Egypt, Aswan & Abu Simbel

This was the looooongest day of our trip. We had a wake-up call at 3:30 am, to depart the hotel by 4:15 for three interior flights on Nile Air and Egypt Air. Our first flight was south to Aswan. Our suitcases were sent on to the river boat. We boarded a second short flight to get us to Abu Simbel for a couple hours. We toured the twin temples of Ramses II and his wife, Nefertari. The Ramses facade with its four statues of pharaoh, each 70 ft tall, was impressive. Even more impressive is that these temples were disassembled and moved here to save them from floodwaters caused by construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. 

Twice a year, the light shines through the entrance door and hits these statues at the back of the temple. 

The theme in the pic above was quite common, once we understood what we were seeing thanks to our Egyptologist. The cartouche (elongated ovals with hieroglyphics inside) tells us the name of the pharaoh (seen above his hands holding the offering), and he's seen presenting an offering (baked goods were a common thing, believe it or not) to a god sitting on a throne. 

If you look closely at the pic below, you can see some graffiti dated 1836. Proof there are idiots in every era!

The detail of the images was amazing, considering these temples were built in 1244 BC. I found myself saying this same phrase over and over again throughout the trip. It's X millennia old and you can still see the original paint! The pic below has a very easily seen phallic symbol. This was poor Osiris, who was chopped into pieces by the evil Set. Osiris' wife Isis put him back together. The last piece to be added was... you guessed it! He was re-membered.

In the pic below, the god on the throne is being offered flowers by the pharaoh.

Once I got home, downloaded and started reviewing my pics, I realized I had several that included fire extinguishers. 

After another puddle jumper back to Aswan, we got a tour of the old/new dams before taking a ride on a felucca. By the time we boarded our river boat for the next four days of touring, we were all ready for either happy hour or a nap.

I love the pic below. I was always struck by the starkness of the scenery along the Nile, the contrast of the green river valley with the desolate desert just beyond it.

We drifted by the Old Cataract Hotel, shown above. Built in 1899 by Thomas Cook to accommodate British travelers, it has housed a lot of famous folks over the years. Agatha Christie wrote parts of her book Death on the Nile while staying in one of the guest rooms in the 1930s.