September 30, 2019 - Aswan
The trip to Abu Simbel takes three hours. We’ve left at yuck o’clock so as to arrive before the crowds and also before the heat of the day. We were told yesterday that there are two kinds of days in Egypt, “hot days” in which it is just hot all the time regardless of whether you can find shade or not, and “hot sun" in which it is hot in the sun, but better in the shade and with a breeze. We are in the latter, happily!!
At one point there is a traffic back-up because the road doesn’t open until four. It is also the road to Sudan, so there is more security than usual.
After a couple of hours of driving through unrelieved desert, we pull into the only roadside civilization we’ve seen. It a little cantina kind of place and seems to be known by all the tour guides. If you time your arrival correctly, you can see the sunrise over the desert! There is a small busload of Japanese tourists who think it’s cool to pose sitting in the middle of the road. Yes, there is traffic on the road!
About half an hour before we arrive, our guide tells us about the history of the temples. Like the others we’ve seen or heard about, they were to be flooded by the new dam. The difference is that the others were free-standing temples and these two were actually carved out of the side of a mountain! How to move them? Many ideas were floated; but the winner was to cut the temples out of the mountain and reassemble the pieces at a higher elevation. And part of the mountain had to come too, so they would retain their original appearance. That meant building a concrete dome and covering it with rock and nestling the temples into it. The amazing thing is not just that they were able to accomplish this; but you can hardly see any of the seams! Unbelievable!
The larger temple was build by Ramses II to honor himself as both ruler and god. The smaller one he build for his beautiful wife, Nefertari. When we arrive our guide sits us down in the shade and shows us the most important features of the temples, since he is not allowed to go in with us. It’s like a scavenger hunt and we do pretty well! We find the two spies who almost caused Ramses’ downfall, the boat which carries the goddess Hathor, wife of Horus, in her cow form, the figure of Ramses with an extra arm, an error made during the original construction, and the two goddesses who appear identical, except for their glyphs in the cartouches above them. Mostly, though, we are transfixed by the immensity of both the original construction and the engineering it took to preserve these wonders.
Ginger and I wander back through the bazaar. Should have known better! But she got some cute things for the grandkids and I got a pretty t-shirt. Marilyn was much smarter and went straight back to our meeting place!
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| They're international! |
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| Four statues of Ramses II, but he ages from left to right! |
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| Nefertiri's temple |
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| Hathor, the cow goddess in the sacred boat |
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| Showing how close the new location is to Nasser Lake |
Back to the van and everyone cat naps on the ride back into town! We then check into the Minerva, our floating hotel for the next couple of days. There are about there hundred and fifty of these small cruise ships that sail up and down the Nile, stopping at the significant sites or tours to disembark. We in time for the end of lunch and once our baggage is stowed in our rooms, we head down to the dining room. There is a lovely buffet, not as large as on a serious cruise ship; but it’s very nice and the staff is attentive. And we meet Diane and Jordan a mother and son from New Zealand who will be with us for part of the tour.
After lunch we go to reception to get the wifi password and retrieve our passports. Turns out we can’t get the passports back until tomorrow morning, and we can’t get the wifi password! The man at reception is willing to set up our phones for us and if we bring him our computers, he’ll take care of those, too. Hmm. Well, we figure out how to do the computers ourselves; but we can’t help the speed of the wifi. Still, it mostly works, and that’s better than we’ve had for a while!
We had given some thought to going to Elephantine Island; but once we sit down and catch our breath, we realize that we don’t have the oomph to do it! Instead, Juan and Marilyn take naps and Ginger and I go exploring the ship. And it’s tea time! We don’t find it at first and run into Sultan who escorts us up to the sundeck where we saw the pool. We didn’t notice that at the far end of the deck there is a little table set up with tea and coffee urns and four trays of light delicacies. We each take a cup and some treats, and settle in to unwind and watch the feluccas on the river.
We’ve agreed to meet Sultan at six o’clock to go visit the spice bazaar. What a treat that turns out to be. Sultan walks us though downtown Aswan to the places where the locals shop and introduces us to a man whose family has sold spices for a century in this location. He lets us smell and taste such wonders of the middle east and we all go home with some goodies and inspiration for culinary adventures. He gives us more than he charges us for and gifts us with peanuts and incense. Of course, he made out pretty well, too!
As we walk back, Sultan stops at a shop that sells sugarcane juice and treats us all to a large glass each. And we meet a couple from Germany who weren’t sure they wanted to try it. We convince the husband to give it a go and he’s happy he did. His wife is pregnant and is being very careful about what she eats; but they are both charming and we have a lovely chat before going our separate ways.
Sultan gives us our marching orders for the morning. We’re to leave at 7:30, so breakfast at 7:00 and wake-up calls at 6:30. (Don’t I wish!)
A side note - during lunch I was taking photos of the cute little carved animals and the chef and I had a giggle. Shortly after, when I decided to try the pumpkin soup, he decided to play with me. I pointed to the pumpkin, he picked up the ladle for the chicken noodle, that went on for a while, then he poured about a half inch of soup in the little bowl and handed it to me, smiling all the while. I finally got a full serving and we both giggled.
Later, during dinner, he must have said something to our waiter, because he came and tried to remove my dessert dish as I was eating from it. It looks like it’s going to be fun and games during meals! Good times!
Ginger is going to the lounge with her computer but I don’t have the where withal. I’m still wrestling with the wifi, trying to get the photos loaded from two days ago. At this rate I may never catch up!! Looks like another short night!
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