We traveled down south to Aswan which is part of Upper Egypt. I don't know why I found that confusing but I always think of up as being North. We stayed at a nice Movenpick resort on Elephantine Island. It was lovely with a view of the Nile. The only problem was that it was a 2 level with the bedroom upstairs. If you recall, our quads were very sore from the pyramid climb. There were many little groans as we plodded up and down. We checked out the dam that made one of the largest artificial lakes and went to the market and took a nice sunset felucca (traditional sailboat) ride.
Here you also get to see the huge temples that UNESCO and the whole world helped preserve. They moved Abu Simbel up the mountainside 80 feet. It is rather unbelievable. They also moved Philae to a whole other island to save it from the rising water of the dam.
We took a van down to Abu Simbel . The tourist police don't let any tourist go on their own so you have to go in a convoy at 4 am or 11 am. We opted for the 11 (It sounded better than getting up at 2:30 for some reason). We got another armed guard in our van with us. This time he carried an uzi. You can tell he was on high alert. I think he had a good nap. It is a really boring 3 hour drive through the Sahara. Only sand and rock with never a plant to grab your interest.
Abu Simbel is another amazing complex. Built by Ramses II. That's him in front and in front and inside and inside and inside. His wife, Nephartari is standing by his right shin on the outside. Sorry you can't really see it but that is the traditional way of showing your wife or children.
Ramses really liked Nefertari though because she got to have this temple (the picture on the right) and be shown as almost his size. She's the women in the middle of him and him. I guess the pharaoh has to show himself with all the different crowns he wears or authority he bears.
Can you believe this stuff has all been moved to get away from the water?-Amazing German engineering.
We are only about 20 miles away from Sudan here so we had on the sun protection. Luckily it wasn't too hot. There aren't any paved roads connecting the 2 countries and it is illegal to cross overland (I guess that's maybe illegal between US and Mexico too) You have to get a ferry across the lake and take the train down to Khartoum in Sudan.
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| Temple at Philae. As you can see it wasn't crowded. |
We took a van down to Abu Simbel . The tourist police don't let any tourist go on their own so you have to go in a convoy at 4 am or 11 am. We opted for the 11 (It sounded better than getting up at 2:30 for some reason). We got another armed guard in our van with us. This time he carried an uzi. You can tell he was on high alert. I think he had a good nap. It is a really boring 3 hour drive through the Sahara. Only sand and rock with never a plant to grab your interest.Abu Simbel is another amazing complex. Built by Ramses II. That's him in front and in front and inside and inside and inside. His wife, Nephartari is standing by his right shin on the outside. Sorry you can't really see it but that is the traditional way of showing your wife or children.
Ramses really liked Nefertari though because she got to have this temple (the picture on the right) and be shown as almost his size. She's the women in the middle of him and him. I guess the pharaoh has to show himself with all the different crowns he wears or authority he bears.
Can you believe this stuff has all been moved to get away from the water?-Amazing German engineering.
We are only about 20 miles away from Sudan here so we had on the sun protection. Luckily it wasn't too hot. There aren't any paved roads connecting the 2 countries and it is illegal to cross overland (I guess that's maybe illegal between US and Mexico too) You have to get a ferry across the lake and take the train down to Khartoum in Sudan.
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