Aswan
January 12, 2007
This morning was kind of a relaxed day, we didn't leave the boat until about 9:00 a.m. We were sad to say goodbye to Solaris II and all the good people we met on board! We headed toward the next hotel and stopped on the way to check out the Nubia Museum, which was very interesting. It was amazing to be able to view some of the pre-dynastic pieces. I definitely thought the skeleton, displayed as it was found, in the fetal positions was one of the best exhibits. It was crazy to think "Wow that was a real person", a very old one of course. I was also very interested in the diagram of Abu Simbel (we will be going there tomorrow) because it showed where it would be if they never moved it and by now it would have totally disappeared under the water. To move all those pieces and place them all in the same position, just at a higher location, was mind blowing. Every piece here was great to see. Amr pointed out that the reason many of the statues were missing heads was due to the fact that the heads were sometimes made separate from the bodies and then put together when finished. Another reason could be defacing because it was a good way to make the person unrecognizable. When we left the museum, we stopped by the essence shop and I bought 50 ml of "The secret of the Desert", it was funny how the man described this oil. He went on and on about how it's an aphrodisiac, but I really did like the scent. We were served drinks as they had us sample a number of different oils, when my "secret of the desert" scent came around Kyle says, "You wanna meet me in the back of the bus" haha it was too funny. Other than that we checked in, goofed off, ate dinner, and now this. We have to actually leave by 4:00 a.m. tomorrow to see the sunrise at Abu Simbel. So I am turning in now, Adios! Actually, one more thing I learned today was that our hotel rooms face Mecca or have something in the room that points to it. David pointed this out to me and I did start to notice that, also there are a lot of pyramid shaped things, for example, the rugs and some of the designs on the walls and such. alright thats all, Goodnight!
Aswan
January 13, 2007
This morning was an early one, I woke up at 2:00 a.m. so I could shower before our 4:00 a.m. bus trip to Abu Simbel. We had a quick box breakfast and headed out. I listened to music and slept on the way there, we arrived around 7:00 a.m. The lake near Abu Simbel is called Lake Nasser, which is about 535 km in length. This makes it the biggest artificial lake in the world!
Lake Nasser
The temple was so incredible, this is definitely one of my favorite ones so far! The size and detail of the statues outside are breathtaking. The statues are about 67 feet high! In this temple Rameses II deified himself. During the summer and winter equinox, the sun lights up the entire inside of the temple from front to back. Abu Simbel was designed to become illuminated during summer and winter equinox; on the rest of the days in the year 3 out of 4 statues in the back of the temple are illuminated at sunrise. The only part that never lights up is the statue of Ptah, who is the god of darkness. There was obviously great detail and planning put into building this remarkable temple. This is so amazing to me, there is so much detail in the Ancient Egyptian styles of architecture. Rameses the II ruled for around 67 years and built this temple around the 35th year of his reign. In 1887, Giovanni Belzoni came to Egypt, he was popularly known as a thief. He was the first to come to Abu Simbel and when he did, only the head of the great statue of Rameses was able to be seen. The rest of the temple, including the entrance, had all been buried under the sand over the years. Belzoni tried to get help uncovering the temple many times but had no results finding help with the wages he offered. Belzoni eventually returned by Felucca boat to clear the temple and left graffiti on the walls to mark his presence.
Me at the entrance of Abu Simbel
Rameses had his statues literally cut right out of mountain rock. It's amazing that they were able to move Abu Simbel from it's original place to a higher location so that the temple wouldn't be lost forever. Since the temple was carved directly in to the mountain rock, it must have been extremely hard to move. The project was definitely successful, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. They even placed it facing in the exact same direction, to make sure the lighting would be the same during the equinoxes. There are two theories as to why Rameses made such a huge temple so far away from Luxor, the capital, and Aswan. One theory is that he did it to scare the Nubians because they would attack Egyptians while they were leaving the Southern parts of Egypt. Anyone who had a statue that big would probably make an impression. The second theory was that he was trying to change the peoples attitude about him. For example: if a Nubian has a sick family member, and black magic fails to help, they could come to this temple to get help from the high priest and then they may be loyal and respectful to him. Such a cool way of thinking! Rameses definitely depicts himself as a god here. There are baboons above the main entrance to Abu Simbel because Ancient Egyptians saw them as the animals who welcomed the rising sun, this is because they jumped up and down at sunrise with their hands in the air. Among the 4 statues inside the one with the white crown means the person came from upper Egypt, but rules both upper and lower Egypt. One of the most beautiful scenes inside are the people asking for mercy while Rameses is on his chariot. There is something very unique about this depiction though, it shows Rameses II with 2 right hands and 2 left, as well as 8 legs on his horse. This depiction is actually another first, the first ever cartoon meant to show movement and how fast he was traveling. This is so amazing to me! The second hall is also very unique, on the left side is the sacred boat of Amendrah, but there are military people carrying it. Usually the high priest does this but the military had saved his back in the past so he gave them the privilege. The first peace treaty occurred here too, between the Hettites and Egyptians. The second temple here, which is smaller, was constructed for his wife Nefertari. Nefer meaning "pretty" and tari meaning "most". So her name basically meant she was the most pretty of all. In this temple she is usually dressed like Hathor because she known as the goddess of love and tenderness. In front of this temple are 4 statues of Rameses II and only 2 of Nefertari. There are two different theories to this as well. The first is that it was just his complex, he was very fond of himself. The second, I like this one better, is that he was just very overprotective of her. There is a scene here where Set is getting along with Horus, which is very unusual. The story to this is that he probably did this to show even they could get along during his reign. Amr told us to look for a depiction of three women and to try to figure out who they were while inside this temple. This is what I got out of it: you can always find the queen by the cartouche next to her head and Hathor by the square with a bird in the middle. It was hard to try and interpret the scenes. Another very beautiful scene inside this temple was the one I tried to decipher by myself. Ithought the scene was absolutely beautiful. This scene, or at least what I got out of it, was a depiction of both Rameses II and Nefertari offering lotus flowers to the goddess Hathor. It was absolutely gorgeous, one of my favorite depictions so far! After the temples we went back to the hotel, The Basma Aswan, packed up and headed to lunch at a cultural restaurant called Macca. I got a the grilled chicken, which was good, but my favorite part was the pita bread with humus. After lunch we had a little time to walk around the streets and shop. I called my dad, it was good to hear his voice. I also tried to call my friend Stacey but she didn't pick up. Next Rachel and I went on a search for lollipops and eventually found 2 for one Egyptian pound. Then Ryan, Rachel, and myself just walked around and decided to go down this alleyway. As we were walking, a young girl and boy came up to Rachel and I asking for the lollipops. We didn't want to give them something so sugary and bad for their teeth, so Ryan gave them colored pencils. They still ended up following us all the way back to the coffee shop where we met Amr. Rachel and I totally fell in love with these kids and Rachel gave the girl a couple pictures of herself in America. We think she really liked them. She hung out with us for a while and then went back across the street. When Rachel and I went across to give her the pictures, we hugged her and she gave us a both a kiss. She was too cute, we wanted to bring her back with us!
Me and Rachel with our favorite kids from Egypt
Then we walked back to wait for the bus and when it came the little girl ran across the street to us to give us hugs and kisses goodbye. Rachel gave her a clif bar, we took some pictures, and she blew us kisses and kissed Rachel's picture as the bus pulled away. She was so cute, I will definitely never forget that experience.
Saying goodbye
Other than that, I bought a beautiful hookah today that I'm very excited about. We have now boarded the sleeper train and are headed back to Cairo, we should arrive there around 5:00 a.m. The train is pretty cool, I've never been on a train at all, so the sleeper train is a cool experience! We drank a little wine in the club car and played some cards. "I get the top bunk!"
