We continue on our Egypt adventure (check out Part 1 – The Egypt Itinerary). It’s day 2 of the trip and we woke up in our hotel at Giza. Breakfast was included with our stay and we ate veggies, yogurt, sausages and croissants – I love breakfast buffets! Our cab driver was waiting outside to take us to the airport. We were flying out to the southern part of Egypt, to the city of Aswan.

At the Cairo domestic airport, a person met us who took our bags. He spoke to our guide as well – so we assumed they were part of the local team to guide us through check-in. He walked with us till the security check-in, turned back and asked us for money. It was a con! We told him to collect his dues from our guide as we didn’t have any cash. But he had our bags and we were forced to part with 50 EGP (roughly 120 INR at that time). Anyway, lesson learnt – do not accept help from anyone for bags!

It was a small airport with few check-in counters – we had to wait till our flight’s name appeared on the boards. We were travelling by Air Cairo and it was a 90 mins flight. On the way, the sight was desert everywhere. At one point, we could spot the Red Sea in the distance to our left.

We passed over a giant lake, saw a highway that was as straight as a road could be – thanks to no obstacles in the landscape (we would be covering both later in this blog) and finally landed in Aswan.

At the airport, we saw big signboards welcoming people to the Arab and African Youth Forum that was happening in Aswan. It was nice to see development in this part of the world – something that is often left unreported by the media.

We met our guide, Ahmed, outside and proceeded in our car to Aswan High Dam. It was huge and had very high security. We learnt that the Soviet Union had pitched in to build this and the architecture looked quite unique, like every Soviet building. The dam is the reason for the existence of the giant lake we saw from the plane – Lake Nasser – one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

Our guide, Ahmed, had packed a lunch basket for us with some sandwiches, fruits and juice – we had that in the car while we made our way to Philae temple complex. The temple was located on an island and we took a Felucca ride (a small wooden sailboat) to get there. Ahmed explained the story of the temple – it had been relocated here from another island which had got flooded due to the dam.

The main temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis and tells the story of how she travelled along the Nile to restore her husband Osiris’ body and brought him back to life. It also tells tales of the birth of Horus and has images of kings making their offerings to Isis. The carvings are absolutely fascinating – there is a lot of detail in them and are covered in hieroglyphs – these guys had put a lot of effort into ensuring that their legacy endured.

The courtyard had huge columns and a giant pylon – the magnificent gate which stands in front of most ancient Egyptian temples. The walls are said to signify hills with the sun rising in the middle.

The innermost hall had the sanctum sanctorum – the holiest place within the temple. The complex also had temples dedicated to the goddess Hathor (pictured as a cow) and Horus (the falcon). Early Christians had defaced many of the carvings on the walls – destroying faces, hands and legs of the people depicted. They had even built a small church inside. This temple perfectly captured the evolution of religion right from the early Pharaonic times till the advent of Christianity.

In the evening, we visited a perfumery (guides typically have such tie-ups in each city) and checked into our room on the cruise boat. It was the largest boat of its kind that I had stepped in at that point and I found it super fancy. Nam was not as impressed as she had seen better ships.

We went back outside to explore the town. Aswan as a town was not very developed – only 2-3 streets had proper tar roads. Most of the others were dirt tracks. We exchanged currency at a small shop in one of the lanes.

A piece of advice: Watch out for shady characters before using an exchange or ATM. We had read a lot about robberies and cons happening at these places – better to be safe than sorry.

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Day 3

It was a super early start to the day – 3:30 am! It was the day I was looking forward to the most – we were going to the most remote place on this trip – all the way till the Sudan border.

We collected breakfast packs for us and Ahmed + driver and went looking for our car. We had a local SIM card, so I called Ahmed and he told us to come to the dock. That’s when we realised that our boat had changed its position at night – we were no longer at the dock! We had to cross through 4-5 other boats before we finally reached shore and found the car. We started for Abu Simbel at 4:15 am.

One cannot just drive into Abu Simbel. We had to wait for quite a while at the military check-post just outside Aswan. After we got cleared, all the vehicles moved in a line almost like a convoy – many buses, vans and cars. It was still dark and we couldn’t see anything outside. Once the sun was up, we realised that we were on the “straight-as-a-line” highway that we had seen from the plane! There was only desert on both sides and this extremely straight road. If not for the electric lines on the side of the road and the road itself, there was no evidence of life anywhere – we could very well have been on the moon! 

Our driver was determined to get us to our destination ASAP – he drove at over 120 kmph and we reached Abu Simbel in less than 3 hours. We were among the first few to reach there (Yaay!!). As we entered the complex, we could only see a hill and Lake Nasser on the other side. Ahmed showed us a place where the original temples stood (before the Aswan High Dam). By now, anticipation was growing and I couldn’t wait to see the iconic sight that we were here for. But where was it?

While following Ahmed to that spot, I didn’t realise that we had crossed the hill and were now on the other side.

We turned around and saw them – the giant figures of Ramses II. I had goosebumps all over (even now, when I’m writing this!). The sheer size of them and the way they sat looking out into the horizon – and these were made 3200 years ago!!! Words cannot describe that feeling! We proceeded to enter the temples.

The larger temple on the left told tales of glory of Ramses – these kings couldn’t stop praising themselves! What I found amazing was the level of detail in the facial features of the carvings. The enemies from the north had long faces, beards and their hair was long while the southern faces were round and had features that are more sub-Saharan. And these were made over 3200 years ago when there was no technology for making such intricate carvings on rocks. Ramses’ wife and kids were standing around him and his various names were etched on his chest, arms and legs. Inside there was a room with more carvings and eight statues – four on each side depicting each of his big battles. The original temple was aligned in such a way that 3 of the 4 statues would be illuminated by direct sunlight on 2 days in a year – Oct 21 and Feb 21 (solstices). After the relocation to its new home, the angle shifted slightly changing these dates to Oct 22 and Feb 22. 

The smaller temple is dedicated to Hathor and Nefertari, Ramses’ wife. We clicked a lot of photos – both temples took some time to sink into our brains.

We were also fascinated by the shades of blue in Lake Nasser with sand mountains outlining it – it reminded me of Pangong lake in Ladakh. Armed with our photos, videos and memories, we headed back.

We drove back and this time we got a treat of a different kind – mirages! They were everywhere! Like small puddles and in some cases – as huge as massive lakes! Now we understood the feeling that characters from books and movies would have had when they were stuck in an endless desert and saw a body of water in the distance.

We stopped for a toilet break (the most horrendous dirty hole in the ground ever!) and continued onwards. We reached Aswan at 1:30 pm and went straight to our boat.

And there, we started our Nile Cruise which will be covered in detail in the next episode of this series.

Check out the other Egypt blogs here:

• The Egypt Itinerary – planning your perfect trip to the land of the Pharaohs
• Going on a Nile Cruise like a Pharaoh – Experiencing the longest river in the world
• Meeting Tut in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor – Exploring the temples and tombs of the ancient capital city
• The Pyramids of Giza and Cutting a Cake in Cairo – Celebrating Nam’s birthday at the Pyramids

If you have any questions on how to plan your trip, leave a comment below and we’ll be happy to help. Do subscribe to the blog if you like the content. You can also share it with fellow travel enthusiasts.