Day 12 - Jan 20

Wow , what a rest day!  We toured the two temples at Abu Simbel.  They were built by Ramses II the ruler of Egypt.  They both are very well preserved but they also have a modern history to them.  The governments of the area wanted to build a dam to control the flooding of the Nile so that built the Aswan Dam and created Lake Nassar.  But the two temples would have been squarely under the water in their original location.  So a consortium of countries came together to work a modern marvel of engineering.  They moved the temples block by block and reconstructed them above the water line at their present location.  The temples were cut into over 1400 blocks weighing in over 15 tons.  They put them all back together so that they would appear seamless.  It was a masterful job.

I have so many pictures that it is tough to choose the limited number to share.

The entrance to the first temple.  You can see the mammoth scale by seeing the person on the steps in comparison to the statues

This is inside the temple a depiction of Ramses slaying the Syrians

Another carving of Ramses attacking the Persians.

And here I am... I have finally found the key to life.  The symble that I am holding is the Egyptian sign for life.  Took me long enough to find the key to life, right?!

And of course I am posing like a Pharoah.  Of course that is how they pose them for the afterlife.

This is the entrance to the second temple.  See the enormity?  And they moved both of them....

This is a picture of a local Souk (market). We created quite a stir when we came to it.  We were the only non locals.  

This is how the lady carried her purchases home from the Souk.  She walked perfectly fine and didn't flinch while she balanced a box of goodies on her head and walked a good distance home.