Abu Simbel

Thursday was a pretty grueling day. We got up at 2:30 AM and left at 3:00 for Abu Simbel and the Temple of Ramses the II. Unbelievably, I slept most of the way!

Emily and I watched a NatGeo video that highlighted this temple so we were really excited to it. Rames II ruled Egypt for 67 years so he is often referred to and built a lot of temples during his reign. This temple is 40 meters high and the statues in front of it are similarly large. The temple is almost completely enclosed and has a feature that reminded me of the pyramid at Chichén Intzá because twice a year, the sun comes through the entrance and lights 3 of the 4 statues in the holy shrine which is in the back of the temple. The 4th statue is the of the God of Darkness so that is why it isn’t lit. This event happens on February 22nd (Ramses’ Birthday) and October 22nd (his coronation day).

Next to it is the Temple of Nefetari, Ramses II’s Queen. He was the only King to build a temple for his Queen so that was unusual. It is not as grand or big, but equally interesting to see. The inside of both is very well preserved with some color.
Both temples were moved about 210 meters away in the 1960’s when the high dam was built. This dam created Lake Nassar which would have completed covered the temple. It took 5 years and the cooperation and funding from Egypt, the US and other countries as well as UNESCO to move it. They basically cut the entire temple into stone blocks, moved them all and rebuilt it. Everything is original, except for the façade around it which they built to look like the original site.

The temples face Lake Nassar so we also got to see great views of the Lake. Our next stop was to see the High Dam itself. It was completed in 1971 and Lake Nassar that it created is the largest man made lake in the world. The lake goes from Aswan all the way into Sudan. I think it is 500 sq Km in Egypt and another 350 in Sudan, but don’t quote me on that.
We an unfinished obelisk that was found in a granite quarry in Aswan. It was not finished because it cracked, but it is important because it shows us how the Egyptians made the obelisks. They cut them with basalt and floated them on boats on the Nile to transport them. (We saw several in Luxor).