A Cruise on Lake Nasser, Egypt. Day Three.

On our third day, we arose early to check out of the Basma Hotel in Aswan where Ashraf, from Travel Trail Tours, had arranged a breakfast box for us and met us with a car to take us to the airport for our brief early morning flight to Abu Simbel.  Our original check-out time was planned for 4:30 a.m. but on the night before, Ashraf called to tell us that our Air Cairo flight would be departing about an hour late; this turned out to be something of a pattern for Air Cairo.

The half hour flight took us over Lake Nasser giving us a preview of the next few days cruise. 

  

 

 

Once again I had a window seat on the left side of the plane and was able to catch a couple of photos of the temples at Abu Simbel as we descended into the airport landing toward the northwest on runway 33.

 

Our car and driver took directly to a boat/ferry ramp (about a two mile drive) where we were met by a launch from the cruise ship that took us "around the corner" to the Steigenberger cruise ship, M/S Omar el Khyam.  Our new roller bag loaded with dates, etc., was handed off to the marine crew.

It happened to be Valentine's Day, February 14, when we arrived on board and the ship was decorated accordingly. 

  

 

We took a brief self-directed tour of the ship after getting settled into our stateroom. Each room on the Omar el Khyam (OEK) has a private balcony, and we ordered a morning coffee before heading down to the dining room for a colorful Valentine-themed lunch.

  

 

  

After lunch, we decided to head out to tour the temples at Abu Simbel. We have previously only visited the temples in the early morning arriving either by bus or early airplane. It is much less crowded in the afternoon and we moved through the temples at a leisurely pace.

Although an English-speaking guide was available from the OEK, we decided to tour the temples on our own since we had visited them several times previously. Our guidebook for the tour was the venerable 1998 book, Guide to the Nubian Monuments on Lake Nasser by Jocelyn Gohary. 

Gohary is thorough in her details as one might expect of an archeologist who began her career entering data on punched cards for the thousands of Talatat blocks uncovered in the Luxor Temple during the 1960s. To provide a broader picture of the area, I also brought along The Mysteries of Abu Simbel by Zahi Hawass who has a more dramatic presentation.

 

 

If, perhaps, my reader is unfamiliar with the story of the dramatic rescue of the Abu Simbel temples from the rising waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s, I recommend these resources:

A UNESCO film from the 1960s.

A National Geographic article featuring a woman who drove much of the activity.

We left the OEK aboard a launch along with a number of other guests who quickly outpaced us as they climbed the hill from the boat ramp.  We found a ride on the back of of a local three-wheeler for two dollars, however, and soon overtook the larger group.

After entering the monument's site with our tickets, priced at 765 Egyptian pounds (about $15), we descended to our first stop, a nice sign describing the move of the two temples to the high ground about two hundred feet above their original location.

  

 

 

We headed first to the large temple of Ramses II.

 

Inside there are numerous stone relief carvings besides additional statues of Ramses II. 

 

 

 

 

At the back of the sanctuary, four statues are positioned so as to be illuminated by the rising sun on Ramses birthday - just about a week after our visit.

 

A new feature to observe is the segment of recently re-created mud-brick wall between the two temples.

  

 

Moving on to the the smaller temple of Ramses' favorite queen, Nefertari, the interior also features some excellent artwork. Note that although this temple is dedicated to Nefertari, Ramses II is featured in four statues to Nefertari's two. Ramses II is know for having a large ego.

 

 

  

A crew from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquieis was hard at work "touching up" or outlining a few of the carvings.

 

  

 

 

On our way back to our cruise boat, we paused to take a photo of both temples from the panorama walk.

 

There are two premier quality river cruise boats that ply Lake Nasser, the Steigenberger's and the Movenpick's.  We had been told that the Steigenberger's Omar el Khayam was the better of the two but it appeared that the Movenpick was able to maneuver into slightly closer parking positions at each stop along the way.  Here it was docked quite a bit closer to the Abu Simbel temples.  We elected to minimize the walk, once again, by utilizing the local "three-wheeler" taxi.

  

 

We returned to the OEK after a leisurely visit to several vendor shops atop the hill near the visitor center.  We stopped for a lemonade and saw several birds along the way including this nice heron. 

 

The three-wheeler took us down to the water line where we were again transported by launch to the ship at sunset. 

Many more photos at this Flickr Album, of course.