Egypt - Aswan & Abu Simbel - Travel Story

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Aswan & Abu Simbel, Egypt, Travel Story

Feeling the Heat

After Luxor we made our way south to the city of Aswan. This was to be the base point for our trip to Abu Simbel. The heat had gotten more and more intense as we made our way down the Nile and by the time we had arrived in Aswan the heat was unbearable. On average, the temperature in Aswan during this time of year (October) reaches 35 degrees Celsius, but feels closer to the mid 40s. I am not one to complain about heat normally, but even I was unable to handle the intensity of the sun.

When we arrived we quickly ran to the shelter of the air-conditioned lobby of the Isis hotel. We had not eaten anything yet that day, but due to the immense heat and our unfamiliarity with the area we decided to keep it simple and eat at the hotel’s “Italian” restaurant. By the time we had finished lunch it had cooled down just enough to be tolerable so we decided to take a stroll to see the area. Our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the main market in Aswan so we headed there first. 

The Market in Aswan

The market in Aswan is not as large or extensive as the Khan el Khalili, but had a different feel to it. It wasn’t nearly as crowded, which was a nice change, and instead of being tucked away into alleyways as much of Khan el Khalili is, the Aswan market is very open and exposed. One thing you will notice, however, is that the vendors at the Aswan market seem to be much more aggressive and will leave their stalls to physically pull you in. It was great to wander around and look, but the merchants made it very difficult to shop because as soon as you look like you are remotely interested in something they are all over you. I did find one costume jewellery vendor outside of the market area that was very nice and accommodating and didn’t once push me to buy anything. I was able to take my time in the store and really admire their merchandise. I ended up buying 6 necklaces that I used as souvenirs.

Random Act of Kindness

After the market we decided to take a different route back to the hotel and headed towards the water. We walked down a flight of stairs that led to another strip of shops below the main street. As we walked past a perfume bottle shop the owner came out to talk to us and ask us questions – a typical ruse used to get tourists to stop and chat so they can sell you their goods. As usual, we smiled, but did not stop or answer his questions. He then asked why we wouldn’t talk to him and seemed genuinely offended so I felt compelled at that point to ignore my travel partner’s disapproving looks and stopped to talk to him. He asked us to have a seat in his shop and promised he would not try to sell us anything. He said that he likes to talk to tourists to get to know them and where they come from. He then proudly showed off the guest book that he had all the other tourists who stopped in his shop sign, and asked us to add to it. He also wanted to give us each a gift – a small perfume bottle that he made. Normally, nothing comes free, especially in these parts of the world, but after hesitantly accepting his gift and walking out of the store he wished us all the best and that was it. It is unfortunate that there is a stigma about Egyptian people, but it makes it that much more gratifying when you get to meet genuinely friendly people.

Boat Restaurant

For dinner that night we decided not to wander too far since we had to be up very early the next morning for our trip to Abu Simbel. There were many boat restaurants along the waters edge so we decided on one that served authentic Egyptian food and looked particularly bright and lively. We headed straight back to the hotel after dinner in preparation for our 3am departure the next day.

The Long Journey to Abu Simbel Begins...Slowly...

It was still dark as we sleepily made our way to the hotel lobby to collect our breakfast boxes and wait for the transportation. Once all the passengers were accounted for we made our way over to join the rest of the convoy. This “security feature” was the result of the terrorist attacks at tourist sites in recent years. Critics say that the convoy does nothing but draws attention to the large group of tourists gathered in one area, making an attack even easier, but this is how things were done now. Once we were on the road with everyone going varying speeds we ended up separating anyway.

Abu Simbel History

The Abu Simbel temples were originally carved into the side of a mountain, but have since been relocated to its current location. The creation of Lake Nasser (a large reservoir that was formed as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam between 1958 and 1971) would have submerged the temples so to avoid that a team of global engineers, archaeologists, and equipment operators came to the rescue, moving the massive structure block by block to its new location. The total cost of this mission was roughly $40 million.

The Great Temple took roughly 22 years to build and was dedicated to the gods Ptah, Amun, and Ra-Horakhty, as well as to Rameses himself. The entrance is flanked with four larger-than-life statues of Rameses that are carved right into the side of the mountain. Walking up to this magnificent structure I was struck with a sense of awe and as we walked closer I started to notice how large it really was because of how small I felt in comparison. It was easy to see why the Great Temple of Abu Simbel is considered to be one of the most beautiful temples in Egypt.

The Small Temple, also known as the temple of Hathor and Nefertari was built northeast of the temple of Rameses II. The two groups of colossi on the face of the temple are just over 10 meters tall and are of the queen and the king. This is the only time in Egyptian art where the king and queen are equal in size. Normally, the queen is no taller than the king’s knees.

Ending Like We Started...Hiding From the Heat!

On our last day in Aswan we managed to get late check out, but with our train to Cairo leaving at 9:40PM we still had a lot of time to kill, and a lot of heat to avoid. Near the end of the main street was a McDonalds, where we happily hid from the scorching temperature for a little while. We weren’t sure what to do next, but between taking pictures of all the feluccas, and the resonating voices of the felucca operators attempting to coax us into taking a ride it seemed like as good an idea as any. We found an operator who we got a deal with and onto the rickety old boat we went.

After dinner we found we still had a lot of time to kill so even though we normally would not get on a horse drawn carriage we thought for the price it would be a great way to end our trip – a nice relaxing carriage ride around the city…or so we thought. The boy who took us around spoke English pretty well and was educated. He pointed out some monuments, some sights, his school, and then came the infamous tour of the “government owned tourist shop”. We knew that if we bought anything from the store that this boy would get a cut, we also had some time to spend so we thought it might be nice to see if there was something we could buy to help him out since he seemed like such a nice honest boy. We looked around, but did not find anything that we liked so we headed back on to the carriage and off we went. As we approached the drop off point the boy suddenly tripled the price we originally agreed to. When we asked him why he said it was because we stopped at the tourist shop, which meant he had to feed the horse and wait for us. We argued with him for a bit, then told him we would give him no more than what we agreed to and explained to him why and that he can’t just do that. Understandably, this is what he has been taught to do to make money, but he also needed to know that what he was doing was wrong. We had originally intended on giving him a very generous tip, so instead we gave him half of what he asked for and no tip. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but at this point we were getting pretty used to this kind of behaviour from the locals, so we just accepted it and moved on.