Stacey’s Mini-Extravaganza to the Middle East

The Four Statues of Ramses II

And up close with two of them

The biggest attraction in Aswan is Abu Simbel which is not actually in Aswan but 150 miles to the south and about 20 miles north of the Sudanese border.  Some people fly to Abu Simbel but most drive along the desolate desert highway in a police convoy.  Yes, I said a police convoy.  It must be said here that getting to Abu Simbel is an absolute production in and of itself.  In 1997 there was a terrorist bombing in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor (much more on Hatshepsut in the coming Luxor posts) which pretty much decimated tourism throughout Egypt thus removing the livelihood of a significant portion of Egyptians.  Since then, the government has been very keen to protect the tourists and thus instituted required police convoys to various locations in Egypt.  Several have been lifted over the years but the one to Abu Simbel remains and that is how I found myself in a 100 vehicle (coach buses, minibuses, private taxis) convoy headed toward Sudan.

The details of this trek cannot be underestimated.  I got a wake up call at 2:45 am at my hotel and was picked up by the tour company at 3:15 so we’d have enough time to meet the convoy at 4 am.  If you’re not there and checked-in by 4 am you’re screwed…the police won’t let you go.  It was nuts.  So of course we all arrive at Abu Simbel at the same time, stay for two hours with thousands of our closest friends and then embark on the 3 hour trek back to Aswan arriving back by noon.  Abu Simbel was beautiful and scenic on the shores of Lake Nasser…but if I were to do it again I think I’d figure out a way to stay near the village of Abu Simbel so as to not have to visit when everyone else is there.

Interior hall with you guessed it…more statues of Ramses II

One of the interior store rooms

Carved hieroglyphics on the wall

Interior reliefs

Abu Simbel is one of the many archeological sights that was threatened to be submerged by the damming of the Nile so in 1964 UNESCO embarked upon a 40 million dollar resue project to move the monument above and away from the original site to avoid the waters of Lake Nasser.  Abu Simbel was built by Egypt’s most egotistical pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BC) for himself and his beautiful wife Nefertari.  The intent was that the 4 statues of himself would be the first thing travelers, visitors and enemies alike would see as they arrived in Egypt from the south.  Similarly, he built a separate temple for Nefertari which is not quite as imposing as his own temple but still quite impressive.  Both temples are carved directly into the rock and have many, many chambers and walkways inside.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the temples for fear of ruining the colored reliefs with our camera flashes.  I found the pictures you see here of the interior elsewhere on the web.

Queen Nefertari’s tomb

Nefertari up close and personal

Lake Nasser about 7 am

Lake Nasser, as we learned previously, is the reservoir created by the damming of the Nile River.  It is the largest reservoir on the planet and is 83% contained in Egypt while the rest is in Sudan (and called Lake Nubia).  Lake Nasser is more than 2000 square miles in surface area and 37 cubic miles in volume.  The fishing is reported to be very good for Nile Perch in Lake Nasser with the record fish ever caught weighing 392 pounds.

Tomorrow on the Mini-Extravaganza we’ll take a felucca ride and visit Elephantine Island before heading off to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  Enjoy the pictures!

View of the desert over Lake Nasser

Monument to Egyptians from the Soviets after completion of the High Dam

OK, back on track.  It turns out that Luxor Airport has a fine Wifi connection and I have a couple of hours to spare before my flight so hopefully I will get a little bit caught up.  It’s worth mentioning here that I’m several days behind on the blog as compared to my current location.  Part of this is circumstance (bad internet connection, etc.) and part is by design.  I’ve packed a lot into this first week so have lots of pictures and information to share from that stretch of the Mini-Extravaganza while my second week promises to be relaxed, low-key and likely lacking blog-worthy material.  So basically I’m trying to space the posts out over time so I don’t end up with a big gap this week while I’m relaxing on the beach and diving under the sea.  And now, back to Aswan…

So after leaving the mayhem that is Cairo, I hopped on the overnight train to Aswan in Upper Egypt.  Interestingly, Upper Egypt is actually south of Cairo and is so-named because the Nile River runs from the mountains of Africa down towards the Mediterranean Sea…so “upper” in this case refers to elevation.  Now, the Nile is a vital and important part of the history and sustainability of Egypt however it has also been causing the Egyptians massive headaches for thousands of years.  Like all un-dammed rivers the conditions of the Nile have been hard to control.  Some years it flooded the Nile Valley washing out the crops and some years the water was so low that there was drought and famine.  So in 1898, the British rolled in during their occupation of Egypt and built the first dam on the Nile…the Aswan Low Dam.  The height of this dam was increased twice until finally in 1946 after the dam overflowed yet again they got smart and built another dam upriver…the Aswan High Dam.

Aerial shots of the High Dam and Lake Nasser

Schematic drawings of the dam.  The volume of the structure is 17 times larger than the Pyramid of Cheops

Lake Nasser again (the world’s largest reservoir)

Naturally there was a lot of political drama surrounding the construction of the dam and I’ll spare you the specific details but suffice it to say that in the early 1950s with the U.S., Britain and the U.S.S.R involved the whole project was a bit of a train wreck.  Ultimately, the U.S.S.R provided the funding for the construction of the High Dam and it was finally completed in 1970.  Fantastic.  So now they’ve created a reservoir to control irrigation in dry years (Lake Nasser which I’ll get to later), they’ve added electricity-producing capacity and have been able to increase the usable amount of farmland in the Nile Valley by 500%.  Everything is looking good and Egyptians are happy…everyone except for the head of Antiquities because the building of the dam has caused many important archaeological sites to be flooded and in some cases completely submerged by water.  Further, it displaced the homes of about 60,000 Nubian villagers and caused a wide variety of other ills but by and large has been considered a success.

The pictures I have here from the dam are not great as it’s rather difficult to take a picture of something so huge if you’re standing on top of it.  I’ve included a few shots (mostly of Lake Nasser on the other side) and the schematic of the dam’s construction.  The better pictures are from the Philae Temple which is one of the archaeological sights that was submerged by the damming of the Nile.  So in 1960 UNESCO began the project to relocate Philae to higher ground on an island nearby.  They paid an Italian company to carefully cut the temple into pieces and reconstruct them on the new island.

View of village from the boat ride to the Philae Temple

Philae Temple from boat

Some fishermen

Philae Temple has an interesting history in that it has been host to a wide variety of kingdoms, religions and dynasties over the years.  It was originally used as the temple to the goddess Isis but over the years was also occupied by the Christians who did their best to mutilate the sculptures of the the temple.  In the 1800s it became a popular tourist spot with the British and before the High Dam was built people could take boat rides over the ruins where they were partially submerged by water.

There is much more to come on the River Nile so stay-tuned for feluccas, Abu Simbel and Nubian Villages in the coming days.

The colors from the reliefs was washed away with the multiple floodings.

Evidence of the Christian occupation of Philae Temple

View of Cairo from my hotel balcony (note the smog)

 Same view at night

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The Egyptian Museum

The Sculpture Garden at Egyptian Museum

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The Red Pyramid

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 Pyramid of Cheops

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