Blogs from Abu Simbel, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 2

There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign. - Robert Louis Stevenson I hope my last few blog entries were posted ok, the internet connection is very slow on the riverboat and it took a long time for the photos to upload. This afternoon we arrived in Kom Ombo about 3:30 pm. The scenery from Luxor is really pretty. The land is cultivated on both sides of the Nile in a thin strip, and beyond is desert and rocky hills. There are lots of palm trees here too. The temple of Kom Ombo is a short walk from where our river boat was docked. We left at 4:30 pm and it was still very hot outside. We ran the usual gauntlet of vendors and then entered the site. The difference between ... read more

So we stopped at Kom Ombo….a pretty sweet temple built to honor Haroeris and Sobek…the latter of which represented in hieroglyphs as a dude with a crocodile head and holds crocodiles to be sacred…so there were mummified crocs on display as well. This place had a lot of images of gods and pharos which early Christians hacked out of existence. They literally chipped away the face, arms, legs, anything exposed of these images but not the clothes or any of the hieroglyphics…weird. I guess the peeps didn’t know how to read so they didn’t know the glyphs were words so they didn’t erase them from the temples…also….not all images were erased and I was told that no one knows why they decided to erase some over the others…Ha! Silly Christians….At this place I ran into two ... read more

After such a glorious time in the beautiful, desolate desert, walking into the train station in Giza was a harsh wake up call. We had several hours to spend until our overnight train to Aswan. Mohamed parked us at a table in a café and stayed with us while we read, worked on our blogs until batteries gave out and people watched. After some time he headed home to bring his wife and daughter back for us to meet. We had enjoyed such a nice connection with him that it seemed perfectly natural to meet his family. Had we known what a great guide he is and what a good rapport we would have, we would have utilized him for more of our trip. The train to Aswan pulled into the station at 8:30PM and with ... read more

Ring ring...that's our wake up call. 2.45am!! We somehow roll out of bed and try wake up with a quick shower. We gathered some pillows and staggered onto our bus to head into Aswan and joined the “Police Convoy”!! There we are met by heavily armed police officers and cars ready to transport us and the 25-odd buses and mini-buses 300km south to Abu Simbel. I'm thinking to myserlf, where the hell are we going that we need a police convoy! Approximately 70km north of the Sudan border...hmmm, that's probably why. We started our convoy, and it was explained to us that the police were there to 'assist if a bus broke down en route' however the hidden message was that its safer travelling in a convoy with police there to deter any potential kidnapping attempt! ... read more

Español / Català Usermaatra Setepenra, the chosen of Ra, born to be a god, otherwise, he was deeply convinced. Son of Seti I and Queen Tuya was the third Pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty. Rule Egypt for nearly seven decades between 1279 and 1213 BC with the name of Ramses II or Ramses Meriamon. Under his reign moved the Egyptian capital of Thebes to Memphis and then to Pi-Rameses on the Nile Delta. Fought at sea against shardana pirates. On land pacified Canaan and Syria, and confronted Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh. All these facts have been written in several stelae engraved in numerous temples. Fighting pirates told in the Tanis Stelae. Syrian campaigns in Eleuteros and Byblos ones. The Batt... read more