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Published: March 9th 2006
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Still no luggage…I wonder what my L.L. Bean fleece will fetch on eBay. Do the French even have eBay? I really could have used the fleece, and jeans too, last night as the evenings are cool on the Nile.
Visit to Abu Simbel In the morning we all got up early to take a trip to Abu Simbel, 280km southwest of Aswan. This wasn’t part of the original itinerary, but since every one else wanted to go, I decided to go too (I’m all about groupthink). Some of the group got up at 3AM to take a 3 hour drive to Abu Simbel...which was done with a police escort. The rest of us decided to take a plane to get there, so got to sleep in until 6:30. Airport security was laughable…with the security guards jokingly asking if we had bombs in our bags as we entered the airport.
Although the airline was called Air Memphis…I came to think of it as Air Death Trap. Since we only gave our first name, and then were handed tickets with another person’s name on it (for a different flight to boot), if the plane had crashed they would have had
a fun time figuring out who was actually on the plane. We were packed onto an old (ancient might be a better term) DC9, the seats had maybe 12 inches of clearance between rows, and had a short 35 minute flight to Abu Simbel. No safety briefing was given.
Abu Simbel is home to two temples from the Pharaohic period, the Great Temple of Ramses II (yes, this guy has some sort in god complex) and the Temple of Hathor.
The Great Temple (built from 1274-1244 B.C.) has a quartet of colossal Ramses II statues, which were carved directly into the side of a mountain. The other defining feature is that that temple was built in such a way that the first rays of the sun shined into the inner sanctuary on two days of the year, February 21 and October 21. These dates have some sort of meaning…but I can’t seem to remember what that is.
The Temple of Hathor was built by Ramses II for his wife, Nefertari. It is a smaller version of his Great Temple, and some of the carvings still have the color remaining on them.
The amazing thing is that
each of the temples has actually been moved from there original location to their current location. They literal took the mountain apart (with some pieces weighing 30 tons) and reassembled it, which took about 10 years to complete. This was done because of the creation of Lake Nasser. Some other sites and Nubian villages were not so lucky.
Our tour guide informed us that photos were not allowed within the temple, but he could arrange to get us 12 photos as a souvenir for 20L.E. ($5US). I passed, grabbed my camera, and headed inside.
After spending a little over an hour at the site, we got back on our bus and went to the airport for our flight to Aswan.
Nile River Cruise Time to get on a slow boat to Luxor.
Four of the Taiwanese joined me for the river cruise, which is on a boat a lot nicer than I was expecting, while the rest of the group are doing the river cruise on a felucca, which is basically a sail boat. Call me elitist, but I prefer not sleeping outside, where the bugs will eat you alive, and having to take a
bath in the Nile River (or none at all) for two days. Our ship has a bar, disco, banquet room, and a sun deck with pool. The room is bigger than the one I had in Cairo, and the water pressure in the shower is awesome, probably since they are pumping the water out of the Nile as we cruise. Hmm…looking forward to some schistosomiasis.
Kom Ombo After a couple hours of cruising, we disembarked in Kom Ombo, home to Temple of Kom Ombo. The temple is actually built for two gods, Sobek & Haroeris. A cool thing that we learned here is that taxes were determined based on the level of the Nile in a well. The higher the Nile, the higher the taxes, since this would presumably mean that more crop was able to be grown for the year. Another fun fact is that the builders had put in a hidden staircase so that the priests could impersonate the gods (their voices would seem to come out of nowhere and echo throughout the temple) in order to influence the Pharaoh to donate more food to the poor (as well as influence other decisions too I am
sure). After touring the temple for an hour, we headed back to the boat.
The river cruise has finally given me a chance to read a book that has been sitting on my shelf for a while, a short history of Islam. I figure if I couldn’t read this book while I was in Egypt, I was never going to get around to it. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I have to say that I have really enjoyed what I have read so far. But don’t worry; I’m not going to become a Muslim. Yet.
The cruise also gave me the chance to chat with my fellow Taiwanese travelers. We chatted about their views of America, why they decided to study here, and what they plan on doing after they are finished there studies at UPENN. We also chatted about the Taiwan situation (One China vs. Independence), religion, and cultural differences. Finally, I chatted with them about the merits of a career in consulting as a way of increasing their knowledge and experience after graduating college. I always enjoy these types of discussions.
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