Abu Simbel Temple Tour

Sun, Oct 24: Abu Simbel, Egypt

Abu Simbel was a three hour bus ride each way, and an optional $85 event for the UnchartedX Egypt Tour. It’s worth it.

The temples were relocated piece by piece back in the 1960’s, further up the hill, complete with a fake mountain back to avoid being submerged by the Aswan dam. Quite the story for these magnificent temples.

The relocation was an international effort consisting of engineers from Egypt, Italy, and the Netherlands. The temples were cut into large blocks, some weighing up to 30 tons, then reassembled in their new location. The broken head of one of the statues was preserved and placed on the ground relative to where it was originally found. They should have just fixed it, don’t you think?

The temple’s alignment with the sun was preserved such that on the Ramses II’s birthday and coronation day, the sun shines directly into the temple to illuminate the statutes inside.