Abu Simbel and beyond.

 An insanely early wake-up call found our group barely awake on one of several motor coaches parked in Aswan at 2:45am while we awaited the arrival of a police escort for the 250km trip to Abu Simbel (Police escorts seemed to be a relatively normal phenomenon when travelling to remote sites. Terrorist risks of late have been less frequent but I had no issues with the added reassurance of police protection.) I imagine an early morning police escort did not come without cost- perhaps some slightly diverted funds from our collective tip pool, collected in Cairo.

The trip took a bit over three hours, most of it in darkness with little to see until dawn finally came, just before as we arrived.

 Reaching the site around 6:30am, I was surprised to see that we were not the first group to arrive- 5 buses were already parked. Originally located at a site that is now underwater due to the building of the Aswan High Dam,  the site was broken down, moved several hundred feet to higher ground and reassembled over a 5 year period in the 1960’s.

Abu Simbel consists of two separate temples built into a large hill. The larger of the two, built around 1300BC features four large statues of Ramses II. Its interior displays a walkway with several statues which leads into several inner rooms, intricately decorated with wall carvings.

 The smaller temple, apparently dedicated to Queen Nefertiti features 6 statues, 2 of the queen and 4 of the king.

We spent about 90 minutes at the site viewing the tombs before returning to our bus, the parking lot now jammed with well over 100 buses plus many smaller vans and cars. During the time we were there the crowds had surged from a couple of hundred to several thousand, most in groups of 30 to 60, all jockeying for position. Like most other ruins we visited the biggest slowdown was the blocking of views of key artworks by people taking their “Me and the Missus, in front of Ramses II’s statue” taken multiple times to get it just right. Fights would almost break out as people pushed for their turn at “immortality’ while people like myself waited somewhat impatiently for a clear shot, unadulterated by infiltrators.

Returning to Aswan the driver seemed to be the fasted vehicle on the road, flying past every other bus and arriving well before lunch. The view on the trip seemed quite interesting. Though most of the route was nothing but sand and more sand, with the odd sandstone hill, we would occasionally pass long narrow fields of wheat being irrigated by large mobile irrigation systems.

Before we returned to our boat for the final activities of the day we made a brief stop at a quarry on the edge of Aswan to view an unfinished obelisk, three sides of it finished but the fourth still lodged in the rock. While it might have been the largest ever created, at 42 metres tall, various cracks and fissures prevented the task of raising it from ever being completed.

 After returning to our boat for lunch and a quick siesta, the late afternoon activities included a ride on a felucca, the traditional wooden Nile sailing vessel. 

This was followed by a visit to a spice “factory” where, true to expectations, saffron of questionable quality along with other herbal products were offered at prices that seemed to exceed their quality by a factor of 2 or 3.

 There are a variety of relatively unscientific tests to verify the authenticity of saffron. This place seemed to be offering a product that failed a good number. 

A couple of examples- real saffron floats on water, fake sinks. Real saffron tastes slightly bitter, fake tastes slightly sweet. Real saffron has a mild but distinct odour, fake saffron has little to no smell.

Having already purchased a large container of Zatar ( a mixture of thyme and sesame and other seasonings) in Amman, the visit proved to be a bit of a time waster.

 My zatar cost $10 US for 500gm, roughly the cost of a 100gm jar in Canada

 The balance of the evening, following a lukewarm final dinner, was spent repacking our suitcases for the return flight to Cairo in the morning.