After the Desert I arrived back in Cairo and spent a day there to wait for the night train that I was taking down to Aswan in the Nubian south of Egypt. The train ride was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but in reality was close to 16! Can't rave on the comforts much either. Anyway, found my hotel and kept it low key for the night since sleep wasn't so easy on the train. The next day, I booked my trip down to Abu Simbel which is the temple that Rameses the Great built for himself around the 13th century BC. He also had one built, though not as grand, for Nefertari. The entire temple was torn down brick by brick and relocated on higher land due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam when it was "discovered" well into the building of the dam that when it would be completed these temples would be under water. Egypt can thank the USA and many other countries for the emergency relocation which cost roughly $40 million and took 4 years to do.
To get here you are required to go in a police convoy and everything was a bit rushed. Get up at 3am to board the bus, drive 2 1/2 hours south to the temple, fight the crowds and souvenir vendors to buy your ticket, walk through the temples 45 min max with "no photo! no photo!"shouted in your ear. Back on the bus for 2 1/2 hours back and done. I'm happy I went but any readers out there wanting to go, contact me and I can recommend a much better way to get there without all this frenzy and a much better experience. Here are the only 2 photos I took here.
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