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Introduction
This gallery contains pictures taken during our land excursions to Abu Simbel and Denderah Temples.
Abu Simbel
The two temples at this site are some 280km south of Aswan and can be reached by road and air. We opted for the latter as the journey was only 50 minutes from Aswan airport, whereas by coach trip, would have taken around 3.5 hours!
Built more than 3,000 years ago, the temples were originally carved into a rock face that overlooked a bend in the Nile and understandably dominated the landscape. However, arising from the 1960's construction of the Aswan High Dam, with UNESCO support, the temples were moved prior to the flooding of the valley to a new site some 60m up the limestone cliff and around 200m away from the original site. It is certainly a testament to the engineering expertise in the 1960's that the project was skilfully undertaken into a new dome housing, although probably nowhere near as imposing as the original site.
The Temple of Re-Herakhte with the Colossi of Ramses II is on the left when looked from the front, whereas the smaller Temple of Hathor, Ramses' Queen Nefertari is to the right. Unfortunately, cameras were not permitted to be used inside the temples, so I have no pictures of the two magnificent and well preserved structures. A pity really, since there appeared to be no reason why visitors could not use still cameras without flash.
Footnote
Our flight was uneventful until returning back to Aswan Airport, where we incurred around one hours delay due to airport and road restrictions arising from the surprise meeting in Aswan between the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak and US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. The delay was minor to that encountered by the rest of the tour group who flew the previous day to Abu Simbel only to be informed on their return that Aswan airport had been closed as a result of the visit and that they had to endure a lengthy coach trip back. One can only imagine the press and public reaction if that nonsense were to occur in Britain!
Denderah Temple
The last of our land excursions was to The Temple of Hathor, the cow goddess and associated with joy and love, is a large single structure standing in ancient grounds with some other surviving buildings like the Roman Birth House. The site entrance is via a single pylon shaped gateway. Once inside the temple, there were many smaller halls and , some with excellent inscriptions and colour. This was the only site we visited where it was possible to reach to roof via a well built stairway/passageway. The roof blocks are colossal and there were a number of ceiling decorations including a zodiac (albeit reconstruction as the original is in Paris) and the sky goddess, Nut, giving birth to the sun.
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