Day 72 4 November 2010 Thursday
After another wonderful over night bus experience we arrived in Aswan at about 5:30am. Checked into a hotel to get a couple hours of sleep before checking out the town.
On the second day we headed down to Abu Simbel, about 50 km from the Sudanese boarder, to see the temples at Abu Simbel built by Rasmses II around 1200 BC. On our return to Aswan we also visited the temple of Philae. Both of these large temple complexes were relocated to avoid being permanently submerged by the Lake Nasser, which was created by the construction of two dams on the Nile River in 60’s and 70’s. One of the fun parts about traveling in this part of Egypt is that you get to wake up at 3:00am to join the obligatory “police” convoy. Aswan in also famous for its rose colored granite used for obelisks and columns, quarried here and floated down the Nile to be disturbed throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
Aswan is still surprisingly rural, just a few streets off of the main drag there are dirt streets and flocks of chickens and herds of sheep between the buildings.
No comments:
Post a Comment