Egypt - Part 4 -Abu Simbel - Tale of Two Stunning rock-carved temples That Were Moved

Today’s highlight was trip to Abu Simbel, which is one of Egypt’s most striking monuments.

When I received the itinerary of our Egypt trip from WOW group, there were plenty of familiar sites—the Pyramids of Giza, Alexandria and Luxor.  I had never heard or read about Abu Simbel before. However, after visiting this place, it got included into the list of my top favorite places. You will understand the reason by the end of this blog.

We woke up at 4 am to reach there by 7 am (3.5 hours’ drive from Aswan). Initially we were little skeptical as to why are we waking up so early in the morning. However, once we reached there, we realized it was totally worth it.

Our bus stopped at the main parking lot and from here, we started walking in the desert towards the twin temples of Abu Simbel, carved out of mountainside. It is too hot and you will not find much shade here so carry a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, and water with you.





Once you almost reach there, you can see big statues of Ramses 2 king and his wife. It is simply jaw dropping to see the magnificent statues overlooking Lake Nasser.




Abu Simbel was moved in the 1960s in order to save it from being submerged by the lake that the new Aswan Dam was going to create. It was an extremely complicated process that saw the temples at Abu Simbel cut into huge blocks of stone that were moved to the new location above the rising waters and then reconstructed. So Abu Simbel is actually the tale of two temple which were moved. Totally Marvelous!


The insides of the temples are beautifully decorated with carvings and paintings on all the wall and ceiling surfaces. However photography is not allowed inside. 

Once cannot get the entire piece in a single frame. So you will need to walk towards the shore and there is one point from where you can click panoramic view of both the temples.


This is probably the most impressive landmark of Egypt. In fact fabulous is an understatement. People who have visited can totally relate to what I am saying here. Definitely worth a visit. And I hope by now you know why this place has gotten entry into the list of my top favorite places.

We started walking back to the parking lot since it was getting more and more hot. 





We headed back to the ship around 1:30 pm and the rest of the time was for us to relax on the cruise which was much needed 😊 

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