Aswan and Abu Simbel Temple

Waz up!? We arrived in Aswan around noon from the overnight train. We quickly made our way to our hostel to check in, so we could explore Aswan. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon visiting Elephantine Island which is an island that seperates the west and east sides of Aswan. In order to get to the Island we took a Ferry. That's what they call it, but its actually similar to a small metal fishing boat with a little engine that smokes when they start it. Elephantine Island has the ruins of the ancient Abu and the Aswan Museum (which is one of the smallest and crapiest museums I've ever seen). The ruins were pretty fun to explore. Your able to climb all over them (because no one really cares or even watches to see what you are doing...I could have carved 'katie was here' on one of the pillars and no one would have ever known) and since no one was watching us we visited the 'off limits area' (by accident because they had it roped off on one side and not the other) where I pocketed some pottery fragments from the excavation area (don't get mad at me, there were tons of fragments discarded just lying around everywhere). Upon exiting the ruins we wondered through the village and were invited to join in on a game of soccer (they were rather impressed with my soccer skills). It was great fun to join in and mix and mingle with the locals. Upon arriving back at the 'ferry' dock we returned to the east side of the Nile to explore and do a little haggling (I got a great deal on a 'sheesah' bong for gift, but I won't say to who because they might be reading this). We were planning on turning in early because we had to be up by 2:50am in order to catch a convoy to Abu Simbel the following morning, but we ended up not returning to the hostel until almost midnight.

Abu Simbel
We awoke at 2am in order to shower and get ready before our bus met us at 3:15am to take us to meet our convoy which left Aswan at 4am (the convoys leave early in orfer to beat the heat of the day at the temples). Its necessary to take police lead convoys south and north of Aswan. They haven't quite explained why to me, but apparently people are crazy drivers (we watched a head on collision while we were returning today and we almost had a head on collision with another bus). The plus side to taking a bus so early in the morning is that we got to watch the sunrise over the desert which had breath-takingly beautiful colors. The temples of Abu Simbel were awesome!! Basically Ramsis II built a huge temple for himself for other people to worship him at and built a smaller one for his favorite wife close by. The man was obviously in love with himself. The outside of the temple is guarded by four huge statues (built right into the mountain) of himself sitting in his thrown. Inside the temple are drawings of him as different gods and squashing his enemies. What is most interesting about the temples is that they weren't originally in that area. They were moved from their originally location which now sits at the bottom of Nassar lake (the biggest man made lake, formed by the creation of the High Aswan Dam). How they moved a mountain that large shocks me, but they did it.

After leaving the Abu Simbel temples we visited the High Aswan Dam and then Philea Island which has the ruins of the Temple of Isis. What is great about the ruins in Egypt is that they are much bettered preserved then the ruins in Italy and Greece (and they are thousands of years older). Not only are they mostly intact, but they are covered in hieroglyphics and colors that have lasted throughout thousands of years (lots of the pyramids and temples I've visited were built between 4000-2000bc). In order to reach the island we had to take a 'ferry' boat through Lake Nassar, so the ride there and back were quite beautiful. From Philae Island we headed to the unfinished Obelisk on the outskirts of Aswan before being dropped off at our hotel. We ended up taking naps after this voyage since we'd only had two hours of sleep. This evening we went and got supper (egyptian pizza, which is similar to regular pizza, but the top is covered with bread too, kind of like pie), hit up a sheesah place to smoke and play some dominoes, then we headed to a souvenir store we had visited the day before to have some tea with the owner. He was very nice and explained all about the history of the places we'd visited that day and gave us advice for our future trips to Kom Ombu and Luxor. We bought a couple more souvenirs (he always gives us the best prices with out having to haggle and its all made in egypt, not china souvenirs which I like) and he gave us a couple of free gifts and made us promise to join him for some tea again tomorrow. He was very interesting to listen too, so I'm sure we'll see him again before we leave. Its great to interact with the locals (when they aren't hassling you for felucca rides or to buy things).

Tomorrow we are headed to the tombs on the west bank of Aswan. It should be interesting. I'll try to post some more pictures tomorrow. LoveYa.