This is a highlight of the trip and
well worth the additional cost to visit. Abu Simbel is 168 miles
south and a 3 1/2 hour drive from Aswan or the flight is about 40
minutes from Aswan on a wide body Airbus jet. Then you
transfer to an Egyptian Air bus that takes you to the entrance of
Abu Simbel. Most of the time your guide will not accompany you to
Abu Simbel as you then have to pay for the guides airplane ticket.
Large escorted groups may have their guide accompany them but if you
are just two or four people it is not really worth the cost involved
to bring your guide. On arrival you buy an entrance ticket.
The ticket entitles you to a guide. They normally gather up a group
of English speaking people and then take you to the Temples.
If you prefer to walk around alone you can also refuse a guide and
do it by yourself. After going through the entrance gate take a
right and walk down the path. The path continues past the temples in
a full circle back to the entrance.
When you catch your first glimpse of Abu Simbelimpse of Abu Simbel it is truly awe
inspiring. It is huge and pictures cannot do this temple any justice
it must be seen to be understood. You are not permitted to
take pictures inside but of course the outside is stunning. Inside
the temple are more giant statues. There are two temples at
Abu Simbel. These were built more than 3000 years ago. The
main temple was built by Ramses II as a monument to himself.
This is the one you always see in pictures. The smaller temple he
built and dedicated it to the Goddess Hathor and to his own wife,
Nefertari.
The temple was moved when the
reservoir lake was rising due to the new Aswan Dam. This was a
remarkable feat to move the temple up the embankment out of harms
way. After seeing the temples it was worth all the effort, to
ll the effort, to
ll the effort, to
ll the effort, to
lose these ancient temples would have been unthinkable.
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