Aswan..the extreme point of heat in this journey

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July 12, 2004

Cairo to Aswan

It took us 12 hours to get to Aswan. We arrived about 8a.m. and immediately felt the extreme heat. Other than waking up a few times due to the train's abrupt stops, I slept fairly well. But then again, when don't I sleep well? I can sleep through anything! When we arrived at the station, we got onto another tour bus an headed towards the unfinished obelisk. The obelisk would have been the tallest ever made if it hadn't cracked while trying to get it out. The Egyptians decided to make a smaller obelisk out of it, but then changed their mind because they thought it was cursed.

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Off to the Aswan dam. The dam is famous because when they decided to dam the Nile about 15 or so temples would have been submerged. The Egyptian government thought it was more important to give water to the citizens all year around than save a few temples when Egypt has over 350 but then the "world" came together and saved almost all the temples, the most famous being Abu Simbel. The U.S. gave nearly half of 3 million back in the 1960's to save the temple.

Philae Temple (of Isis, Goddess of LOVE...my absolute favorite of all)

July 13, 2004

Aswan

This morning we went to the Aswan airport for an "optional $180 trip to Abu Simbel. 17 of the 20 of us went on this trip. Side note: my greatest critique of Contiki on this trip is all of the optional trips. As of the $2,400 I paid for the tour wasn't enough, I ended up forking an additional $400 or so for activities such as the Temple of Isis, Pyramid show, and a taste of Egyptian cuisine. At Abu Simbel are two great temples built by Ramses II. (1279-1213 B.C.) The larger one is his; the smaller was for his favorite wife, Nefertari. Each of the four statues of the king is accompanied statues of his wives, sons and daughters who appear in much smaller size beside his legs.