Yes, it's a 70's song reference!
3AM-A knock on the door. Groggy and half awake, we stumble downstairs to grab a cup of tea and climb aboard a minibus with about 8 other people for the 3 hour and 280 km bus journey to Abu Simbel. Due to security reasons, the only way to get to Abu Simbel is by convoy. So after about 40 tour buses and microbuses had gathered (about 4 am), we were off. The landscape was desolate- with only a few power lines here and there. Otherwise, there were no signs of life. Watching the sun rise over the landscape was pretty amazing—it was gradual at first, with pinks and blues coursing over the sky and then all of a sudden it was day.
The temples at Abu Simbel are pretty amazing, but even more so is the reconstruction work it took to move them from being submerged in Lake Nasser when the dam was being built. Over a four year period, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled and covered with an artificial mountain. You can still see some of the places where the blocks were cut out and rejoined. I have to say, I liked these temples even more than the pyramids. The facades of both temples are impressive- imposing seated figures of Ramses II (yes, the one who was king when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt) on the first temple and standing figures of Ramses and the Goddess Hathor (I learned that statues that are standing with the left leg forward symbolizes that it was built when the king was still alive) but even more impressive were the decorations inside the temples.
Sadly, there is a lot of graffiti on the outside of the temple... from the early 1800s when the temple was rediscovered! Inside his temple were amazingly detailed pictures of Ramses defeating his enemies and being blessed or making offerings to the gods or with his wife, Nefertari.
The colors of the hieroglyphics were still rich and vibrant, making me imagine how beautiful they were when first painted. We weren’t really supposed to take any pictures here—but we managed with some baksheesh to get a few shots. The temples actually go pretty far back into the mountain. For a minute, I wished I was an archeologist, so I could decipher the stories on the walls!
We then endured another tiring 3 hour ride back to Aswan with a busload full of French tourists along with a family from New Zealand.
Next stop: Luxor!
-Smruti
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