Abu Simbel & Philae, Egypt

We arrived in Aswan and spent the rest of the day finding accommodation, recuperating from the bus ride and booking a tour for the following day to the temples at Abu Simbel, deep in the south of Egypt near the borders of Sudan. Traveling to Abu Simbel on your own is virtually impossible as there is only one bus to catch at 4 am in the morning on which only 4 foreign passengers are allowed. Anyone else hoping to see these incredible temples must book a tour or organize a private car. Every tour bus and car then gather at 4 am and depart Aswan under police escort for Abu Simbel. We arose from our slumber at 2:45am and boarded our bus at 3:15. After travelling around to pick up the rest of the group we met the escort and began the three hour voyage south, catching as much sleep as we could. Some of you may call this crazy, rising up at 3 in the morning to catch a bus to look at some ancient buildings, but rest assured, the 3000 year old Great Temple of Ramses II and Temple of Hathor are worth every minute of sleep lost. The colossal statues of Ramses tower above you as you make your way in to the depths of the great tomb. The walls are covered in ancient Hieroglyphics depicting the fighting prowess of this mighty Pharaoh as he tramples over his enemies, slaughtering them in front of the gods. In the sacred sanctuary in the back of the temple sits Ramses amidst a triad of gods, Ra-Horakhty (also known as Horus), Amun, and Ptah who were the main divinities of the period. The temple is aligned in such a way that every year, on the 22nd day of the months of Oct. and Feb., the first rays of the rising sun penetrated the sanctuary to illuminate Ramses and two of the three gods of the triad. The third god, Ptah, is never illuminated as he is connected to the underworld. The temple is truly a testament of the amazing life of Ramses the II who lived till he was 90 years old and ruled as Pharaoh for 66 years! Next to the Great Temple sits the temple of Hathor fronted by six ten meter high statues of Ramses and his queen Nefertiti. This much smaller temple dedicated to the queen and the god Hathor itself is almost worth the trip although dwarfed by the Great Temple. Almost equally incredible to the splendor of these temples is the feat of engineering that was performed to save them. After being lost to the world for centuries, these temples were rediscovered by chance in 1813 by the Swiss explorer Jean Louis Burckhardt as he happened across the heads of one of the giant statues of Ramses poking out of the sand dunes lining the Nile river. With the Nile waters flooding the temples year after year and new plans for a High Damn on the Nile threatening to bury this treasure for ever, plans were drawn up to painstakingly cut, dismantle and rebuild these temples on higher ground. The project brought the best teams from 5 different countries, took 4 years and cost over 40 millions dollars US! After wandering around the temples and marveling at the Hieroglyphics for a while we hopped back on the bus and headed under police escort to Philae, another temple that was taken a part and rebuilt in in order to be saved from being lost forever beneath the flooding Nile. The temple was rebuilt on an island which you must negotiate for a boat to take you to. Although lacking the wow power of the Great Temple of Ramses II the temples at Philae have a very interesting history. This was the last sanctuaries of the Egyptian gods as Egypt fell under the power of the Romans and Christianity began to make its mark on this part of the world. Worshipers came from many lands to visit this temple dedicated to Isis before is was finally closed down in the 6th century AD by Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It was the last Pagan temple to exist in all the Mediterranean world.

Pics 1,2,3 in and around the Great Temple
Pic 4 the Temple of Hathor
Pic 5 Arriving at Philae
Pic 6 Kiosk of Trajan ("Pharaohs Bed") at Philae
Pic 7 some wildlife on the Nile (can you name bird?)