Our last Ancient Egyptian site!

Abu Simbel is where there are temples dedicated to Ramses II and his wife Nefertiti, (ahem, built by Ramses II).  This ancient was built by Ramses for the Nubian people to get to know him better.  But in the 1960's a HUGE dam was built up river.  When the dam was completed, the people of Egypt realized that this temple would be under water, never to be seen again.  So they moved the ancient site!!!  Can you believe it?  They lifted these 2 temples, there are large rooms inside (we were not allowed to bring a camera), 30 meters up and over.  There are many amazing things about this temple, but the most amazing is they the ancient Egyptians situated the Temple so that the sun would shine on 3 of the 4 statues inside on 2 dates of the year.  The significance is not understood.  When the temple was moved, the movers, by chance were able to perserve the direction of the sun rays on the 2 very same days.

The picture on the right shows the original spot of where the Temples were.  The water area to the right.

The statues are over 20 meters high.  Can you see Michael's favourite tie dye shirt!  We are going inside.

These temples were originally carved into the sand stone next to the Nile river but now this is what is on the other side of the temple.  A Large dome was built over the site to preserve it.

We said a sad good bye to our guide, Hassan.  He made our trip so wonderful.  He studied Ancient History and now gives tours to all the ancient site.  Hassan was with us for all of our Egyptian adventures and sites.  We told him about April Fool's day in North America and he played a trick on the kids and we all laughed.  We also have a tradition when we visit a Dam that we take advantage of adding "dam" as an adjective regarding anything surrounding the dam.  Hassan thought that was very fun as well.  I thought Chris was clever with the "dam" adjective, but Hassan had us in stitches!  We will miss you Hassan!  Best wishes to you and your family!