Abu Simbel

Whilst in Aswan, we were offered to opportunity to visit Abu Simbel. It was an optional extra, but we'd already decided long ago when booking the trip that we wanted to go. In fact, almost everyone on the tour opted to go. Not to mention the added excitement of seeing it after watching the awful Death on the Nile movie, which incidentally wasn't even filmed in Egypt.

Abu Simbel is just under 300km south of Aswan, not far (relatively speaking), from the border with Sudan. The road is sealed and kind of reminds of driving in the Australian outback (the sealed road part). Very straight, very flat and with the occasional roadhouse.

We set off nice and early, about 6am, with a packed lunch provided by the Hapi Hotel. Sticking to the theme of bringing us sadness, all I remember the almost raw egg that was included. Thankfully it was early enough that we didn't much think about food but instead snoozed (as one should, on a several hour journey through the desolate desert).

Quick stop into Rest House. One of the higher end Roadhouses on this stretch of road. Bathroom, drinks, and marvelling at the vast desolate surrounds. Almost exactly half way to our destination.

We arrived in Abu Simbel to a fairly non-descript car park and walked over to the ticket booth where Michael purchased our entry tickets.

We followed our trusty guide round the artificial peninsula to the 'new' location of the Abu Simbel temples. We stopped just before arriving at a shady spot where Michael filled us with knowledge. Most of which I didn't hear, because in the distance I was distracted by what was coming next.

Inside we went...

Towards the north east shore is part II of the complex, the Temple of Nefertari.

Seeing the temples is one thing, realising they were moved to avert catastrophe, manually over 50 years ago blew my mind. Like the Philae Temple, when the Aswan High Dam was built, the Abu Simbel temple was at risk of being flooded and completely destroyed in the newly created Lake Nasser.

The final part of visiting the Abu Simbel complex was running the gauntlet of vendors in an Indiana Jones style obstacle course that led us back to the bus. We had to vault over clothing racks, weave between magnets and statuettes and slide between the legs of sales people promising us the best prices, free entry into their stores and the most original of souvenirs. I was true to my training and bought nothing...apart from a magnet. But, that doesn't count.

Having cleared the gauntlet we returned to Aswan. We didn't get much of a chance to visit the bazaars in Cairo. Part of the lack of opportunity was being told they were aimed at tourists, part was laziness. But this was our chance. We decided to go to the Bazaar in Aswan and boy, was it awful.