Too Many Times (Aswan, Abu Simbel)

Aswan is where the Nile is dammed, dear reader. Twice in fact. The British built one and it didn't measure up. Literally. The flood waters went over the top. Much like the Windsor bridge built by a dud Liberal government in New South Wales. Lessons learned, the Egyptians built a new dam in the 1960s. Curiously, they didn't seem concerned about the impact on priceless historical artefacts. That or their eye for fine detail deserted them. Given Nasser was in power I am opting for the former. There will be more on that in later posts.

Lake Nasser holds a lot of water.

So, we had another ridiculously early start to the day. Breakfast at 4:00am to be in buses by 5:00am meant another 3:30am alarm. I do not like alarms. The other excitement was there was no water. Apparently the pumps had been accidentally switched off during 'routine maintenance'. The water came through about 3:45am. Not an inspiring start to the day.

We departed on schedule and arrived at Luxor airport to endure the ridiculous security checks. In a move that defied the usual over-employment policy of Egypt the security guy on the x-ray machine was also responsible for checking bags with items of interest. This slowed down the process, a lot.

Boarding happened on time. A transit bus to the plane was waiting on the tarmac and then we waited on the plane. And waited. And waited. Our guide suggested that the delay in passing through security was responsible. I'm suggesting that it was due to one particular tour group arriving with insufficient time to get through security. Choose your country of prejudice and assign blame.

Time at Abu Simbel is limited by your returning flight. We had a little over an hour until we departed, 30 minutes late, so we were unimpressed by the late comers. My annoyance was somewhat alleviated when we were informed that our return flight would depart 30 minutes later than scheduled because of the initial delay.

What to say about Abu Simbel? Nasser decided to build a dam without considering the consequences. The Nubians living by the river had their home inundated so the response was to move them to the desert. Makes sense. Move an agricultural group living by a river to the desert where they can do nothing but survive. Apparently they are still complaining 60+ years later. I don't blame them.

First glimpse.

Further, there was Abu Simbel and a number of other temples to consider. Or not. The answer was to appeal to UNESCO for assistance and an internationally funded salvage program was born. Having that knowledge in the back of your mind makes the first view of Abu Simbel even more breathtaking. How did they so carefully and painstakingly cut the temple into over 1,000 pieces and move it 200 metres to higher ground while creating a false mountain for it to be housed in? Absolutely amazing in a land of so much amazement.

Ramses II x 4

Although not in their original site, the temples of Abu Simbel are spectacular in size. There are two temples built by Ramses II, one dedicated to himself (of course) and the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty and Ptah and the other to his beloved wife, Queen Nefertari. It is most unusual to have a temple dedicated to a royal wife. The opening to the main temple is dominated by four enormous statues of Ramses II.

Statues lined the entry chamber.

The ceiling of the first chamber.

The line up to get inside the temple was quite long but thankfully moved quite quickly. It was, as you would expect, quite crowded, both inside and outside the temples. Tour groups were everywhere. As were those who feel they don't need to join the queue. 

A cartouche on the ceiling.

Happily, tour guides were banned from inside both temples to help with the flow of traffic. Nice in theory, but not everyone followed the rules and it was a hot, airless crush inside. Taking photographs was difficult. Exacerbated by the mindless who like to stand and review their photos on the smart phones before they move. Or by the morons who like to take video of inanimate objects. I wanted to tell more than one person that video is for recording things that move.

The holy of holies.

Escaping back into the sun was a joy. Fresh air was most welcome. We walked over to the the minor temple dedicated to Nefertari. The line was not as long but moved just as quickly. Inside was even more airless and was stiflingly hot.

A perspective shot Nefertari's temple in the foreground.

We shuffled around snapping photos when I could get a clear shot until we moved towards the holy of holies. The line stopped while we made way for those who stood and took selfies. No, dear reader, I'm not going to rant or rave, but I dearly hope there is a special place in hell for those people.

The side view of Nefertari's Temple.

Ramses' six daughters adorn Nefertari's temple.

Anyway, as we neared the front of queue, beads of sweat rolling done my spine, suffering oxygen deprivation, someone pushed past us to look into the chamber. Jayne, the usually reserved, controlled, love of my life said to the interloper, "Is there a reason why you don't need to line up like the rest of us?" The woman in question, English, replied, "I was just having a peek." "We all are," retorted Jayne. The woman thought Jayne rude, everyone thought the interloper was a rude slapper.

Which brings us to today's title, Too Many Times by Mental As Anything. It was one time too many that someone pushed in and evoked a reaction from Jayne.

Back out into the sunshine and fresh air once more, we headed for the bus and Abu Simbel airport. This time the second security check was less than 10 metres from the first. Hardly sufficient time to secrete acquire and secrete weapons of mass destruction upon your person.

Not sure about the effectiveness of the "do not climb sign"

Back in Luxor we had lunch and readied ourselves for our felucca ride in the afternoon. It was a most enjoyable way to while away the afternoon, sailing around the Nile, waiting for the sunset. We had not been on the water long before we were joined by an enterprising young lad on a surf board. He was singing songs that we would be singing later and was hopeful of some money being thrown his way.

The entrepreneur.

The felucca didn't sail far because of the fickle wind. We were able to see the tombs of the governors in the hillside and Lord Kitchener Island. The latter is supposedly the botanic garden of Egypt because he had trees from every country of every serving soldier planted there during the Second World War.

Lord Kitchener Island.

The tombs.

Oh, and there was a wedding.

The sunset was worth the wait. The Aswan Night Market or souq, was not.

A Bennu Heron.

Everywhere we have been, we have run the gauntlet of the 'vendors'. I like to browse and probably would have bought things to take home, but when you are harassed to purchase, I don't stop or look and there is no chance of a sale.

I have no idea how long the market street is, but it appears to go forever. Perhaps there were five cross streets. The spice stores were really interesting but we are unable to take anything of that nature home. There were the usual souvenir shops, clothing stores and a caffe/shisha place. One vendor tried to sell me a belt, "genuine camel leather" he said like that was a good sale point.

That was pretty much the day. Back at the ship we had dinner on the sundeck and most people missed the 9:00pm Nubian show because of the early start.

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