Crossing the railway tracks for Aswan’s hieroglyphs and marvel at architectural wonder of Abu Simbel Temple!!
We boarded the overnight train(80$ per head) from Cairo which was extremely comfortable and we reached Aswan by mid-morning. We already had our room booked in a Nubian village in Elephantine Island for which we had to cross the river Nile from a nearby dock by a local motor boat(5 EGP per person). It was humid outside and we badly needed to freshen up and have some food. It took us around 10mins on foot to reach our farm house, which also had a Nubian Museum within the boundary which attracted us the most and hence we booked the stay.
In Aswan the list of must dos without a thought:
- Philae Temple – The oldest of Hieroglyphs
- Felucca Boat Ride
- Day trip to Abu Simbel
1st Day
We started around 2pm after a gut packed Nubian lunch and crossed the river(guys crossing the river time to time really made us excited!! We never sat on the benches but always stood by the entry of the boat). After we reached the dock of Philae(Ticket Price 180EGP, please note Philae Temple closes by 4pm) we managed to rent a boat(120EGP, please negotiate till your lungs give out).
The boat ride to Philae temple was mesmerizing. Perfect timing – 3hrs prior to sunset. Philae is an island on Lake Naseer, this is the oldest temple where Iris was worshiped. For the very first time in our travel we could actually witness the oldest hieroglyphs. The 360 degree view of the engraved syenite depicts that the Egyptians were true master of arts. The overview of the Philae temple surrounded by Lake Naseer and watching the orange sky sitting over a hieroglyphic piece of coarse grain stone was just the perfect time. We had spent the whole evening there and were the last of tourists coming out making the most of our money. Finally our boat rider had to call us back by our name which was embarrassing.
Later when back at Aswan we decided on getting a Felucca boat ride in the River Nile. We paid around 100 EGP for 90mins all for ourselves. For a brief idea, Felucca is a traditional sailing boat which is operated by manual wind directions and various strings attached to control its sail. To watch the entire city turning pink from orange to grey from the middle of Nile and the evening prayers echoing all over just felt magical in itself. Fortunately our Felucca sailor was very friendly and he entertained us by his local songs and stories. That dusk went perfect for the ‘WE’ lovebirds!!
2nd Day : Visit the twin temple – Abu Simbel
Our host Fatma helped us arranging a shared micro bus for our return trip(27$ per head) to Abu Simbel(Entry Fee 240 EGP). We started at 4 in the morning, other co passengers joined us on the way. The joyride took about 3hrs from Aswan, which is close to the border of Sudan, without any midway stop. So literally we had to squeeze our bladder until we reached. The raise of sunlight in the early morning sparkled like gold on either side of the desert. We reached the temple by 8am. The ticket counter was already queued up by tourists. Managing our way to the main gate with some basic security checks didn’t take much time. Moving on had to walk for 10mins for the main site. It has twin complex in the area which was surrounded by waters. It was love and ‘WOW’ at first site. We could see a giant piece of ancient master piece. At the entrance of the temple you would find 4 colossal statues of seated Pharaohs amongst which one of them is not in its original shape. The Great Temple was built by King Ramses II and The Small Temple on the other side was built for Ramses’ favourite wife Nefertari. We were just amazed discerning the intricacy of handmade art we ever saw in our life. The temple had several rooms adjoining each other and each of them had different pattern of art and story which we off course didn’t understand much. We took about 100 pictures from all corners as Sun light was just perfect. We gazed through the place for 2hrs and boarded our micro bus back to Aswan.
For a bit of introduction, in the past the Abu Simbel was located in the West bank of Nile but due to massive flood caused by the filling of reservoir the whole temple was dismantled and relocated in 1968 on this deserted plateau. The fun part of the story is Abu Simbel is not the actual name of the temple. It was named after a boy ‘Abu’, who introduced the site to a Swiss explorer.
We got back by 1pm. We didn’t have much to do for the evening so we decided to take a stroll around the Aswan Old Souk(local market) around dusk.
We dozed of early as our body gave up!! Now we would head towards Luxor!!
