The Amazing Rescued Temples
Our Thursday and Friday excursions were both to temples that, had they not been rescued, dismantled, and moved to higher ground back as a major UNESCO project in the 1970‘s, would now be under the waters of Lake Nassar behind the Aswan High Dam.
PHILAE
On Thursday morning we boarded a boat that would take us out to the small island of Agilika where the Temple of Phile (FEE-lay) had been relocated. After leaving the comfort of our bus, we fought our way to through a large group of street vendors to the dock where an army of boat operators were fighting each other for the privilege of taking groups of tourists to visit the Temple. The short, peaceful ride across the small portion of lake ended with a hurried disembarkment at the island’s portal.
The ”miracle” performed by the corps of scientists, archeologists, and engineers in that time was a truly amazing re- creation of what the temple had been like in its former location, a short distance away, but now inundated by the waters of Lake Nassar.
Mayer had shared with us the stories behind the legends of Gods and Kings represented by the artwork found on the island, and walked us through the highlights of the courtyard and the Temple of Isis itself.
After such a peaceful and reverential visit to the temple, our return to the main shore was an exciting adventure. Imagine a boat dock large enough to accommodate ten boats safely unloading their passengers, but where twenty-five boats are trying to do so. Do you remember, as a youngster, riding bumper cars at your local amusement park? The acceleration, the banging, the laughing? Now take that experience and apply it to a serious competition for livelihoods among turbaned boat drivers with no sense of humor. Our ”captain” kept intentionally crashing his vessel into the other boats, some occupied, some not, to move them out of the way, screaming (cursing?) at the other boat drivers and “helpers” on the dock in order to reach his goal of landing us at the dock at a level at which we could safely leave. We were all filled with a bit of nervous excitement, followed by a great relief when our feet finally landed on the pier.
We were whisked off to our bus and back to Aswan, then had a nice, quiet ride, with interspersed singing and dancing, on a fellucca, a medium size sailing boat on the Nile. This journey took us around Elephantine Island to a spot where we came ashore in the Nubian community there, and enjoyed the hospitality of a delicious home-cooked noon meal at the home of a friend of our guide, Mayer.
This was followed by another motor boat ride down the river, all the way to the dock at our hotel north of the city .
A quiet drink by the pool watching the sun set west of the Nile ended our amazing Thursday.
FRIDAY TO THE TEMPLES OF ABU SIMBAL
Just when I was thinking that my body was finally adjusting to the nine-hour time difference between Arizona and Egypt, Mayer told us that his “wakee-wakee” Friday morning would be at 3:15. Our luggage needed to be outside our doors at 3:30, and we were to meet in the lobby at 3:45 in order to board our bus at 4. This was because the drive to visit the rescued temples of Abu Simbel was to take about three and a half hours. A rest/bathroom break was scheduled to be at about halfway there. We got our to-go breakfasts from the hotel kitchen and boarded our bus with the idea that going back to sleep might be the best plan. That worked out nicely as we headed south, crossed the dam, and drifted off, only to be awakened just in time for a coffee break / potty break (for ten Egyptian pounds, but at least they provided the tp).
Because guided interpretations are not allowed inside the temples, Mayer used much of the second half of our journey to go over the extensive photo brochure that he had prepared and distributed to us earlier in the trip. We heard about the great love story between Ramses II and his wife Nefertari and saw photos of the beautiful wall depictions that had been taken inside the temple of that story, and of the legend of his great battles with the Hittites, again told by the painted carvings on the plaster walls of these huge limestone temples.
This freed us up when we got there to wander on our own around these great temples on the shores of Lake Nassar. We saw not only the re-located temples themselves, and the intricate room designs, but, in the visitor center, a display and a film about how these colossal stones were disassembled, transported from the endangered original site, and were reassembled in their current safe locations. It would be hard to disagree that this massive venture was truly one of the engineering wonders of our modern world.
Whispering into Ramses’ ear!
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