Thursday, February 28

Having arrived in Aswan, a prosperous looking town, we have another early start flying to Abu Simbel to visit the colossal Great Temple of Ramese II. Although a very short flight - it was a very early flight and many had dozed off as we arrived at the airport in Abu Simbal. I guess the pilot may have too as we came as close to a crash landing as I ever had - but it woke everyone up. On the return flight, we happened to be on the same plane with the same crew - the pilot received a round of applause when we landed a little more smoothly at Aswan. We had a beautiful day - with the most vivid blue sky - perfect for photos.

The Great Temple of Ramses II is a massive monument commemorating triumphs over the Nubians, Hittites and Syrians.
The gargantuan size of this structure and the mammoth feat of engineering that reconstructed this temple on high ground is very impressive; it now looks out of the Nile waters amassed by the Aswan Dam. When the dam was built the entire structure was dismantled and moved upwards 60' and then put together again. On the back side, the reconstruction is visible. However - there is no clues when viewing the monument or when touring the tomb, that it is in a different location from where it was originally carved.




It is the furthest south that we go on this trip. The neighboring Temple of Hathor, which honors Queen Nefertari, a beautiful Nubian queen who wed Ramese II as a political peach keeping tactic; she becamse the favorite of his 37 wives (!!) and the mother of his successor.

After battling the 'sale people' to return to our bus and the airport,
we flew back to Aswan and returned to our ship. From the air, we could see the vast waters created by the dam. According to our guide, at some point when out in the water, neither shore can be seen.


The weather has heated up - probably into the 80s and a group of us decided that a sail on a felucca might be peaceful and cool. It was both - although once they sailors had us all captive....they brought out their wares. Still - it was very enjoyable.