So we are up early again, gather our luggage and are picked up to go to the airport. From Aswan we fly south over 500 miles to Abu Simbel. It is a very quick 45 minute flight, but would have taken 10 hours to drive (we don’t have 10 extra hours)! Of course the plane is delayed over an hour, but as Hassan has told us it is a very quick tour in Abu Simbel. Fortunately he accompanies us on the flight.
These monuments were built by Rameses II to commemorate himself and his wife Nefertari. The larger complex is all about Rameses – the 4 large statues are all of him, although he is flanked by his family at his feet. The statues stand 66 feet tall. One of the statue heads fell off in an earthquake, and remains that way today.
In 1959 an international committee, led by UNESCO, was formed to undertake the project of moving the temples to higher ground as they would be submerged by the new Aswan dam project. In 1964 the project began to move the monuments up higher. They were cut into 20 to 30 ton blocks and moved up the mountain 200 feet higher and 650 feet deeper.
One of the challenges in moving them was their exact orientation. Both monuments have rooms in the very back that are precisely aligned with the sun twice a year. February 22 and October 22 the sun lights up Rameses in the back room of his monument and Nefertari in the back room of her monument. These dates are said to coincide with the planting and harvesting starts. The dates were slightly adjusted after they moved the monuments up the mountain to compensate for the slight change in orientation.
The inside of Ramses monument depicts various scenes of Rameses in battle, defeating his enemies and always victorious. Even in death, he was magnified. Science says he was about 5’7” – but his mummy was 6’2”.
Nefertiti’s monument
The inside of her monument had scenes from her daily life.
And just like Rameses – the light shown perfectly twice a year at the very back of her temple.
The boys
The group. You may have to click on this one to really see. The scale of these monuments were so impressive!
We conclude our tour, head back to the airport, make a stop in Aswan where our incredible tour guide Hassan departs and we are on our way back to Cairo. We are met at the airport by Hossan who originally met us in Cairo 8 days ago. He gathered our luggage and we easily walked to our hotel – the Meridian which was conveniently attached to the airport.
In the morning we are leaving Egypt heading for 3 whirlwind days in Jordan.
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