Abu Simbel - Aswan

Day4 - 24/12/07

We went to our hotel around 00.00 A.M to take a short rest until 02.00 A.M :-( .We started the trip to Abu Simbel in a private mini van at around 3.00 A.M. We had a surprise waiting for us which was not so pleasing. Our van started well but stopped within five minutes of the start behind a long line of other vehicles. Without knowing the reason, we were informed that all the vehicles need to start at the same time. We were not sure of the reason until we were informed about two military vans will be guarding us until our destination. After which we didn't want to know the reason :-). The journey was around three hours, we could not even see a single residence on our way till our destination except few checkposts. We reached Abusimbel Temple Yet again built by RAMSES II which was not a surprise at least this time. This temple was relocated from its original place around 100m to save it from drowning. Adjacent to this temple is temple of Neferatti, wife of RAMSES II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_simbel

After reaching SAFELY to Aswan after an exciting trip to Abu Simbel, we wanted to explore Aswan. We started with the unfinished Obelisk and then followed by Aswan Dam. We had a chance to see the fantastic view of the Nile River from the top of Aswan Dam, one of the famous dam in Egypt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_High_Dam

After visting the Dam we headed to Philae temple. We bought the tickets to this temple and went inside to see Nile river in front of us. Then we were asked for more money to travel to the Philae temple by a boat which was tricky to take advantage of tourists. We spent an hour visiting Philae temple and the fantastic view from the top of this temple followed by photo shoot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae

After visiting Philae, we reached our hotel and rushed to the train station to catch our train to Cairo. We bought few biscuits and chocolates though we would be provided with food in our sleeping trains to be safe. But to our surprise, the food was good for most of us. We had a nice sleep on the train after few short sleeps on the previous days.