we are very far South in Egypt and close to the Sudan border), they require police escorts for the convoys down to Abu Simbel.  We went over to the police station to meet up with the convoy and it turned out that we were the only ones going for the day!  We ended up having our own personal escort with us.  🙂  The drive was long, but uneventful.  The government is very serious about ensuring that ISIS can not come across the border from Sudan (or Libya to the West), so they have closed the road south of Abu Simbel and there are tons of check points along the way with armed guards.

From Aswan to Abu Simbel

Aswan to Abu Simbel

It took about 3 hours to get to Abu Simbel, but it was totally worth the drive.  The temples are amazing and what’s even more amazing is that they were moved back in the 1960’s so that they would not be covered by Lake Nasr with the building of the High Dam in Aswan.  The largest temple was built for Ramses II in 1240 BC and is a pretty amazing thing when you consider how they built it with no technology and just manual labor!  The second temple was built for his wife, Nefertiri.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside of the temples, but we bought a pack of postcards, so here are some pictures of the pictures.  🙂

Temple of Ramses II

Temple of Ramses II

Inscriptions on the mountain

Temple of Ramses II

Temple of Ramses II

Temple of Ramses II

Temple of Ramses II

Ramses II as a God

Temple of Ramses II

The stories that are told inside of the temple is about how Ramses II defeated his enemies and was made into a God.  It is really amazing how well preserved the site is after all of this time.  Even more amazing is the fact that they relocated the entire structure in the 1960’s when they built the High Dam in Aswan.  The entire site was moved 300 meters West and up 65 meters on to a hill and rebuilt into a fake mountain.  It cost $15 million which was paid for by Egypt, the US, and the European Union.

The second temple is smaller, but just as impressive.  It was dedicated to his favorite wife, Nefertiri.

Temple of Nefertiri

Temple of Nefertiri

We had an awesome guide who is an archeologist that works for the Ministry of Culture, so he knew everything about the temples.  He gave us more info than we could remember and Hayden has decided that he is definitely coming back and that he’s going to be an archeologist.  It was probably the highlight of the country, so far!  For anyone who is interested, here is a link about Abu Simbel, it is really a fascinating history of the temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel_temples

Two Temples of Abu Simbel

After about 2 hours of going through the temples, we had to drive 3 hours to get back to the hotel again.  Luckily, there is a McDonalds right next to the hotel, so Hayden had a perfect day of looking at temples and having his favorite dinner!

This morning, we are packing up to go over to the cruise port where we will get on our ship to spend the next 3 days cruising to Luxor and stopping at several temples along the way.