Day 4 - Aswan, Part I

Dec 12, 2005

Me and Woonie were woken up from our deep slumber on our cosy sleeper train bunk beds by the train porter's knock on our door. After I brushed my teeth and freshened up, I had my first breakfast in bed! Cool or what?:P There was croissant and sesame bun and cakes, with more of that yummy peach jam =D...All the while our train was still chugging along but according to the porter we will reach Aswan in a while, which was the last stop for the train.

Soon enough we reached Aswan where we were greeted by tour guide Mohammad who led us to our van. We were first brought to the Aswan High Dam, an architectural wonder which was built from 1960 to 1970 to regulate the yearly flood and also acts as a water reservoir. I was more amazed by the bright blue waters of Lake Nasser....so beautiful :) After the high dam, we were supposed to take a boat to the island of Philae, where the temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis stands, but unfortunately we were running late as our train arrived late in Aswan, and we needed to rush as we will be travelling to Abu Simbel in a convoy and we didn't want to miss THAT (we paid an extra $USD80 for it:P). In the end Mohammad suggested that we go to Philae at night for the Sound and Lights Show (he swears we will thank him for suggesting it as it is supposed to very very good :P) in order that we can make it in time to Abu Simbel...initially we were supposed to pay extra for the Sound and Light show =o/ (but after that Mohammad managed to convince the travel agency that it was not our fault the train was late so no extra charges:)...)

We had another stop before we embarked on our journey to Abu Simbel, which was the Unfinished Obelisk. It was actually situated in a quarry from where most of the granite used to build monuments and temples in ancient time came from. According to Mohammad, workers will chisel the three sides of an Obelisk as well as its pointed tip from the rock. When the sides are done, they will start chiselling from the bottom or underneath, and as they get further and further in chiselling the Obelisk out they will slowly put in logs...until they are finally finished when the logs will act as an escalator thing and they can move the Obelisk to River Nile, which would then float it to whichever part of Egypt that is its intended destination. Hmmm...I don't think you guys can imagine what I just described huh?:P Anyways, the Obelisk that we saw is Unfinished because there was a crack in the middle, so scientists figured that when that happened, workers abandoned it to start on something new :P We actually saw a couple of obelisks in Paris and Rome, some were gifts from Egypt to the respective country, while some were looted:P As I was listening to the explanations from Mohammad I thought of something too...is that why there are so little trees in Egypt? Because they used up all the logs to trasfer the rocks and stuff?:P

After that it was off to the great temple of Abu Simbel. Along with the convoy (our tour guide was reluctant on explaining to us why we need to go in a convoy, he just said it's for our safety:P) which consisted of a few tour buses and vans, we set off on the long and hot journey which will take around 3 hours (if I don't remember wrongly). We had a packed lunch which consisted of a few tomatoes, bananas, ham and sesame bun, cake, guava juice and also a packet of (very salty) Egyptian potato chips:P It was a pretty uneventful ride as the area from Aswan to Abu Simbel seemed drier and arid than that between Cairo and Alex. It was pretty much desert country I guess, but instead of being the lush, brown sands and dunes that we always see in movies, this desert is quite pebbly and none too fascinating:p Again, it was off to dreamland most of the ride, with more Egyptian music (the songs sounded a bit more old-fashioned and after repeated listening, quite irritating, than the ones we heard in Cairo though:P) playing on the stereo the whole way...

Next when we woke up we were in Abu Simbel...the town around it seems pretty small..it gave me the feeling that the only reason the whole place exists is because the great temple is there:P We got down at a slightly greener looking plain (there were some bushes), then walked over to the entrance of Abu Simbel where there was a canteen and loos and ticket counter. The scenery at the entrance was quite nice, with palm trees and flowers...and when we started walking to the temple we could see Lake Nasser on our right...with the hot afternoon sun beating down on it, the blue waters was just sparkling...you really can't describe it in words:)

Before we reached the temple, we saw a couple of rocks with hieroglyphs on them. Supposedly these were inscribed with the name of Abu Simbel and also the Pharaoh who built them, Ramses II. After walking a little while more we saw it, and YUP, it's HUGE. Four magnificent statues of Ramses II (one of them whose face has broken off) watching over Lake Nasser which was directly opposite it. And a bit further down, is the smaller temple of Nefertari (with a row of pretty tall standing statues of Ramses II and Nefertari) which Ramses II built for his wife of the same name. Before we went in, Mohammad explained about the carvings, hieroglyphs and statues inside the temple with picture books that were on sale. Pictures were not allowed in the temple and as a show of reverence, tourists were asked to be quiet, hence the reason tour guides explaining things outside of the temple.

Another interesting thing about Abu Simbel is that its current location is not the original place it was built. When the Aswan High Dam was built, the original Abu Simbel location was one of the places that will be flooded so as works on the dam was done, simultaneously works of relocating the temple was also in progress....and they had to cut off the temple one piece by one piece....amazing:P

The inside of the temple is just as amazing...with several huge statues of Ramses II as pillars as well as paintings and hieroglyphs depicting him in battles etc. There are also 4 statues of different Gods inside, one of them being a headless statue which is supposed to be the statue of Ptah the God of darkness. Another interesting trivia, during 2 times in the year, the sun rays will go all the way to the back of the temple and light the faces of the Gods...all except the statue of darkness, who will not be hit by the sun ray and remain...in darkness:P Pretty cool architecture huh? For more pics and info of the inside of the temple (which I can't provide:P), surf over to http://www.lexicorient.com/egypt/abu_simbel01.htm or http://www.delange.org/AbuSimbel/EP66.htm

Next we went to the smaller temple of Nefertari. Inside it was pretty much the same, though much smaller, with Hathor (Goddesss of Love) columns suppoting the ceilings. We were runing out of time( and I was also feeling a bit dizzy because of the hot hot sun and lack of water:( ), so after a few more pics we set off back to where Mohammad was waiting. Before we got back to our van we also read some pictorial descriptions of how Abu Simbel was relocated. Then it was back to the van, another long and sleepy 3 hours ride, as we try to rush back to Aswan in order to catch the Philae Sound & Light Show in time...

For reasons unknown to me, I can't seem to upload any more pictures in to this particular blog entry despite numerous tries...so for pics on the events, surf over to this link :
http://www.imagestation.com/album/index.html?id=2115961753
There are captions so you'll know what the pictures are about:P...


For more information on the places that we have been, surf over to these websites...
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/Modern/aswandam.html
http://touregypt.net/unobelisk.htm