Egypt - an education - part 5
We are still moored at the city of Assuan and the next morning (actually already at 3:00AM) awakened to take an extra excursion (those who wanted to for an extra $130.- and I felt it worth the money) by bus to the temple Abu Simbel that was cut up into manageable cubes and moved to above the Nasser lake that the dam created, otherwise it would now be under water. The project was at that time internationally financed, and let me tell you - it was no small deal! Our bus was second in line of a convoy exceeding 20 buses, that sped for 3 hours through the desert to the upper shore of the lake where the temple now stands in all its majesty.
From the city south, there is nothing but desert but not sandy as I expected - nothing but rocks and gravel - and not a blade of grass or cactus or brush like in the US South West. Barren, and I mean really BARREN!
Of course, when you have 20 or more buses arriving almost at the same time on any one sight, the crowded condition around the temple is just too much, not to even mention the impossible situation inside, to be able to see anything up close or hear the explanations of the tour guides. All in all it was still worth every penny.
You may wonder why a convoy - perhaps for safety reasons as we were told, but I doubt it. Personally I think that having only two visits at the site (one in the morning and one in the evening with a similar number of tourists), each lasting only one to one and a half hours at the site itself, it is easier and more manageable for the authorities to control, as well as shorter work hours for them.
Another 3 hour journey back to Asswan and after supper on the boat a much needed rest and sleep.
In the morning another short excursion to the nearby quarry where we viewed the unfinished obelisk still half embraced by the bedrock, but abandoned because it developed a fatal crack before it could be extracted. It would have been the largest ever made. I find it amazing that in those times the ancient technology was able to raise and transport such huge and heavy masses of stone, first out of the quarry, down to the river, and then again to its designated site wherever to put it upright. With what we have at our disposal now, it would seem to me to be impossible. One of the Pharaohs, who decided to erase all traces of his predecessor from temples, statuary and written records, tried without success to also topple his obelisk - he had to satisfy himself with hiding it by building a wall around it high enough for it not to be seen.
While we had lunch back on the boat, it lifted anchor and we floated leisurely down the Nile to our next destination "Kom Ombo", about which in the next installment.
Ata.
From the city south, there is nothing but desert but not sandy as I expected - nothing but rocks and gravel - and not a blade of grass or cactus or brush like in the US South West. Barren, and I mean really BARREN!
Of course, when you have 20 or more buses arriving almost at the same time on any one sight, the crowded condition around the temple is just too much, not to even mention the impossible situation inside, to be able to see anything up close or hear the explanations of the tour guides. All in all it was still worth every penny.
You may wonder why a convoy - perhaps for safety reasons as we were told, but I doubt it. Personally I think that having only two visits at the site (one in the morning and one in the evening with a similar number of tourists), each lasting only one to one and a half hours at the site itself, it is easier and more manageable for the authorities to control, as well as shorter work hours for them.
Another 3 hour journey back to Asswan and after supper on the boat a much needed rest and sleep.
In the morning another short excursion to the nearby quarry where we viewed the unfinished obelisk still half embraced by the bedrock, but abandoned because it developed a fatal crack before it could be extracted. It would have been the largest ever made. I find it amazing that in those times the ancient technology was able to raise and transport such huge and heavy masses of stone, first out of the quarry, down to the river, and then again to its designated site wherever to put it upright. With what we have at our disposal now, it would seem to me to be impossible. One of the Pharaohs, who decided to erase all traces of his predecessor from temples, statuary and written records, tried without success to also topple his obelisk - he had to satisfy himself with hiding it by building a wall around it high enough for it not to be seen.
While we had lunch back on the boat, it lifted anchor and we floated leisurely down the Nile to our next destination "Kom Ombo", about which in the next installment.
Ata.
posted by Okorn Family at 8:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home