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Published: April 14th 2008
Getting up before the crack of dawn is something that you need to get used to if you’re planning on a whirlwind tour of Egypt. Rising before the sun, we picked up our handy boxed-breakfast from the hotel lobby with the other travellers who were making their way to Abu Simbel on a 3-hour bus ride. Being short on time, we opted for a short 30-minute flight to Abu Simbel to arrive just as the site opened and before the intense heat of the day hit.
Abu Simbel is breathtaking. Moved when the Aswan Dam was built to prevent it from being lost in the floodwaters the dam created, the temples at Abu Simbel were painfully reconstructed on the side of a man-made mountain overlooking Lake Nassar.
In order to get to the front of the temples, you have to walk around the mountain which makes the approach that much more spectacular. Thankfully, tour guides are not allowed inside the already crowded temples, so after giving a short background and notes on what to look for inside, we are sent off on our own to explore at our own pace.
No pictures or video are allowed inside the
temples- flash photography ruins the colour on the walls- and they also want tourists to buy the many colour postcards and photobooks of the inside of the temples. I suck in some pictures without flash inside. Quite an impressive site and incredibly ornate.
After stops in both of the temples, it was back on a flight to Aswan to join up with our private guide for the rest of the tour and board our Nile cruise. Aswan itself is a nice city right on the Nile which has a few attractions of its own, including the Aswan High Dam, the Unfinished Obelisk (not that impressive), and a number of perfume factories which we visited to buy scented oils.
It was then time for a boat ride to visit the temple of Philae. A Greek temple, the complex was impressive and the views to surrounding islands were impressive. It was nice to hop on a boat and feel a cool breeze. We were fully exhausted by this time, having been up so early, that we opted to postpone a felucca ride that we were scheduled to be on in order to check into our boat and rest before vesting
Mountain
The back of the man-made mountain at Abu SimbelKom Ombo after dinner.
The boat was very nice and we were given the presidential suite since there were 3 of us to share the room. It was more than enough room for us. After our delicious buffet dinner we visited one of the only temples we saw at night- the Ptolemaic temple of Sobek and Haroeries. There we saw a mummified crocodile and learned about the intricate wall carvings. We also saw the Nilometer that measures the depth of the Nile…conveniently filled with garbage and other bits of litter in the murky water.
Like every day on this trip, it was one crammed with activities…
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zsteve
S
Great pictures
Hi Rachel great job to get a few photos taken inside the temples. I have been to Abu Simbel in November last year and it was as you describe it - just awesome. Enjoy the Nile cruise. Steffen