Convoy
I’ve got to tell about transportation in Egypt. Particular – transportation in Upper Egypt. And more particular – transportation of the tourists. There are few places in the whole country, where people with non-Egyptian appearance can only get under …convoy…The idea of this – all tourists vehicles gathered together, then they have a military vehicle assigned to the journey and – off they go – all together, in one wild herd, in one direction. Entertaining spectacle, I must say…Imagine – cars, buses, taxis, minivans, anything from 30 up to 60 motors…and a road. Two lines. Who cares about the lines? This is convoy moving – look out, oncoming transport! I’ll tell you – this is a dangerous ride. The accompanying military car full of soldiers with Kalashnikovs drove ahead with the rocket speed, all the rest – doing their best, even if it feels like the vehicle is about to shatter into spares…they are no longer – buses, cars, taxis and minivans. They are – crazy wild iron beasts that would sweep away anyone that happened to be on their way…
Well, a good thing about convoys – they will get you to the destination in the shortest possible time. It is prohibited to stop anywhere when in convoy, and when it passing through the villages or towns, there are civilian men with same Kalashnikovs stepping forward from every side road, local volunteers, that will keep an eye on the law and order in their village, while convoy drives through it…Fascinating…Anyway…all that about the convoy was a –"lyrical digression"…
Abu Simbel
About 300 km from Aswan to the south there is a great monument of the Ancient Egypt that we couldn’t possibly miss. The Temple of Abu Simbel that been built by the most famous pharaoh – Ramses II. This ambitious king built so many temples that no other pharaoh did. It should be said here, that to demonstrate the power and wealth of the king there was only one way – to build an awe-inspiring monuments for all to see. And so we can safely say that Ramses II was not a poor man indeed. He was also a playboy too. He had quite a few wives in his Harem and said to be a father to somewhat 100 children. But he also was a romantic pharaoh as well. He loved his first wife, Nefertari, so much, that even dedicated a temple to her – something, what has been not a common practice back then at all. None of the Egyptian queens, so far as we know, had been held in such honour, for none had a temple dedicated to her jointly with a goddess, as was the case with Nefertari at Abu-Simbel.
And so – we joined the convoy to see the greatest token of the pharaoh’s love. 300 km is not exactly – around the corner. So we started off early. 3:00am (?!) Actually, it happened that while in Egypt, we’ve got accustomed to the early start of a day – most of the historical sites are best visited in the morning, before the unbearable heat. Convoy took us through the desert almost to the boarder with Sudan. We’ve met the sunrise on our way. I must admit, it was a fantastic view! Endless sand with the wave-shaped engravings created by the winds…and a sun…dark orange…heavily saturated in colour…it looked like a painted plate that hangs on the wall in a kitchen…
We arrived to Abu Simbel still early and were able to enjoy fantastic views of the lake Nasser that is right in front of the temples.
The rock-cut temple of Ramses II was not in the same location before. Again, when the Aswan’s Dam was built, the temple got moved in order to avoid being buried under the lake.
If the king wished to demonstrate his power with this temple, then he sure did it! Four colossal (20 meters high) statues of him sit in pairs by the entrance. They are the most impressive figures I’ve ever seen. Inside the temple there are few halls and lots of small chambers. The first hall contains large statues of the king himself that serve as pillars to support the roof. With each next entrance rooms become smaller and smaller due to the rising floor. There is a second hall with the altar for offerings and from there – a sanctuary with the seated statues of Gods and Pharaoh among them. The temple faces the east and the alignment of it is such that twice a year the sun's rays reach into the innermost sanctuary to illuminate statues…
To the north of the main temple a smaller temple was built in honour of beloved wife of the pharaoh, Nefertari (not to be confused with Nefertiti!).
It is a smaller temple, but still the fact that such a structure was built for a woman he loved, says a lot about how great this love was. There are six statues on the front of this temple. They twice as small as those of the Ramseses, "only" 10 meters high
Inside the temple decorated with the numerous carved images of the Goddess of Love Hathor. The drawings are very well preserved and show the scenes from the Pharaoh’s life – battles, festivals, coronations, offerings for gods – just all that "ordinary" everyday’s life of the king, you know ;-)…and of course, his beloved wife is always by his side…
My guide book told me:
An inscription over the entrance reads "Ramesses II, he has made a temple, excavated in the mountain, of eternal workmanship, for the chief queen Nefertari, beloved of Mu, in Nubia, forever and ever, Nefertari for whose sake the very sun does shine."
Hmmm…"forever and ever"...I wonder how it feels – to have a whole Temple dedicated to you?
[~trying to imagine how my 10 meters statue might’ve look like standing in my garden…)
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PS yes,Peggy, these Temples are GIGANTIC! I'm now posting another picture of mine to show the scale (I needed to walk really far away from them in order to capture both temples in one pic. Unfortunately, I couldn't minimise it for the web without loosing quality and details, but the "ants" ideas is obvious here)
And that postcard (I think, this is when they excavated the temple):
