Postcard from Egypt: Abu Simbel, November 9th

I can honestly say I thought it a bit extreme to fly from Aswan to Abu Simbel and spend one night to see yet another temple.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.  And I realized it as we were flying in, the moment when we could clearly see the temple at the water’s edge with the huge, seated figures of Ramses II carved directly into the hillside.  It was spectacular.

Our guide astutely waited to the end of the day to take us there, when the buses of daytrippers who’d driven three hours across the desert from Aswan had already left.  We had the place essentially to ourselves.

Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel

The site is even more spectacular when you take into account that Abu Simbel, like the Philae Temple in Aswan, was moved when the Aswan dam was built from a lower location that is now underwater.  But in the case of Abu Simbel, the entire face of the hillside out of which and into which the temple was hewn, was cut up in a grid pattern and moved along with it.  A concrete dome recreated the hill, and the face of the hill and the temple itself were fitted onto and into it.  The backside of the artificial hill is covered in desert sand.

We’re treated to an additional spectacle: the setting sun ignites the desert on the other side of the lake, and the waters of Lake Nasser reflect the colors of the sky in which a full moon is rising.

Sunset-Moonrise over Lake Nasser

We stay for the sound and light show.  There’s no dog of any kind involved, but we all agree it’s the best show of this kind we’ve seen in Egypt.  We’re reluctant to leave afterwards, as the temple lit at night is both beautiful and mysterious.  Undoubtedly, Ramses II intended it to have a certain awe-inspring effect, and it definitely still works its magic.

Night at Abu Simbel

Postcard from Egypt: Aswan, November 8th

Today is our busiest day yet.  Our cruise is docked at Aswan, in what is considered Upper Egypt or Nubia in ancient times.

We visit the Aswan High Dam in the morning, followed by the Philae Temple– a lovely temple that was moved to higher ground on an island, when the dam was constructed and the waters flooded the valley behind it.  Later we have a ride on a felucca, the traditional sailing boat of the Nile.

Felucca Sailing on the Nile

One of the most interesting visits this morning is to a quarry used during the Pharaohs’ time for much of the granite stone we’ve seen in the temples around Luxor, far down the river.  An obelisk, originally intended to be one of Queen Hatshepsut’s in Karnak, developed a crack and couldn’t be used.  It remains today just as it was left, half-hewn out of the surrounding stone.  It’s a happy accident, since it demonstrates so much about how the ancient Egyptians made some of their monuments.

The Unfinished Obelisk

The highlight of the day is a late afternoon boat trip to a typical Nubian village, made even more pleasant by a nice, cold beer.  Along the way, we stop at a beach filled with locals enjoying the river as the four-day Muslim festival continues.  We take off our shoes and roll up our trousers, so we can at least say we stood calf-deep in theNile.

Holiday Revelers Frolicking in the Nile

At the village, we visit a family’s home.  We’re treated to the sweetened hibiscus drink that’s popular here as well as tea and some home-made sweets.  Everyone gets a chance to hold a baby crocodile (I passed on this opportunity) as well as to get a henna tattoo.  Then we visit the local school, where we get a lesson in the Arabic numbers and alphabet from the village schoolmaster.  I’m afraid we’re rather poor students, as five minutes later none of us are able to repeat anything.

Remedial Students at a Nubian Village School

Some of us visit the Aswan market that night, which is teeming with festival revelers.  Our guide Ahmed and I shop for small gifts for the group for our upcoming farewell dinner.  We end up doing a back-alley deal at a wholesaler’s for a mixture of seventeen Nefertiti, King Tut and Akhenaten busts, as well as a rhinestone-studded metal crocodile as a birthday gift for one of the guys, who was the first to hold the real crocodile in the Nubian village.

There’s a lot of haggling between the guide and the wholesaler, and I’m shown numbers in Egyptian pounds and U.S. dollars on a calculator for my agreement.  The guide has established a code with me:  when he says “very good price,” it means it’s a good price and I should accept it; if he says, “it’s a good price,” it means we can do better and I should refuse.  We eventually arrive at a very good price, and I’m given a Nefertiti refrigerator magnet as a thank you for my purchase in bulk.