Day 3 Egypt with Ms.Sarah
Day 3–Abu Simbel/Aswan
We began our day with a 4:00 am flight to Abu Simbel to see the Temple of Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great. Ramses was a prolific builder and built this temple which is in the south of Egypt, very near the border of his enemy, the Nubians, to send the message that he controlled that area.
The temple, built in the thirteenth century BC, is dedicated to the patron deities of Egypt’s great cities—Amun of Thebes, Ptah of Memphis, and Ra-Harakhty of Heliopolis. These 3 gods along with a seated statue of Ramses sit in a chapel in the rear of the temple. On 2 days a year daylight falls on all of them except Ptah because he is the god of darkness and half of Ra/Harakhty because he is god of the sun at noon. The 2 days are Ramses’ birthday and his coronation day. The temple was hewn out of a solid cliff. The facade is 108 feet high and has 4 enormous statues of Ramses sitting in front with smaller statues of his wife and children between his legs. It was buried in sand and discovered in 1813 by Swiss explorer Jean-Louis Brurckhardt. It is heavily decorated inside showing Ramses’ defeat of the Hittites at the battle of Qadesh in 1375 BC.
Next to Ramses’ temple is a smaller one dedicated to goddess Hathor honoring his favorite wife Nefertari. The facade is comprised of statues of Nefertari as the goddess Hathor alternating with Ramses. It is also heavily decorated inside with scenes of Ramses slaying Egypt’s enemies, watched by Nefertari.
When the Aswan dam was to be built in the 1960’s, both temples were in danger of being destroyed, so the Egyptian government along with the advice of several other countries decided to move these temples to their present location. An enormous undertaking, it took 4 years and $400,000,000 to cut the temples out of the rock and move them to their present location.
After a return flight to Aswan we checked into our fabulous hotel which can only be accessed by boat. Our day ended with a swim in the pool, dinner, and shopping in the souk.
