Around the World in 180 Days with D and N: Abu Simbel

On Tuesday, Dec 2, we flew from Cairo to Aswan. We spent the night in Aswan, then journied to Abu Simbel the next day. The majority of the tourists to Abu Simbel either fly there from Aswan or take the pre-dawn road convoy to the site, arriving there about 7:30 AM, tour the temples, and return to Aswan in the 10 AM convoy. For security reasons (including the proximity (~40KM to the border with Sudan) the only way to travel by vehicle is in a protected convoy (after a terrorist attack on tourists many years ago).

We did things a little differently. We slept late and took a private car and driver as part of the much smaller 11 AM convoy. It's about a 3 hour plus journey. We stayed overnight at Abu Simbel in a small Nubian inn and returned as part of the larger 10 AM convoy back to Aswan the next day. The rest of the sight-seers had left by the time we arrived at the site, and the two of us (plus one guard) were the only people at the Temples that afternoon. We had a wonderful experience exploring on our own. It was a great introduction to the Temples and Tombs of Upper Egypt. It took a bit of figuring out for us to understand why the area south of Cairo is "Upper Egypt," while the area to the north is "Lower Egypt," until we realized that the Nile runs north into the Mediterranean and the two once -separated kingdoms, Upper and Lower, refer to that fact.

The two temples of Abu Simbel, the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, were relocated (raised up 60 meters) to their present site over a 4 year period to protect them from the flooding by the new dam that formed Lake Nasser. The Ramses Temple is very much a self-proclaimed paean to the pharaoh, fronted by three (originally four) massive statues of him. Inside are another eight Ramses statues (inside photography prohibited but Nick sneaked a couple of shots) and wall reliefs depicting his prowess in battle. The adjacent Temple of Hathor is smaller, but unusual in that Ramses' favorite wife, Nefertari, is shown as of almost equal height to her husband. We spent a wonderful afternoon at the temples, then went back to our lodging to see if there were sufficient tourists (10 or more) for the evening Sound and Light production. There were only 5 of us interested that night (2 Japanese women, a Spanish guy and us) so we each bought 2 tickets and the production went on, in English with the others listening to translations. It was very well done and we were glad we attended.

Our accomodation in Abu Simbel was interesting. We stayed at the Eskaleh Nubian Lodge, a traditional Nubian mud brick house but with modern comforts. The lodge is on the banks of Lake Nasser, with fields growing their vegetables and a small farm with chickens, ducks, sheep and a donkey. The owner, a Nubian musician, was off performing, but we were welcomed and looked after by a Nubian man who introduced himself as "Friday." He said we'd never be able to pronounce his Nubian name. Friday arranged for the lodge's boat to take us out on Lake Nasser the next morning to see the sunrise on the temples. Lake Nasser is the only place on the Egyptian Nile where crocodiles remain, but he said they were out in the deeper water this time of year. Lake Nasser is either the world's largest or second largest artificial lake-we heard both-and the morning cruise was well-worth rising early.