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Other entries in Abu Simbel

The Temple of Ramses II

Abu Simbel. Wednesday, February 12th.

Got off to a very early start, like 3:45 a.m, and onto a bus to go to the site of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. We had a huge bus, seats for 50, but only 15 passengers. This was ideal, as we were able to sleep for most of the three hour drive to the site. We went to the site in a convoy of buses. This is the way Western tourists must travel longer distances. There were perhaps 15 or 20 buses in our convoy. At the front and back of the cavalcade were soldiers complete with arms.

What a sight when you see these huge temples! I am almost certain that everyone who looks at the attached photos will recognize them. Therefore, I will only add a bit of colour commentary and for the rest, let the photos do the talking.

They were built around 1200 BC. The larger of the two is for Ramses II. The carved rock face is 40 metres high, with the four statues of Ramses each being about 20 metres tall. From the right to the left, each statute is supposed to depict Ramses at 25, 50, 75 and 100 (he died in his 90's). The smaller (only 10 metres tall) carvings are of Ramses and his favourite wife (he had 150!!), Nefertari. Ramses had a big ego, and even in the temple dedicated to his wife, four of the six characters on the outside wall are of him.

What I did not know was that behind these carvings, on the walls of stone, are deep interior temples. You can see a door,and if you go thru it goes for some distance (perhaps 15 metres for the Nefertari temple and 30 metres for Ramses), with open space and wall to wall hieroglyphics. These carved out caves or caverns are huge, about 10 metres wide and full of many rooms.

Another interesting point to note is that these temples were moved from their original location. The Nile River has a huge dam at Aswan. As the waters filled behind the dam, it became very obvious that this temple and several others would have to be moved or they would be flooded. The entire temple was cut into over one million pieces and lifted up to a new site about 50 metres above the old. This project took over 5 years. What you see is the temples and what is a front facade, filled with gravel and stone from behind. When you are there, you are not aware of that or that it has been moved, the dis-assembly and reassembling is not obvious to the casual observer.

After 2.5 hours, we were on the road again and heading back to Aswan. In the afternoon we were on a felucca, which is a wide sail boat. The deck of the boat was covered with a large mattress and cushions, with a canvas cover overhead to protect us from the sun. We sailed up and down the Nile River around Aswan, and visited a Nubian village. We were prepared a local meal, complete with sitting on the floor. After dinner, we returned to the felucca for an overnight sleep on the large mattress. A restful but colder night ensued, and we were up again at 5:45 (if you are getting the impression that this trip is active, it sure is, thank goodness). The boat did not rock or roll and I'd been looking forward to that feeling again.

Photos / videos of "The Temple of Ramses II":