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Abu Simbel:
Abu Simbel is a temple built by
Ramesses II (c.1279-1213 B.C.E.) in ancient Nubia,
where he wished to demonstrate
his power and his divine nature. Four colossal (65 feet/20 meters
high)statues of him sit in pairs flanking the entrance. The alignment of the
temple
is such that twice a year
the sun’s rays reach into the innermost sanctuary to illuminate
the seated statues of Ptah, Amun-Re,
Ramesses II, and Re- Horakhty. The temple was cut out of the sandstone
cliffs above the Nile River in an area near the Second Cataract. Not only
are the two temples at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in
the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in
itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion
in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam the Egyptian
Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched
a world wide appeal.
During the salvage operation which began in 1964 and continued
until 1968, the two temples were
dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone
cliff where they had been built
more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same
relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial
mountain. Most of the joins in the stone have now been filled by antiquity
experts, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks
were cut. You can also go inside
the man made dome and see an
exhibition of photographs showing the different stages
of the massive removal project.
Abu Simbel was first reported by
J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over the mountain and only saw the
facade of the great temple as he was preparing to leave that area via the
Nile. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte,
and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must see for
Victorians on tour in Egypt, even though it required a trip up the Nile, and
often they were covered deeply in sand, as they were when Burckhardt found
them. Nile Cruises a first time visitor to Egypt who wants a classical
experience could do well to book a Nile cruise. Of course modern airlines
shuttle tourists to the southern region of Egypt, but historically the Nile
cruise was really the only way to visit the temples and tombs located along
this stretch of the river. It is still a popular means of visiting upper
Egypt and has many advantages to other means of travel. First of all, it is
very nice to unpack and once and have your hotel travel with you, rather
then the hectic routine that accompanies the stop and go itineraries of air
and land tours. But besides the more relaxed mode of travel, there are other
significant advantages. Nile cruises often visit
a wider variety of antiquities
along the banks of the river. But equally important, they also allow the
tourist to gain a prospective of the rural Egypt, where people live much the
same way they did even thousands of years ago, in mudbrick homes, tending
their fields with wooden plows and moving produce via donkey. It is a
wonderful experience to sit on
a shaded deck of a floating
hotel, sipping an iced beverage while watching 5,000 years
of culture slowly drift by.
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