Abu Simbel

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Abu Simbel, another highlight of Egypt - they just keep coming!

A three hour convoy (the Egyptians love them) to the site. At least we were in a normal bus, we could keep up with the rest this time! And we had the usual pit stop (dubbed the one pound pee - that's the usual cost price for use of the facilities - the quality varies!) on the way there to give us time to be hassled by all the seagulls (street vendors and shopkeepers) to pay exorbitant prices for their wares. At least in a convoy you don't have the usual checkpoint hassle every half hour or so.

Abu Simbel is another place that would have been flooded by the high dam but got moved to save it. In this case they created a whole hill to build it into, when they do something here, they really go all out.

The main entrance to Ramses II's temple is famous, the four large statues of him outside, which are huge and cannot be done justice in photos. But try to imagine it all, in the warm sun, baking sand and sparkling water. It's stunning! One of the heads of the statues had fallen off in an earthquake about 1500 years ago, which has been placed just where it was for all that time, so you get an idea of the scale. The ear alone is almost half the size of me... The inside was expansive, more carvings, rooms and huge huge pillars. Also in there is the first witten peace treaty, between Egypt an one of their rival nations back in the day, 1000 BC or so I guess? Carved on a big slab of rock, not quite the portability that we have now. Moving this whole temple must have been a mission! No photos could be taken inside, so you will have to imagine it all.

The second temple is for Ramses II's beloved wife, Nefertari. Unusual to have a temple for a Queen as well, but he loved her very much so she got one too, though not quite on his grand scale of course. The inside of hers was also spread out but again on a smaller scale. Lots of decorations, carvings, drawings, all carved out of the rock.

The site has lovely views of the water and was a great place to spend a few hours.

Stopped at the Aswan high dam on the way back. It is indeed high, not a lot you can say about a dam!

We did some local shopping in Aswan in the afternoon, lots of fun to practice my basic Arabic and see what I end up with. Lucky that there is so much pidgin English spoken here. I also purchased a lovely turquoise blue galabeya for the bargin price of 20 Egyptian pounds - it looks like a bright blue long rubbish sack but is nice and light to wear, and very cultural, though I won't be seen in public in it...

Looking forward to the felucca trip tomorrow, two days of relaxing on a sailing boat will be tough.

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