Of all places in Egypt, this was my number one 'must-go' when we chose our package - Ramses II @ Abu Simbel. This place is protected pretty closely, and so all tour groups must travel in a police convoy at 4 am. We woke up at 2.30 am in our cruise in Aswan, then met with the police convoy at 4 am and drove to Abu Simbel via Sahara Desert. We witnessed a beautiful sunrise in the bus and arrived at Ramses II early morning. This stunning structure was built to honour Ramses II. The four statues are King Ramses II at various stages in his life. The second statue was destroyed in an earthquake in 27 BC.
Adjacent to Ramses II's temple is the Temple of Hathor, built to honour Ramses II's favourite wife, Nefertari. Compared to Ramses II, this temple is much more modest in size. Both temples disallowed photo taking within, to minimise crowding and expedite movement.
After several hours there, we went back and visited the Aswan High Dam, which was built to generate electricity. However, the construction of this dam has caused flooding to many ancient buildings, and UNESCO has painstakingly moved them to higher grounds in order to preserve the history of Egypt.
This is the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan. The obelisk has been carved out on the granite, but upon detachment, they found a flaw/crack and the obelisk was abandoned. Had it been completed, it would've been the largest in Egypt ( 1068 tonnes or 1068000 kg).
If you can't imagine how high it could've been, you can compare it to my height. Just the pyramid top alone is already my height!
Later, we travelled back to our cruise boat for lunch. Our tour group had arranged for a felucca to bring us back to the boat. A felucca is like a sailboat, and River Nile is packed with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment