Abu Simbel

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Shane and I got up early this morning to catch our flight on EgyptAir from Aswan to Abu Simbel. The flight left at 6:30 AM. We didn't want to travel by convoy with the millions of tour buses for the 4 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel. It was a very comfortable and short 30 min plane ride and then we were transferred by bus to Abu Simbel. It is very strange at the airport as they don't let you walk from the plane to the terminal entrance. We had to all pile on a bus to drive us to the terminal entrance which was fifty meters from the airplane. They freaked out when Shane and I asked if we could walk (which would have been faster).

Abu Simbel is the location of two temples built by Ramses II. The first is his own and it was carved out of the moutain on the west bank of the Nile between 1274 and 1244 BC. There was a dam built in Aswan and the two temples would have been lost by the huge lake created by the dam. So temples had to be moved - they were cut up into more then 2000 huge blocks weighing from 10 to 40 tonnes each and the temples were reconstructed. Quite a feat which can only be appreciated by seeing these fantastic monuments in person. The project took over four years and cost over $40 million US. Wow!

The afternoon was spent looking through the markets. We looked at one of the Peugeots parked on a street and its owner came out and was very proud of it! He told us that cars were very expensive in Egypt and you were better off buying a house. An old Peugeot runs at around 10,000 LE (if this guy loved his Peugeot and thought it was something special, he should see my husband's M3 - which Shane is desperately missing and will probably take it for a spin once we get home!). Then we relaxed on our hotel rooftop patio before heading back to Luxor by train on first class (where they froze us to death with the airconditioning - we could actually see our breath!) before taking the plane to Sharm el-Sheikh in the morning for some relaxation!

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Photos

Abu Simbel
The great temple of Ramses II. Fantastic! Sorry - no pics inside. But we did buy some postcards...

Abu Simbel
Shane in front of one of the colossal statue of Ramses II.

Abu Simbel
The temple of Hathor, which Ramses II built for his beloved wife, Queen Nefertari.

Abu Simbel
Shane's beloved wife in front of a statue of Queen Nefertari.

Keylany Hotel
Here's the rooftop patio at the Keylany Hotel. The perfect place to chill.