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We took a short Egyptian Air flight to Abu Simbel on the Sudanese border to see the two massive temples of Ramses II & his Queen, Nefertari. An excursion to Abu Simbel out of Aswan includes the roundtrip flight, ground transfers, & a guided tour. As with Philae, this entire temple complex was dismantled stone by stone & reassembled high above its original site in order to save it from the rising waters caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam--a remarkable feat of engineering & international cooperation. Director-General of UNESCO, Dr. V. Veronese, speaking @ the Abu Simbel appeal in 1960, said of Abu Simbel--"These monuments do not belong solely to the countries wh
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As with Philae, this entire temple complex was dismantled stone by stone & reassembled high above its original site in order to save it from the rising waters caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam--a remarkable feat of engineering & international cooperation. Director-General of UNESCO, Dr. V. Veronese, speaking @ the Abu Simbel appeal in 1960, said of Abu Simbel--"These monuments do not belong solely to the countries who hold them in trust. The whole world has the right to see them endure."
Twice a year, the dawn rays of the sun reach far into the heart of the sanctuary to shine on the three statues on the right. The one on the far left remains in darkness, as he is the god of the underground.
"There was a morning of mornings when we lay opposite the rock-hewn Temple of Abu Simbel...one felt rather than saw that there were four figures in the pit of gloom below it...The stronger light flooded them red from head to foot, & they became alive--as horridly & tensely yet blindly alive as pinioned men in the death-chair before the current is switched on. One felt that if by a miracle the dawn could be delayed a second longer, they would tear themselves free, & leap forth to heaven knows what sort of vengeance." -Rudyard Kipling (1913)-
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