Aswan and Abu Simbel

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Today we woke early at 330 to catch our 4am bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Because there have been security issues in the past, all of the tourist buses traveling to the temples at Abu Simbel depart at the same time and travel by convoy the 280 km south through the desert. When we met the convoy, we had to go through a few security check points and were joined by a member of the Egyptian Police armed with an AK-47 and sidearm.  Apparently that is standard procedure for all of the tourist buses. 

Once we were on the way, we could tell that these rules were actually pretty relaxed. The armed police officer promptly fell asleep and our convoy was spaced so far apart that you couldn't see the other vehicles. 

On our journey we crossed the Aswan Dam which was originally built in the 1800s by the British to help control the flooding of the Nile. In the 1960's the Aswan High Dam which formed Lake Nasser and flooded the original Abu Simbel temple site (more on that later). 

Situated on the shores of Lake Nasser and located only 40km from the Egypt/Sudan border, Abu Simbel is an amazing place. Two massive temples, carved out of the mountain show the serious respect the ancient Egyptians had for their gods. Words can't describe the temples, but the pictures we took show their amazing features.

Both temples were built by King Rameses II during his 67 year reign over Egypt around the year 1290 BC. The first temple was built to worship the sun god Re-Harakhte; like most Egyptian temples, The Sun Temple of Ramses II (the first temple) contains many reliefs and images showing Egypt's ruler interacting with the gods. What sets this particular temple apart is the four colossal statues of King Ramses II that guard the entrance to the temple.  Cameras were not allowed inside sones don't have any photos of the interior to post, but we will put photos of the exterior up as soon as we can. Speaking of the interior, deep into the mountain, at the far end of the temple are three statues of gods, and one more statue of Ramses II (which shows that Ramses II thought he deserved to be elevated to a god) that get illuminated two times per year by the sun which can only enter the temple through the front gate. On the 21st of February and the 21st of October the statues used to be illuminated by the sun. Since Lake Nasser was formed this changed to the 22nd day of these months. 

The second temple is smaller than the first but is nevertheless also eye-boggling. This temple was built for Ramses II's favorite wife (he had over 150), Nevertari, and devoted to the fertility god Hathor. Colossal statues of Ramses II and Nefartari also form the entrance to this temple making the view incredible. 

Not only is it amazing that these ginormous temples were carved out of the rock mountain over three thousand years ago, but the temples were actually moved in recent history!  When the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s, the flood water of the Nile began to form Lake Nasser. This was a great thing for the Egyptians who lived downstream because the annual flooding of the Nile would he controlled and large amounts of cheap reliable hydroelectric power were generated. Another benefit is that the vicious crocodiles that ran rampant throughout the Nile were contained within Lake Nasser because large steel netting was installed south of the dam to protect the hydroelectric generators from damage when the crocodiles swam into them. The people who lived within the region of what is now Lake Nasser had to be relocated, so they probably weren't too happy about the construction of the dam. Anyways, it was recognized that the rising waters of Lake Nasser would engulf the great temples at Abu Simbel. To preserve the temples an UNESCO led expedition moved the temples, and much of the mountain with them, to a new location 60 metres higher and 200 metres away from the original location. Because all of the final approvals and plans for the project took a while to come together work didn't begin until 1964 which is after Lake Nasser began to form. In order to save the temples from the rising waters a cofferdams was built around the temples. Apparently it was a close race between the rising Lake Nasser and the construction of the cofferdams, but the cofferdam's construction eventually prevailed. With the cofferdam completed work could focus solely on the relocation of the temples. The mountain was cut into small blocks (small being a relative term) and moved piece by piece to the new location. The largest block came in at 30 tonnes. To make it so that visitors could not really tell that the temple had been cut into little pieces and moved, all of the blocks that formed the temple were cut by hand. Doing so allowed to keep the material lost by the thickness of the blade to a minimum and even this was filled with filler upon reconstruction. 

The drive back to Aswan was a long one and most of the group slept at least part of the way back... Including the driver!  Luckily his cell phone rang and woke him up at just the right time!  An hour or so later he got busted for speeding, but our police escort was able to talk the cops out of giving him a ticket.  At another point on the trip the driver was getting a bit worried because the heat was warming up the floor boards and the engine compartment was very hot. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but today our police escort removed the magazine from his AK-47 and placed it on the engine bay cover before going to sleep... He driver was worried the heat would set off the bullets. 

Eventually, and quite miraculously, we made it back tonAswan in one piece. After a nap in the hotel, we met the group and went out for Egyptian pizza for dinner. The food was great and we got local prices for the food, thanks to our guide. It worked out to about $4.50 for a large pizza (although their sizes are smaller than in Canada, so that is about equivalent to a regular medium sized pizza). 

After dinner, we walked to a nearby cafe and took in the World Cup Final, with tea and a sheesha, where Espana unfortunately defeated the Dutch 1-0 in extra time. 

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Photos

Albert, Our Epic Guide
"Horus, the Falcon God..."