| | It's been a while since I posted. And it's been a while since I talked about something fun and interesting, like my Middle East trip! So let's get back to that and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of my old and new apartment soon.
After Giza, we flew to Aswan. From there, we were going to take a private car (about $75 per person) on a 4 hour ride to and from Abu Simbel to check out the Abu Simbel Temple. So the whole trip was about 10 hours long.
Anyway, you're going to get a kick out of this. I know Mike did. He was practically on the FLOOR laughing. This is what we saw at the airport when we got off the plane to meet our guide.
Do you see what's wrong? They totally messed up my name!!
Since we had some time to kill, we went to see the most famous thing in Aswan. A dam. Hahaha, it's really nothing, but the history behind it was that they had to build the dam in order to prevent flooding and to provide electricity. If I remember correctly, the guide said that the dam provides for electricity not only for Egypt, but for some of the surrounding countries.
After that we went for breakfast and the guide actually suggested McDonald's! We laughed and politely turned him down and I said I wanted something local. So we got...tamas, I think they're called. It's SO GOOD!
This is what the store looked like.
This was our DELICIOUS breakfast. One had eggs, the other beans, and another falafel.
Then we went to meet our other guide and started out on the long track (with envoy) to Abu Simbel. 4 hours...very boring...but our driver does look like President Obama! 
Finally we got to Abu Simbel. The big thing with Abu Simbel is that it's a temple that was built by Ramses II. This is really cool, it was built in a location so that every year on the day of Ramses II's birthday, the sunlight will shine into the temple and light up his statue along with two other gods. However, when they built the dam in Aswan, the temple, if left where it was, would be flooded. So in order to preserve this great monument, the Egyptian government took the temple apart (cut it into a couple hundred pieces and numbered them) and then put it together again some 200 meters up from the water. Wikipedia has a cool picture comparing where the temple was and where it is now. In fact, during the process of deciding what to do with the temple, someone even suggested making it an underwater temple and have people take a submarine to go see it.
The temple of Abu Simbel.
This was another nearby temple for his wife Nefertari. Apparently in Egypt it's a big deal when a king builds a temple for his wife. This is only the second temple built for a wife. She was obviously his favorite.
Here's a view inside the temple. You can't take pictures inside in order to preserve the paintings.
Then it was back to Aswan and then we took the night train to Luxor, where we will stay for the next 3 or so days.
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| | Posted 4/28/2009 9:37 AM - 26 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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