The Temples of Abu Simbel

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Abu Simbel
February 14th 2008

Published: March 13th 2008

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Me and Rameses II

Following a very early start, we made our way via bus convoy through the barren desert to one of the most amazing archaeological sights in Egypt - the massive temple at Abu Simbel built by Rameses II in the 13th C BC. The Great Temple of Rameses with its' 108 foot (33 metre) high statues of Rameses II seated on a throne and the smaller temple of Hathor are an impressive sight and literally take your breath away when you first lay eyes on them. I can only imagine how Swiss explorer, Jean-Louis Burckhardt, felt in 1813 when he 'rediscovered' the facade of the Great Temple.

The temples were intended to show Egypt's enemies (particularly Nubia) their power and might and I'd say they would have been fairly effective - the interiors of the temples are no less stunning. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos but seeing the reliefs of Rameses battling his enemies on horse drawn chariot, still with their original colours, was a moving experience. It was also depressing to see traces of previous visitors - some as early as the 17th and 18th century - where people had carved graffiti into the walls and onto the

Great Temple

statues housed inside the temple.

During the creation of Lake Nasser, the conclusion was reached that Abu Simbel had to be saved and UNESCO initiated a global effort to recruit the talent and resources required to preserve these incredible monuments. Amazingly, within a few years the UNESCO team was able to cut the temple and facade out of the cliff face, number thousands and thousands of blocks of stone and shift them 65 metres above their original position before reconstructing the temples well back from the shores of the new lake - this marvel of engineering is a testament to human ingenuity and shows what we can achieve when many nations work together towards a common goal.

Thanks to the amount of time we spent taking photos, we found ourselves at the temples alone as everyone else had gone back to the buses for the convoy back to Aswan - not one to miss an opportunity, I quickly set-up the camera again and managed to get some nice shots of both temples 'sans tourists'. After hurrying back to the meeting point to avoid getting left behind, we embarked on the three and a half hour journey back to

Colossus of Rameses II

Aswan where we had lunch and then headed out for a felucca ride on the Nile and to visit a Nubian village.

Stopping briefly at a small shop on the other side of the river for an excellent cup of Nubian coffee (which had a very involved preparation process), we arrived at the village where we wandered around the town before stopping at a local's house for tea. In many ways, the Nubian village was quite similar to the more advanced villages we encountered in East Africa - makes sense given that the Nubians are essentially North Africans.

By this time Janice was feeling quite unwell and we decided that it was time to get a doctor on-board the boat to take some blood so that we could both be tested for malaria - after 15 of our traveling companions in Africa had come down with the disease we didn't want to take any chances. With this out of the way, we headed out to have dinner at a restaurant beside the river which was quite pleasant.

Unfortunately, our luck was about to change as Janice's temperature spiked during the night and the next morning we realized