Abu Simbel

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

 

We arose early to take our bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel, saying goodbye to the MS Concerto, the riverboat that had been our home for four nights. We complained about having the leave at 7:00 a.m. Heba, our guide and Egyptologist, explained that we were lucky. Before the revolution, the most common way to get to Abu Simbel from Aswan was by a convoy of 60-80 buses that left Aswan at 4:00 a.m. Foreigners could only take the three-hour drive to Abu Simbel in the convoy for security reasons. In this post-revoluationary climate, there was still a convoy that left at 4:00 a.m., but we were allowed to travel later in our own bus with just our usual armed tourist policeman. Some of our fellow travelers had some concern about a three-hour bus ride with no facilities either on the bus or along the way. Heba said that we could always go behind a sand dune if necessary. It proved to be not necessary.

We arrived at the enormous parking lot of the Temple of Ramses to find only four or five buses there, and they were about to leave. We were set upon right away by the usual souvenir vendors, but even they seemed to be few in number. A short walk around to the front of the temple revealed the awesome sight that Ramses II had placed next to the Nile to intimidate the Nubians. I can remember reading in "My Weekly Reader" in the 1960's about the Aswan high dam and the international project to move the temples of Abu Simbel so they would not be flooded by Lake Nasser. To avoid the flooding, the two temples were cut into blocks and moved 60 meters higher and 200 meters farther back from the original channel of the Nile. We were seeing the result of what I had read about so long ago.

 

Four large colossi of Ramses II, 65 feet tall, mark the front of the great temple, which is dedicated to Ramses II as a god, and also to the actual gods Ra-Harakhte, Amun-Ra, and Ptah. Next to the legs of Ramses stand smaller statues of his wives and children. Photography is not allowed inside the temple. The walls of the main sanctuary are carved with the usual reliefs of the pharoah making offerings to the gods. The main sanctuary also contains four statues of Ptah, Amun-Ra, Ramses II, and Ra-Harakthe. The statues were originally arranged so that, twice a year, on February 21 and October 21, a shaft of sunlight would enter the sanctuary and shine successively on the four gods. We moderns are not quite as precise as the ancients, because when the temple was moved to make way for the flooding caused by the dam, the sunlight still shone on the four statues two days a year, but each day was one day later than before.

 

Next to the temple of Ramses II is the smaller temple of Queen Nefertari, dedicated to the goddess, Hathor. Six colossal statues of Ramses II and Nefertari were cut from the rock to make the face of the temple. Although this temple is dedicated to Nefertari, four of the statues are of Ramses and only two are of Nefertari. The temple doorway opens into a hypostyle hall that contains columns with capitals shaped like the head of the Hathor, the goddess who has the ears of a cow. The main sanctuary contains a niche with a statue of Hathor protecting Ramses. Although this temple was dedicated to Nefertari, there was as much or more about Ramses in it.

 

After seeing the temples, we ate lunch at a Nubian restaurant in the town of Abu Simbel. The restaurant was in a beautiful mud-brick building that had been coated with a layer of terra cotta. It also serves as a bed and breakfast. We were encouraged to look at some of the sleeping rooms, which had both air conditioning and mosquito netting around the beds. The B & B office looked much like an office at home, with a computer and a printer in it. The son of the proprietor demonstrated a Nubian musical instrument that looked much like a medieval lute.

 

This was our last full day in Egypt. We flew from Abu Simbel to Aswan and then on to Cairo on the same airplne. We arose at 3:00 a.m. the next day to say goodbye to Heba and to catch our ride to the Cairo airport for our 6:30 flight to Paris. For once the traffic in Cairo was not bad.

 

Reflecting back upon the trip as a whole, we felt that it was a good time to visit Egypt. Tourism is way down in because of the political situation, but security is quite good. We enjoyed seeing the sights without the huge crowds of pre-revolutionary Egypt. Whenever we were on a bus, we had an armed policeman with us. On Friday, the day of prayer and demonstration, we had an additional carload of armed tourist police following us.

 

We had many interesting conversations with Heba about the revolution that started in January 2011. The anarchy and crime that began with the revoluation were very scary. Personal security is much better now, but the political situation is uncertain. Although the country has a president, it does not have a constitution and the parliament has been dissolved by the courts. Progress toward establishing a constitution and a new parliament is painfully slow. Basic services such as traffic control and litter removal are in a woeful state. The trains run on time, but they are not especially clean and their bathrooms do not have toilet paper. Many times, Heba would tell us what we were going to do the next day, then would stop herself and say, "At least, that's what we would have been able to do before the revolution. I'm not sure what we will find tomorrow." Most museums and touist sites are open after the revolution, but not all of them. It must be stressful to live in an economy that has so much uncertainty.

 

Abby and I have talked about going to Egypt for as long as we have been together - over 35 years. I'm glad we finally found time to go. It was an interesting time to be a visitor to Egypt. We got to see all the  monuments that we wanted to see, and we learned a few things first-hand about the revolution. I'm glad that our permanent home is in a stable democracy that has peaceful elections and a reasonably well-informed electorate. We may not have many ancient monuments in the United States, but it is certainly a great place to live.