You're sure this is the best restaurant in town? - 12 April 2009

Today was the visit to Abu Simbel, which I've spelled at least 3 different ways in my journal. Checking the old morale-o-meter, we find this comment: "6 hours on a bus for about 2 hours at the monument."

We got up at 3 am this morning to get ready, only to find that there was no hot water. Thankfully, though, it came on. Then the long bus ride as part of the convoy previously mentioned, to see this:

For some reason I convinced myself that this was the basis for Shelley's Ozymandias but Wikipedia says it ain't so. As with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, you're not allowed to take pictures inside unless you bribe the guards, so no pictures.

There are two factoids about Abu Simpel that are particularly interesting:

First, the statues you see are of the pharaoh Ramesses, who was trying to deify himself as part of a power play with the high priest.

Second, the entire thing was moved so it wouldn't be flooded by the Aswan High Dam. There's an entire exhibit dedicated to all of the work it took to move the monuments piece by piece, including a discussion of what was considered an acceptable loss due to blade-width when cutting the statues up.

In addition to the temple dedicated to Ramesses in the picture above there's also a lesser temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses' queen, Nefertari.

In addition to letting you take pictures inside for a bribe, the guards will also let you hold the gold, ankh-shaped key for nominal consideration. Again, we declined.

After a long bus-ride back it was time for dinner. I don't mean to be judgmental, but I think I'd skip the first thing on the menu: