Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ramses II

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Today we arose at 3am to get the convoy to Abu Simbel. This was a bus ride that took three hours. ON the way we got to see the sun rise over the Toshka Desert. This was a pretty amazing sight over the sand and mounds that look much like small pyramids.

However, the most amazing sight was still to come. Upon rounding the mountain at Abu Simbel, the sight of the Great Temple of Ramses II was amazing! It was a lot bigger then I imagined and quite breath taking. Our guide for the day was very helpful in explaining the temple, what was in it, and how they moved it from the lower point it was situated at, to where it is now, before they built the high dam. The dam seems to be working quite well for them, as there is a mass of water. Australia could really use all that water right now.

Ramses the Second built the monuments at Abu Simbel and he did love himself. Most of the pictures in the monument depict him as equals with the gods, and one wall is dedicated to his victory over the Asians and his battle plans.

It was impressive to see all the wall decorations and hieroglyphs, as most of them were still in tact. The moving of a temple that was originally carved into a mountain is incredible.

Further down the hill is the temple that Ramses built for his favourite wife of his 47, Nefertari. This is unique, as it was only the second temple built for a female in Egypt. Although this temple was for Nefertari, there are only two figure of her on the front, with there being four of good ol’ Ramses. This temple was built here, as it was amongst her Nubian people. The temple on the inside mostly depicts the goddess Hathor, of love. There is also a statue of Nefertari at the back of the temple, but this is pretty much just a lump, as all the gold and jewels they used to make up her being, were chipped away and stolen.

After our visit to Abu Simbel, which is 30km from the Sudan boarder, we set off back north to Aswan and the Philae Island Temple. The Philae temple is yet another temple that has been moved to higher ground, but this was not done until years after the dam was built, so Philae was half submerged for nine years. This did cause some water damage, and there are black silt lines that show where the water came to.

This was an interesting temple, as it was built when the Greeks were in government over Egypt. The Greeks still allowed the Egyptians to keep their gods as not to cause too much unrest, and there were engravings of their ruler Ptolemy on the walls as well that show the Greek influence.

The temple then got another make over when the Roman’s came into power, bringing along with them Christianity. The Romans then chipped away all the faces of the Egyptian gods and used it for a church themselves. Inside there is there alter and crosses carved over the top of other works.

After Philae, we went to where they made perfume and then back to the hotel. That night dinner was on a floating restaurant on the Nile. Once again the food was great.

Finally, after dinner, we headed off to the Souq, where Lucy and I had fun haggling and interacting with the locals. IT eventually became over bearing, so we decided to finish by walking up to the hotel beside the Nile, as opposed to through the market.

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Comments

[mel hofman]

wow
Wow Em...another great Blog. keep them coming, they are so interesting NOT to mention the Amazing photography....Great work chic ;)