We get up at 1:30, close our bags and practically sleepwalk to the bus, where we have a small snack on the way to the airport. It is a very quiet ride. Then on to the Egypt Air flight to Aswan, where we unload, and get on the bus for about 3-1/2 hours, another quiet ride with much sleeping. Midway we stop at an open air rest stop, mud brick walls with a vegetation roof, simple bathrooms and a counter serving hot tea and cold drinks. It reminds me of some of the places we stopped in Kenya. Inside the refrigerator with the canned cold drinks is a small white cat who has just jumped in – because the fridge is not very cold, she is just cooling down, not actually cold. Across the street we see a real mirage, rocks which seem to be reflected in the “water”, it is easy to see how people could be fooled by this.
We are now on the 3.5 hour drive to Abu Simbel. Apparently some trips fly earlier in the day to Abu Simbel but must depart the same day, whereas we will go onto a boat to explore Lake Nasser and more of the Nile, thus the need to take a later flight and the long bus ride. All around us is flat desert, rather like Nevada, and a long straight road with power lines along the right side stretching as far as the eye can see. It is somewhat forbidding looking, but this is likely because I am not especially drawn to his desert so it seems harsh to me. A few people I know who love the desert (especially in California during wildflower season) praise its beauty; someday I will have to see that. Hassan advises everyone to rest - it is 8am and we have been up for almost 7 hours - and we’ll have a stop in about 2 hours.
On the latter part of the bus ride, Hassan gives us an introduction to the area. Muhammad Ali was king of Egypt and Sudan as were his descendants, but after 1962, Sudan became separate, and Nubia being the southern part of Egypt was divided between the two countries. Ancient Nubia was the source of gold for Egypt, where it was mined long before 3,000, so the unification under the early pharaohs meant Egypt wanted influence over Nubia. By the Middle Kingdom, Nubia had a strong influence and was powerful, but by the New Kingdom, Egypt conquered Nubia. If Nubia ever revolted the king would send a garrison or even go himself with an army to subdue it. The name Nubia in hieroglyphs means from the land of gold. It was a source of gold until 500BC when it was mined out, so by the time the Greeks came, they were less interested in Nubia without gold, and Nubia became independent through this Greek period. Nubia at one point invaded southern Egypt to try to get this area back during the reign of the Romans, and both Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar fought them all the way back to their capital in what is now Ethiopia.
Why are Nubians different than Egyptians? In Egypt, the Nile is one long river from Aswan to Giza, and the south of Aswan the river goes in bends, into the desert, lots of rock such as red granite, which blocked the river at various cataracts. This made it very isolated, and armies could not get through, so the Nubians did not mix with other ethnicities. Thus the Nubians were very dark black African in features, while Egyptians were mixing with other Mediterranean people and thus looked more varied. Today the Nubians are mostly Sudanese, and known to be extremely kind people. They have two dramatic blood mixtures. In the 3rd century AD after troubles with Romans, they were attacked by Libyans who came from the desert, Nubians complained to Roman emperor, and he pays the people on the eastern side to make a shelter for Nubia. At that time Nubians convert to Christianity, and people moved to the valley. This is when the Nubians encountered the Bedouins of Libya and there was some mixing, even though they were still the purest race in Africa. In the 16th century AD a Turkish Sultan ruled Egypt and Sudan, the Sultan sent a garrison to Nubia, and this garrison was a Bosnian garrison. The Sultan seemed to forget bayous them, and they settled and intermarried. They were blond haired people with light eyes mixed with the black African Nubians, thus there are some interesting mixtures of features among Nubians.
Nubia was in a valley along the Nile, hemmed in by mountains. Most were fishermen, some were farmers. The villages were built on the river and terraced so all houses could handle the flood water. When in 1964 Egypt started building the Aswan Dam, most of Nubia would be underwater. The Nubians had to be moved north and south, northern ones went to Egypt, southern Nubians moved to Sudan. The split of 1952 was like the split of North and South Korea, families were split. This was a forced move, the government built new settlements for them, one of them is Kom Ombo, which we we will visit later. Some did not like this, some moved to big cities and other areas. Some expected to come back to Aswan and reinvigorate their ancient culture. People here speak fluent Arabic and a local dialect which is Nubian. In 1973 when Israel and Egypt were fighting, Nubians were used as coders speaking and decoding messages in their rare the language, like the Navajo code-talkers in WWII. As people spread to other areas, they lost their native tongue and their marriage options, as inter-marriage was frowned on. Thus people came back to the area, and the government built schools etc. for them, and people have re-gathered in this area.
We are on the high desert surrounding what was the ancient valley. Egypt is now tying to reclaim land in this area, starting businesses, and building new cities. Out our window is an ocean of flat sand, so this seems rather ambitious. Egypt will be giving Nubians priority to settle in this area. They plan to reclaim 4 million acres of the desert nearer to the water. Later today we will be going though an area that is beginning to be reclaimed, there is a system of bringing water from the lake thru viaducts and pumps into the new areas.
As we approach Abu Simbel it is fairly quiet as it is Friday, a day of worship, and many people are not out until noontime. The move of the temple of Abu Simbel took almost four years, and the archaeologist we met last night spent most of that time cataloguing and registering items from the temple. The workers drawn to the restoration site often stayed, although the only access was by water, not by road which was not built until later. We will be sailing on the Prince Abbass, a boat specially built for this area, with external staircases, like the movie “Death on the Nile.” The actual boat used in the film is called the “Eugenie,” no longer used, and we see it later, docked and looking quite abandoned. Hassan tells us that Lake Nasser is huge, 300 miles long, part in Egypt, part in Sudan, and our boat will allow us to explore various parts of it. As we drive toward Abu Simbel, we see pyramidal mounds, thought to be some of the inspiration for the built pyramids, but they are actually the tops of what were once mountains. We also see two of the new settlements with housing and factories rising from the desert. We come to a junction where left is Egypt and right is Sudan, Sadi Halfa, so there is a checkpoint which is essentially a border.
Abu Simbel is two temples, one for Rameses II and one for his queen Nefertari, 1400BC. These two temples are cut out of solid rock, essentially a sculpture. Why were these built here, so far away from Cairo? Religious reasons: when the king dies he becomes a god. Rameses could not wait, so he built this to enshrine himself, hoping it would be accepted locally and eventually be accepted in lower Egypt. Nefertari was Nubian, so it was also thought he would be accepted here as a god. But by 500BC, most in this area had converted to Christianity, no one used the temples, and they were gradually covered by sand. In 1838, a treasure hunter was told by locals there was something around here, he was able to find the crowns on the heads, but he ran out of money. He covered it up, then died and never came back. Another treasure treasure hunter 40 years later, an Italian named Belzoni came, he spend a lot of money to remove the sand, and he found a fabulous temple and artistic treasures he sought. This created a huge interest in tourism, and people sailed from Cairo to see this magnificent temple.
The plan to build the dam affected a few small villages, a number of small temples, and Abu Simbel. Egypt tried to get funding form the World Bank to save the area, but they were not successful. From this effort came a successful appeal to UNESCO, and ultimately was born the idea of UNESCO world sites. More than 50 countries decided to help pay to preserve these treasures via UNESCO cooperation. In most cases the solution was simple: move the temples. But Abu Simbel is carved from a mountain, so they had to move the mountain.
Abu Simbel is massive. Each statue of Rameses II weighs more than 1,000 tons. The temple is 65 meters with all sorts of columns, chambers, etc. Various proposals were made to handle it, moving it as one piece, preserving it under a dome, and others, some dangerous, some infeasible. The main temple weighs 250 tons, and 440 hydraulic jacks would have been required to lift it. Finally a local sculptor came up with the idea, which a Swedish firm adopted: bury the temple under sand again to support it, then use electric saws to cut the upper section of the temple randomly, keep the rest under sand to preserve the structure, then cut it into slices to be moved manually, maximum weight 30 tons each so they could be moved by a crane. Meanwhile, water started building up from the dam, and they were not sure how much time they would have. They worked 24/7 on this, against the clock. Everything was photographed and registered in case they lost some parts of the temple. Once the last piece was moved, water covered the site. Thus there are two miracles, Rameses creating the temples in the first place, and the people cooperating to save the temple in the 60s (1964-68). Then after moving it had to be rebuilt of course, which took more time.
We arrive at Abu Simbel about 11:00am, and it is breathtakingly hot. I know it is dry heat, but 110 degrees is still 110 degrees and not something I’m good at. We trail behind Hassan from the parking area, where we jettison all unnecessary items except water, hat, and camera, and more water. We traipse up the stone path, already feeling the heat and the tiredness of having been up since 1:30am. Then suddenly we turn a corner on the path and the enormous statues of Rameses loom ahead, and they are indeed magnificent. They are a light sand color, truly monumental, flanked by steep walls and fronted by a collection of animals and various creatures on the parapet in front.
Entering the temples we are greeting by the massive hypostyle hall with huge statues of Rameses and walls covered in carvings of the king smiting his enemies and making offerings to the gods. Everywhere is his double cartouche (about which Hassan will lecture tomorrow). Each side has four low-ceilinged side areas, also encrusted with carvings of the king making every sort of offering imaginable to many different gods. The doorways are protected by images of a hawk and additional scenes of Rameses flank the doorways. We go into the vestibule and inner sanctuary, each with carvings of different themes which I wish I could read. My class on Ancient Egypt included a lecture on hieroglyphs but I cannot yet really decode these. It is so hot and I am beginning to fade, but we press on to the temple Rameses built for Nefertari, with large sculptures of her and Rameses surround by their children below. Inside it has a similar style, with carvings of the kind and queen, and encouraging her to be seen as a goddess. Again, I wish I could really understand the carvings and what I am seeing. After lots of photos of the outside (we are not allowed to take photos inside), it is midday, about 12:30, and time to meet back up the hill near the entrance.
We walk a short ways across a path and the sand to our ship, the Prince Abbass. Our bags are already in our room, which is a spacious junior suite, really very nice. The cool shower feels delicious, and I can see that I will be changing clothes at least twice a day given the heat. We unpack our things and rest a while. Around 4:30 is afternoon tea, and Hassan explains that drinking cold drinks in the heat is a shock to your system, it is better to drink something hot like tea, which I imagine is why the British kept the tea tradition in hot places like India and Egypt. Then we leave for the sound and light show at Abu Simbel. Various voices play the gods and king and queen while dramatic lighting plays across the surface of the two giant temples. The battle scene showing the carvings of the armies meeting as the background turns blood red is especially effective. We head back to the ship for a lovely dinner in the spacious dining room – it is our group of 20 plus a Spanish group of about 12 in a dining room for 160 people – and then fall gratefully into a comfortable, cool bed.
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