Abu Simbel, Egypt - 3 November

Our wake-up call this morning was at 7:30. The Joy! The Bliss! The Rapture! We were the lucky bus out of the three on this trip. The other two buses had a 4:30 wake-up call to catch an early flight to Abu Simbel. We had a 9:00 am flight and got to sleep in. My happiness knows no bounds.

We had a short bus-ride to the Aswan airport and boarded the plane for a ½ hour flight to Abu Simbel. We trooped off the plane and on to the bus for another quick bus ride to the temple. We hiked around a large hill and there it was – The Temple of Abu Simbel. Wow! Mega Wow! It was such an amazing, striking, and overwhelming site.

Bahgat gave us the history of the place but I’m going to condense it considerably for you… Ramses II was the greatest ruler of Ancient Egypt and built an empire during his 67 years of Pharaoh-ship. One of his genius plans was to build temples in remote areas that were being invaded by the Nubians. He built seven temples so that each temple would be populated by people who would defend the temple and the surrounding region, thereby thwarting the invaders. Abu Simbel was one of those temples.

It is a magnificent work of art and the scale of it is overwhelming. After our lecture we had 40 minutes to walk around and just absorb the place. I don’t have enough superlatives to do justice to Abu Simbel. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see it. One of the astonishing facts of this site is that it also was relocated from another area due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The mountain was taken apart piece by piece and reconstructed in another location. It boggles the mind to think that they were able to move an entire mountain and were able to maintain the structural and artistic integrity of the temple.

At noon we were back on the bus to the airport and then flying back to Aswan. We around 2:00 and five of us decided to skip the bland buffet at the hotel and eat at a restaurant recommended by Bahgat. It was a large restaurant with a dock on the Nile. Lunch was excellent and we enjoyed our time by the water. I love these Nile moments.

After lunch, Eileen and I left the others and returned to the market for one last burst of shopping – in Egypt at least. We spent 2 ½ hours walking through the market, haggling with vendors and having a great time. We had enough of it by 6:00 and headed back to the hotel on the ferry for our post-shopping ritual of imbibing in a glass of wine before dinner. The ship’s doctor joined us and we had a wonderful time enjoying each other’s company and the breezy Egyptian night.

Dinner was an uninspired buffet again but, fortunately, I got some pasta advice from two students -and goodness knows that college students are the leading authorities on pasta! We had an early night due to a 4:00 am wake-up call and spent the remainder of the evening packing our luggage.