Abu Simbel To Aswan on Lake Nasser

Margaret Rutherford and friend,
layered up but enjoying
the sun.

Sunrise on Lake Nasser

Denise and Hany, our guide, headed
toward one of the sites.

Denise planned a wonderful long weekend to Upper Egypt in the south, an area known historically as Nubia. We flew from Cairo to a town smaller than Montpelier called Abu Simbel via a change of planes in Aswan. Then we boarded a cruise ship with capacity for 150+ guests, along with only 6 others plus guides and crew. Thus evidence of the 95% loss of tourism.

Our boat, the Prince Abbas, is probably in the medium category of luxury. Our junior suite was large and simply furnished with a seating area, twin beds, a little desk, and a real bathroom (meaning it had a separate shower). The weather was on the chilly side to start and the cabins are not heated. So we found ourselves searching out places to be warm when we were not out touring. The boat had a bar and llouge, a sundeck, a gym, dining room, and a swimming pool and jacuzzi (way too cold to consider). There was also a massage therapist on board, a service we took advantage of.

With only 8 tourists on board, the dining room was quiet. We sat with our guide Hany and the Spanish-speakers sat with their guide. After three days I was starting to feel trapped on a boat with too much food (my idea of what a cruise is like). By far the best meal we had was one that was "Egyptian food." Hany used mealtimes (and other times) to drill Denise in arabic, which she is studying. So I learned some things too, like hgow to say some numbers. Not sure that will come in handy, but you never know.

Lake Nasser is 500 km long, including 150 km in Sudan. In the early 1960s 40 countries actually collaborated through UNESCO to save temples in the path of the newest iteration of the Aswan Dam, which eventually created Lake Nasser. It is impossible to imagine that kind of cooperation today, let alone the action resulting in moving these ancient monuments to high ground. We saw a short documentary on the process some time during the cruise, which answered some of the basic questions about how they accomplished what they did.

This is only half of the front side
of Abu Simbel temple honoring Ramses II.

The unwitting brilliance of having seen the Egyptian Museum first paid off on the cruise. I was at least not starting from scratch on who some of the big pharoahs were and how they related to one another. Ramses II and his queen Nefertari (not Nefertiti) are the objects of the temples at Abu Simbel. Although Ramses II had 50 wives, it was Nefertari "for whom the sun rises" and for whom he built a temple facing the sunrise. In his temple (ginormous would be the way to describe it) there are many beautifully preserved colored carvings of his victories over enemies--displays of power and might. In her temple, which is smaller of course, we saw more focus on drawings of gods and symbols of life--the lotus flower and papyrus together symbolize the unification of upper and lower Egypt.

In the evening we sat outdoors in front of the temples for a light and sound show. This was very dramatic and slightly hokey but did a good job of conveying the story both of the temples and the restoration.

I have to consult our itinerary to remember all the sites we enjoyed. The routine was basically to have an outing (by small motorboat, accompanied by guys with guns) in the morning with our guide. Hany would explain the background of the site and then we would tour and he would explain the art on the walls. Many of the sites were already damaged at the time of the rescue but restoring them was not part of the deal. UNESCO placed priority on moving them as is and further restoration was up to the Egyptian government.


No photography was allowed inside some of the sites, whereas others permitted it without flash. There is virtually no control over this though so many photos were being taken. However, the funniest and worst disrepect for the sites was something I noticed in the last one we visited, Wadi el Sebua. This site includes a temple from between 300-500 BC when Egypt was part of the Greco-Roman empire. I am very sorry I did not take a photo of it. Basically, explorers/travelers in 1921 carved their names into the columns or supporting blocks of stone, "John Stone, 1921," for example. The carving was very neat and looked almost like a modern font. When I thought about the timing, I realized the carving was done long before the 1960s when the sites were saved, so they were then located along the river Nile in the valley.

Cartouches, or ancient ways of
representing names.