Abu Simbel (Egypt)

The Nubians call it 'The Nubian Sea' while the rest of Egypt named it Lake Nasser. Not surprising the Nubians call it that as in order to create the Lake in the 1960s the Nasser government penned up the Nile behind the High Dam and the dammed waters flooded the Nubian Desert area in Upper Egypt to create a 300 mile long inland sea. This meant that forty Nubian villages and towns and forty thousand Nubians had to be re-housed as their homes vanished beneath the rising waters. But it wasn't just the Nubian people who were in danger of being submerged -but many of the ancient Nubian monuments ... more

There are, I fear, few places in Egypt where the average package tourist can truly get a sense of the ancient wonder that is so often associated with Egypt. The Vally of the Kings is one such place, and Abu Simbel is one other. Built by Ramses II (the Ozymandias of Shelley's poem), the two temples at Abu Simbel are a monument to a) Ramses' love of his wife, Neferati and b) his rampaging ego. They are breathtaking in their majesty, which is compounded by their isolated location. It is a fact that the temples were moved in the early 1960s in order to avoid being 'drowned' by the development of ... more

On a weeks cruise down the Nile we opted for an excursion to Abu Simbel. After paying out loads of cash for the holiday of a lifetime I decided we weren't going to miss out on any excursions. An extra £500 and a wake up call of 5am we had breakfast and caught an internal flight. After climbing off the coach we began the short walk to the temple. There were street vendors on the road down to the temple, selling souvenirs and ornaments, who were probably the most polite vendors that we found in Egypt. There were also a few kiosks selling cold drinks and snacks. Our guide took us on the short cut ... more

And it is just a wonderful place if gone in Egypt you have to absolutely include in your travel Abu Simbel between all the templi that I have visited is what more impressed me In the first place the ancient Egyptians who I think were crazy have constructed a tempio digging in a mountain and gaining on the facades of the high statues more than 30 meters representing the large one remses because it is said that it has made it to construct, The mountain in 1962 has been cut to slices and moved otherwise the temple would be submergeeed from waters of the lake that was been created . It is very hot ... more