Miss Slayton in Egypt

Yesterday we had a 4 AM wake up call to Abu Simbel. The drive took just over 3 hours to reach our destination. We drove through mostly desert and even saw our first mirage. It literally looked like a huge body of water was out in the desert!

Once we arrived at Abu Simbel we learned about the preservation that went into saving over 20 temples. In the early 1900s they built the Aswan Dam to help with the flooding coming from the river Nile, however, this Dam gave way several times causing damage to antiquities, villages and farm lands. In the 1960s along with the help of over 40 other countries, Egypt started to move temples to prepare for the construction and opening of the new and even better Aswan High Dam. They literally cut Abu Simbel out of the mountain it had been carved into and built a half dome, man made mountain as its new home. The temple was moved from 1964-1968 and cost 40 million dollars. All the countries that helped worked together under the UNESCO banner. For assisting with the move of temples within the lake Nasser zone (which actually used to be Nubia) America was gifted a temple from the area. The temple of Dendur, which is housed in the MET in NYC. Four temples in total were gifted to countries that helped.

Abu Simbel now over looks the absolutely stunning largest man made lake: Lake Nasser.

Abu Simbel was built by Ramses II. He built one temple for himself (dedicated to the gods Ra-Harakhty, Ptah, and Amun) and another, smaller one for his wife Nefertari (dedicated to the goddess Hathor). These structures were built in 1224 BCE.

The temples themselves are enormous, and it’s crazy thinking that they actually cut up a mountain and moved two entire temples. Unfortunately you couldn’t take any photographs inside, due to preservation issues, but the inside was equally stunning. With colors and reliefs preserved, even through the move.

Twice a year there’s perfect solar alignment, and the sun penetrates the inner temple and illustrates statues of Ramses II, Ra-Harakhty and Amun. The statue of Ptah is not illuminated, because he represents the underworld, and always remains in the darkness. The dates of this event happen on October 21st and February 21st. Those dates are allegedly the kings Birthday and coronation day.

Yesterday was a slightly more stressful afternoon, because upon our return to our hotel we found out that there had been two separate attacks within Egypt that day. One near Saqqara, in Cairo, where we started our journey. And another in a red sea beach resort called Hurghada. Everyone was talking about them, even hotel staff. It’s so unfortunate, because attacks like this take away from their tourism, which is the lively hood of a lot of citizens within Egypt. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming. Everyday we are greeted with smiles and people saying welcome to Egypt. We still feel safe and plan to finish out our last several days in Alexandria.

Today we ventured out on a boat and a traditional Egyptian sail boat, called a felucca. We visited two separate island, one called Philae and the other Elephantine.