We were awakened at the ungodly hour of 4 am to be shuttled to our A&K charter flight which was leaving at 6:30am for Upper Egypt. We first flew to Aswan, where our luggage was discharged to the boat and a few passengers got off. Then the plane took off for Abu Simbel (in southern Egypt, not far from the Sudanese border) where we made a visit to the Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor next door that he built in honor of his queen Nefertari.
Abu Simbel was truly amazing - in no small part because these two massive temples were disassembled, moved and put back together again, since their original site would have been under Lake Nasser, created by the building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.
Ramses II ruled for 70 years during a very prosperous time, so he had a lot of time to build many monuments to himself. Many very large monuments - we ended up seeing him everywhere ;)
Then we get back in the plane and fly back to Aswan where we stop to take a look at the High Dam before boarding our boat, Sun Boat IV, just in time for a late lunch.
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