In fact the old school flavor has survived
The Abu Simbel trip was optional and before we went, I was debating on going. I really don't have extra money to spend, but what the hell, I'm already there and everyone who was just finishing their tour as we were begining ours said it was worth it and who knows when/if I'll get to come back, so I paid for it. I'm glad I did. It ended up being one of the most beautiful places we saw. We took a thirty minute plane ride down to Abu Simbel, which is close to the Sudan border.
As we're walking down an incline, we see this:
and we get super excited, pulling out our cameras and start snapping away. I was about to ask Sherif about these things, but he just kept walking like it wasn't a big deal. I figured that's probably because he leads this tour every week and he's seen it millions of times. As we turn the corner though, we see this:
and suddenly who cares about the crap carved in the rocks, just look at these amazing statues! I'm pretty sure my eyes popped out of my head. I think we were all awed from the beginning. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to be guided through these temples, but Sherif told us what to look for beforehand. I know the wiki article says Ramses built these temples to intimidate his Nubian neighbors, but we were told it was sort of a peace offering. That Ramses, in glorifying his Nubian wife along with him, was saying he liked the Nubians. I don't know, either way, it was gorgeous.
The amazing thing about these mountain temples was that they had been moved further inland to avoid flooding. They had to be repositioned just right because as part of the ceremonies performed there, twice a year on Febuary 22 and October 22 the sun hits the inside of the temple and shines on the statue of Ramses. (I wonder how crazy amazing it would be to be at the temple on those days). It took seventy countries and four years to move both mountains. The blocks were cut in half, numbering up to 800,000 pieces and rebuilt with the help of some concrete support so the weight of the mountain no longer rested on the actual temple ceiling.
I'm pretty sure this one is Ramses
and this one is Nefertari. Ramses gave her cow horns to show that she was as beautiful as a goddess and that he liked the Nubians...something like that.
The entrance
above the doorway.
The other temple:
That one statue was destroyed by an earthquake. It was left where it fell and never repaired:
They're pretty massive.
Along the base of these statues are a bunch of smaller, more worn and broken statues:
Above the entrance were a bunch of baboons worshipping the sun:
It's nice that they carved them little penises, huh? How detailed.
The entrance:
Carved along the entrance walls:
I think maybe slaves?
No pictures inside, but I was allowed to take a picture of the inside from the doorway:
I could've stayed here fore hours looking at everything. There was so much to see and hearing the stories and learning the meanings of certain pictures was incredible. We were told it only gets better from here and I'm like, "Seriously? I don't see how." We took the plane back to Aswan, had lunch, a short nap and then headed to Kom Ombo which turned out to be the most memorable site for me.
Our first look:
Can you tell there was some Greek influence?
I think these are prayers written on the wall. This particular temple was apparently an all purpose sorta place. Surgery, carneval like parties, worship, etc.
This temple was under water for awhile. You can see the watermarks on the column.
A picture of Horus on one of the columns. Some of the color is still left.
Sobek, the Crocodile God. Sherif told us that one time, they use to have a Sound and Light Show at Abu Simbel and a crocodile crawled up from the water and the audience clapped and cheered. They thought it was part of the show, and why wouldn't they with all the pictures of Sobek around.
I don't remember everything that's going on in this picture, but it's suppose to be something like the Gods giving power to the King of Egypt. (I dont' remember if it was a specific king or not). From let to right: Thoth, with an ibis head, giving wisdom; I can't remember if Sherif said this woman was a goddess or queen but the cow horns were suppose to mean she was beautiful and she was giving support to the king; the king; Ugly women were made to look like lions like Sekhmet, warrior goddess; and then Horus. But don't quote me on any of that. There was a lot going on.
This was our first look at Cleopatra:
You can tell the Greeks did this because of the belly and breasts. She's a curvy woman here, which is the body type the Greeks favored. At Abu Simbel, Nefertari was shown as long and willowy. Also, instead of being carved into the rock, these pictures are chiseled out.
The Rx symbol for prescription came from the Eye of Horus.
I wish I'd gotten close ups of this wall. This is a doctor offering prayers to Imhotep, shown as a god here, who was a surgeon, high priest, poet, etc. Just a little left of the center is a picture of women sitting on these birthing stools. Supposedly the best postition for giving birth. Right of center is a picture of a surgeon's tools. It's hard to see since the picture is little, but there's pliers, scissors, other stuff I can't remember, a saw for brain surgery. No one knows if anyone survived the brain surgeries, but hey practice makes perfect. Over to the right in between that and Imhotep is a basin for washing hands before the surgery with an actual prescription written above.
While people were waiting for the doctor, they doodled on the floor:
There were also pictures of tic-tac-toe looking games scratched into the floor.
This serpent wrapped around a staff is a symbol of the medical practice.
A confession box. At least it worked like one. You confessed/prayed into the box. The eyes and ears on either side was the gods listening and the goddess above I think symbolizes justice/mercy.
Power ankh!
This one is Cleopatra's name, written just inside the temple entry way.
More pictures of the temple:
You can see where a part of the roof fell.
We were done for the day. We headed back to the ship.
From my room, you could see a bunch of the vendors who pounced on you as soon as you walked by:
Before I left on this trip, my parents--mostly my dad--was concerned about terrorists. I rolled my eyes and said, "You know what, I hope I do find terrorists there! I'll take a picture with them holding up their machine guns and maybe I'll get to hold one too." So I took this picture:
He's just a police officer. They get to carry big guns, if they want. They're everywhere.
When we got back from Kom Ombo, we then set sail for Edfu. Have you seen the sun set on the banks of the Nile?
Later that night, we had a party where everyone dressed up in Egyptian costumes. I hadn't decided yet what kind of clothes to buy for myself, so I didn't participate. I did help though with Mike's costume:
Blurry in my excitement to take a picture of our handiwork. We wondered briefly if this would be offensive or at the very least if we'd be in trouble for the rolls of toilet paper we stole/wasted. We got a good laugh out of everyone. I'm surprised no one came up with it before. The party was fun, but it had been a long day. Jackie tried to get the bartender to dance with me. I said no thank you and he asked why not. I said, "Because I need more beer!" He said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you." He did, which was nice, I still didn't dance though. At one point, another girl--you know the kind that's use to shoeshining drinks and is "hot" in an overprocessed way--ordered this ridiculously complicated virgin drink with rum in it. It's the kind of drink that bartenders hate making. She watched one of the guys make two of these, painstakingly alternating layers of mango and guava juice and cutting out fancy orange scallop twists, for some older people on the sun deck. She saw that and asked for one but with rum added. I then asked for a Stella (beer). The bartender handed me a bottle and popped the cap. She was not happy to see that and said, "I've been waiting here forever for my drink!" I said, "Well, it's probably because you ordered a super complicated drink." She gives me this nasty bitch look and I shrug and take a giant swig of my beer and smiled--maybe smugly. That's not my problem. I got my drink. I'm not dumb enough to order anything with more than two ingredients when it's busy.
When we docked, Sherif took some people on shore to hang out at the city, but I was tired and we had an early wake up call the next morning. I went to go lie on the sun deck awhile and it was really nice to be kind of isolated in the dark watching the stars and ships go by.