Abu Simble

After a late night it was hard getting up with the alarm at 5.30 but we crossed the river, got in a car and promptly went to sleep again. 2 hours later woke up feeling more refreshed, had our packed breakfast and got ready to see the marvels of Abu Simble.

We got a guide to tell us all about it and glad we did as we learnt a lot more than my research on the internet. Abu ( father) and Simble ( the Egyptian man who was part of the group that discovered it). 

The two temples were built more than 3000 years ago, discovered in the 1800s and relocated in 1964 after the Aswan Dam was built. It is gigantic in proportions and it would have been a mammoth task to move it. The four statues that are at the forefront of the Great Temple are all of Rameses II, the head of the second one toppled off in an earthquake. During the move they have kept the toppled head in the same position in relation to the body, the kids were very curious as to why they didn’t “fix” it.

The carvings inside depicting battle scenes, offerings to Gods and other stories are so well preserved. It would be fabulous seeing the sun rays light up the statues of the Gods as it has been constructed to happen two days a year ( Ramses’ birth in February and his Coronation in October). 

The smaller temple is for his favourite queen Nefertari (I wonder how the other 27 queens felt about it) and Goddess Hathor (she must have been happy as she blessed him with 203 children!!). When our guide explained the meaning of Nefertari- we all heard Nefer as never beautiful which we thought was a very odd name for a queen. Actually Neger is beautiful and tari is most so most beautiful! 

We took heaps of pictures with a golden key of life, very much a tourist trap that we enjoyed.

There are lots of statues of Ramses, he really did love himself. My favourite was the carving depicting his coronation by both the Gods of Goodness and Evil - showing that he can balance both. 

We arrived a little later than most tour groups so had the place quite a bit to ourselves other than a few stragglers who also decided a sleep in was better than a 4am start. We had mentally prepared so much for the heat that it didn’t feel as bad, especially being near the water and indoors in the temples.

We ate grilled fish for lunch something I would not have thought of doing but had been told it’s not something to miss, fish from the lake. It was very good fish, having been in Central Asia for the last month we have missed seafood. 

3 hour drive back to Aswan (the driver had a microsleep and managed to swerve just in time - we lived to see another day). 6 hours of driving to see the temples. We all agreed that it was worth it, easy for the kids as they pretty much slept both ways.