Nile cruise Egypt - Part 5 Abu Simbel

The temples of Abu Simbel, the great temple of Ramses II (one of the most famous pharaohs) and the small Hathor temple in memory of Nefertari, his great royal wife, were undoubtedly the highlight of the trip.

We should go to bed early, as it was supposed to start at 3 a.m. Unfortunately, there was not much sleep because a Nubian evening was being held on the neighboring ship.

But what should it be, after all, we could close our eyes a little on the endless straight road.

Upon arriving at the temple, the following scene presented itself:

It is difficult to describe the feeling that gripped one at this point. However, in the face of these giant statues, one could imagine the significance of this pharaoh, with the longest reign and an age of over 90 years at that time! It is no wonder that he had built such a monument for himself and was worshipped as a god.

If you look very closely, you can still see the spots where the temple was cut apart and where it was reassembled - what a masterpiece!

The temple of his favorite wife was not far behind.

There are no pictures from the inside, as photography was strictly prohibited here as well as in the Valley of the Kings.

We would have liked to stay there longer, but for security reasons (Sudan is not far away) and because the return journey would take hours again, time was quite limited.

It was strange that there was a soldier with a machine gun on top of the temple. There was also a uniformed person with a rifle on the bus.

For safety reasons, all buses are equipped with an armed person and travel in a convoy. Unfortunately, our bus broke down somewhere due to a leak in the radiator. There was no sign of the other buses stopping. They all passed by our bus.

However, we were lucky because the bus had broken down near a military post. Mineral water had replaced the coolant, then it was a matter of keeping our fingers crossed that the bus would reach its destination.

The route: another straight black line in the endless sea of sand. Every 5 kilometers, there was a sign to let us know that another section had been completed. Unfortunately, these signs eventually disappeared and we completely lost our sense of time and distance.

To the delight of everyone, these signs finally reappeared after I don't know how many kilometers through the desert.

The whole bus was cheering, doing the wave and shouting 'hey, another 5km' at each sign until the final stop.