"Look On My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!"

"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away." - Percy Bysshe Shelley - 1818

Almost 200 miles south of Aswan is the incredible temple of Abu Simbel, a gigantic carving out of the solid rock of four statues of Ramses II. Ramses was the greatest builder in ancient Egypt and we have seen his works all up the Nile, from Cairo all the way to the Sudan, here at Abu Simbel, where he built his greatest work. 

Why build it way out here, hundreds of miles south of Egypt, whose border was at the First Cataract at modern day Aswan?  To instill fear in his enemies, that's why. What would you think, as a Nubian contemplating invading Egypt, if you came upon these giant statues of the great pharoah, which also included scenes of his great victories in many battles?  You'd probably have second thoughts about invading. 

The two temples here have an interesting recent history. Because of the building of the Aswan dam in the early '60s, the resulting reservoir was going to drown the temples under 200 feet of water. So a coalition of several countries, including the US, got together the funding and moved the temples to higher ground.  This was an extraordinarily difficult task, as they had to cut up the temples, both outside and inside, into giant pieces, truck them to the new site, and put them back together. This was all accomplished in less than four years. It was so well done that you really have the look hard to see any of the cut marks. 

"It is such a wonder that it would be exceptional even at Thebes...a masterpiece worthy of all our admiration"...Jean-Francois Champollion

After a 2:30 am wake up call, a 4am departure and three hours of driving through barren desert, we arrived at Abu Simbel. A short walk around the man made mountains, and there it was, in all its glory. 

The main temple...

"...by happy chance, I walked away a few short steps towards the south and my eyes met the still visible part of four immense colossal statues, cut into the Rock...it is truly a shame that they are almost completely buried in the sand."... John Lewis Burckhardt, ‘Travels in Nubia’, 1819

19th Century graffiti...

One of the statues broke off, a result of a large earthquake in 27 BC...

The same scene from David Roberts 1840 lithograph...

Ramses II's wife's, Nefertari's, temple...

Inside... (Web photos... currently taking photos not allowed here)

“On the wall of the rock, in the centre of the four statues, is the figure of the hawk-headed Osiris, surmounted by a globe; beneath which, I suspect, could the sand be cleared away, a vast temple would be discovered, to the entrance of which the above colossal figures probably serve as ornaments.” - John Lewis Burckhardt, ‘Travels in Nubia’, 1819

Inside the main temple...

David Roberts' 1840 lithograph...

"Egypt is an acquired country - the gift of the river." - Herodotus, c. 450 BCE

That afternoon, when we were back in Aswan, some of us opted for a camel ride out in the desert. It's not the easiest or most comfortable thing to do, riding a camel, but most of us did quite well. One of our group, Greg from Australia, was a natural. He was first out into the desert, galloping away. Since he also was sporting a rather debonair scarf-turned-turban, I got to calling him Lawrence of Australia. 

We rode for about an hour, out into the desert, then up a hill until we were overlooking Aswan and the Nubian camel helpers served us mint tea and did a little song and dance for us.   Besides a small altercation with my camel, where he threw me off into some rocks while I was trying to get on him, my camel and I got along splendidly. 

But I was luckier than another member of our group, Mike.  While we were riding back to the river, his camel started jumping around like a bucking bronc.  He flew right off the camel, did a 270 flip and landed (luckily for him) in the soft desert sand.  He got right up on his feet and walked back to the boat.  Turned out he had a slight sprain of the wrist and a small cut.

Lawrence of Australia...