We continued our harried pace so that once we get to the red sea we will be ready to sit on the beach and relax... for at least an hour then I'll need shade.
Day 5: Abu Simbel
Day 5: Abu SimbelWe woke up early (really, really early) this morning so that we could take a 3 hour bus ride to the Sun Temple of Ramses II and the Hathor Temple of Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel. I really thought the pyramids were impressive until we rounded the bend at Abu Simbel and came upon four colossel statues of Ramses II carved into the mountain side. Upon seeing the statues I began to question my earlier theory that mummies continue to shrink. Now I believe that Ramses might have had something of a inferiority complex, similar to Lord Farquaad in the movie Shrek. In order to compensate (or maybe overcompensate) he erected large statues of himself all up and down the country. 
Whatever the reason, I've never seen anything quite as amazing as this temple. One of the most fascinating aspects (and this might just be the engineer in me) is that the entire temple was cut into pieces and moved up 250 feet where it was put back together in order to prevent it from being lost underwater due to the building of a new dam in the 1960's. After about two hours we got back in the bus for three hours to return to Aswan to go to Philae and see the temple of Isis. Similar to the temples at Abu Simbel, the original island of Philae is now under water and all of the ruins were moved to their current location after the building of the dam. We did go see the dam as well, but what is there to say, it looked like a dam.
Day 6: Luxor
We took the train to Luxor in the evening of Day 5 and were greeted by every hotelier in the city offering us the best place to stay in the city. In the morning we walked to the Luxor Temple and saw, if you can believe it, ruins. And even more surprising, large statues of Ramses II. At the front of the temple is the Avenue of Sphinxes, which at one point in time ran 3 km to the temple of Karnak which happened to be our next destination. We took a horse drawn carriage to Karnak and on the way saw that they were still uncovering sphinxes along the avenue. In Karnak,
we saw the tallest obelisk (think Washington Monument) in all of Eqypt. It was built by one of the few women that ruled ancient Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut. Not that surprisingly, there were a number of large statues of Ramses II. There was also a statue of a large scarab on an alter. It is said that if you walk around it once, you will get good luck, twice and you will get married, seven times and you will get pregnant. June and I decided to walk around 4 times.
Whatever the reason, I've never seen anything quite as amazing as this temple. One of the most fascinating aspects (and this might just be the engineer in me) is that the entire temple was cut into pieces and moved up 250 feet where it was put back together in order to prevent it from being lost underwater due to the building of a new dam in the 1960's. After about two hours we got back in the bus for three hours to return to Aswan to go to Philae and see the temple of Isis. Similar to the temples at Abu Simbel, the original island of Philae is now under water and all of the ruins were moved to their current location after the building of the dam. We did go see the dam as well, but what is there to say, it looked like a dam.
Day 6: LuxorWe took the train to Luxor in the evening of Day 5 and were greeted by every hotelier in the city offering us the best place to stay in the city. In the morning we walked to the Luxor Temple and saw, if you can believe it, ruins. And even more surprising, large statues of Ramses II. At the front of the temple is the Avenue of Sphinxes, which at one point in time ran 3 km to the temple of Karnak which happened to be our next destination. We took a horse drawn carriage to Karnak and on the way saw that they were still uncovering sphinxes along the avenue. In Karnak,
we saw the tallest obelisk (think Washington Monument) in all of Eqypt. It was built by one of the few women that ruled ancient Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut. Not that surprisingly, there were a number of large statues of Ramses II. There was also a statue of a large scarab on an alter. It is said that if you walk around it once, you will get good luck, twice and you will get married, seven times and you will get pregnant. June and I decided to walk around 4 times. Coming soon, Valley of the Kings, the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai..
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