Day 3: The next day we were up bright and early to do the Abu Simbel temple tour. Beware though, cos flight timings can be pretty erratic. As is usual with these tours, we spent more time at the airport both to and fro, than we spent flying or looking around Abu Simbel, but we still felt it was worth the wait. What's astonishing about Abu Simbel is your first aerial view of the temple from the aircraft. That such big carvings could also be so beautiful, takes one's breath away.

The Abu Simbel complex consists of two temples, one of Ramesses II and the other, of his favorite wife Nefartari. Both are massive structures carved out of rock. Like Philae, Abu Simbel's original position, has been submerged by the Aswan dam now. Before this could happen, a salvage project was undertaken with funds contributed by 50 nations, to dismantle 400,000 tons of temple by cutting them into parts that were crated and reassembled in the exact position as before, 90 feet above its original site,. Its one of the truly amazing marvels of technology, in that the salvage work is hardly visible as you behold the beauty of Abu Simbel.

Abu Simbel is a typical manifestation of Ramesses II's megalomania: he built 4 statues of himself outside the temple, which are 65 feet tall! Not only that, he has depicted himself as a god in this temple being served by himself!!??! Other gods are Ra-Horakhte, Amun Ra and Ptah. The smaller statues of his wives next to his legs are beautiful in their own right, but get so dwarfed by these giant statues that we didn't have much time to look at them! Unfortunately, the way these trips are structured, you don't get much time in the temple complex, because you are always worried that you will miss your flight back, but we made the most of the moment by taking some stunning shots with our zoom lens.

Another interesting feature of the Abu Simbel temple is that the statues of Ramessis II and 2 gods, which are deep in the sanctum, are lit up by the first ray of light that pierces the interior darkness on two days of the year. One day is in October (on the day that was Ramesis birthday, he must've been a Scorpio), and the other in February (when he was supposed to have ascended the throne). Strangely enough, the statue of the 4th god, Ptah, does not get illuminated like the others. Our guides told us that it was because Ptah, being the god of darkness, does not need light! What's stranger is that this feature has been preserved even in the reconstructed temple, except that it happens on a day after each of the two original days.

The smaller temple of Hathor that Ramesis built for his favorite queen Nefartari, is also carved out of solid rock and has two statues of queen and four of the pharaoh (looks like he was megalomanic even when it came to love!). Nonetheless, it was a humbling experience. We felt really grateful that we had the opportunity to witness such amazing architecture, truly one of the wonders this world has produced.

One disadvantage of the Abu Simbel tour is that you are left to the mercy of the guides there. Although the price of the ticket includes guidance, it is still a challenge to find an English speaking guide. Also, we found that the guides here were not as forthcoming with information as our other guides. Perhaps it was the sheer pressure of tourists groups they had to handle in a day....