Picked up after breakfast for airport, and our flight to Abu Simbel. Mervat's buddy at the airport arranges for seats on the left side, first row, so that we have views of the monuments as we land. We're able to beat the rest of the crowds out of the airport, since they are groups and need to wait for buses, and so see the temple Ramses II (The Great) built to himself, fronted by four monumental statues of himself, each over 20 meters high. Inside are incredible carvings and paintings, depicting Ramses supposedly single-handed victory over the Hittites in Syria and various scenes, intended to establish himself as a god. Every feature of these has historic and/or religious significance. In the back room are four statues that are lit by the sun only twice a year for twenty minutes, except that one of hem, the god of the underworld is not lit. The size and scope of the structure is overwhelming. The guy had an ego, and time to enjoy it, as he ruled Egypt for 67 years, the second longest reign of any king.
Nearby is a considerably smaller, but still very impressive temple that he built for his favorite wife, Nefartari, the beautiful queen.
This could have been even more interesting and enjoyable, had we been given a book with pictures and descriptions to study in advance, which we could have carried around as we viewed the site. Even without that, though, an incredible experience. We brought the fans we bought in Ghana with us today, which helped a bit with the heat inside the temples, but not in the hot sun.
We ate a box lunch, and then Carol did more bargaining for a few things on the way from lunch to our car. Short flight back to Aswan, then driven to the huge dam built to create Lake Nasser and generate electrical power with the help of the Russians, who sided with Egypt when they seized the Suez Canal in 1956, provoking first hot and then cold war. The dam is impressive, but we were too wiped out by the heat (108 today) to do more than jump out and take a photo. The heat also did us in at the unfinished obelisk, and we survived only a minute or two after watching the 10-minute video, much of which I could not understand.
We were driven to our luxurious ship, Alexander the Great, where we said good-bye to Mervat, who we enjoyed greatly. We were shown to our suite on the top level, which will serve as a most comfortable home for the next three nights. Relaxed for a couple of hour in air conditioned comfort, before being picked up for an evening sound and light show at Philae Temple, to which we are taken by car and boat.
Show at the Philae was much better than either of us anticipated. We both rated the show a B+ and the overall experience of the show and seeing Philae lit up either an A- (Carol) or an A (me). Boat and car back to the boat, saying good-bye to Luke, who was quite helpful, if rather stiff.
Drinks in the lounge of the boat. Met our guide, Magdi, who is a friend of Mervat's, seems cute, and may be all ours, something we did not anticipate. Buffet dinner on the deck was quite good, though we'd both have preferred indoors, because of the heat. Going to try to send this blog, then retire.
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