Egypt, day 6

Today featured a side trip to the two temples at Abu Simbel. We took a quick flight from Aswan south to the town of Abu Simbel, just a few miles north of the southern border of Egypt. (Sudan is to the south.) Ramses built two temples here for himself and for his wife. As usual, we couldn't tak pictures inside, but I can tell you that the sites were pretty impressive. There were statues, carvings, and all kinds of hieroglyphics.



These four statutes depicted Ramses as he aged. The youngest Ramses is to the left, and the oldest Ramses is to the right. (I guess we all tend to put on weight as we age.) In the middle of the statues is a small access point. Twice per year, the sun shines through the hole and strikes the statues of Ramses and two other Egyptian gods inside the temple's inner sanctuary. Pretty impressive.

Sorry that there's not more I can show you. You'll just have to trust that it was quite awesome.

After we got back and spent some more quality time at the hotel pool, we packed up that evening for a three-hour train ride to Luxor, the last stop on our tour.