Abu Simbel

After our last overnight on our Nile cruise we packed our bags and headed to the Aswan airport. About half way to the airport I realized that I didn't have my sunglasses...my cool "blue" Aegean Sea sunglasses. :( And, if there is ever a place to NEED sunglasses, it is Egypt. I was bummed but thankfully my friend Sara had a spare pair to lend me.

Our flight out of Aswan headed south to Abu Simbel which is about 20 miles from the Sudanese border. We spent about three hours in Abu Simbel and although that doesn't seem like a very long time it turned out to be perfect. In fact, the Abu Simbel airport was built specifically for the convenience of visitors to the ancient site.

The ancient site of Abu Simbel now sits along the banks of Lake Nasser. This site is one of the most famous that was moved when the Aswan High Dam was created. The photo below shows where the two temples were before the move:

And below is one of the temples as seen today. As you can see an artificial hill had to be created in order to recreate the mountainside that the two temples were originally created out of.

The Great Temple was built during the reign of Ramses II and as you can see it is considered one of the most beautiful temples in all of Egypt. Sorry, no photos allowed inside.

This smaller temple is known as the temple of Hathor & Nefertari and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramses' lover Nefertari.