At early morning, your Egyptologist tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Aswan. Start your Abu Simbel from Aswan by bus, you will drive for almost 03 hours to reach Abu Simbel temples. On arrival, your guide will show you the world renowned site, where Ramses II (1290-1223 B.C.) ordered two sun temples carved from the limestone mountains.
First, you will visit the great temple, dedicated to Amon-Re and Ra-Harakhte, where the four famous colossal statues of Ramses II sit majestically over 20 meters high staring out across the desert. And then, you will see the nearby small temple, dedicated to the cow-headed goddess Hathor. Built in honor of Ramses II’s favorite wife Queen Nefertari, where there are six massive standing statues front the temple, each 10 meters high.
The two temples were originally cut into the side of a mountain, now domed by an artificial mountain to resemble the original site. The Great temple was constructed, so that the rising sun shone between the 4 statues of Ramses and into the inner recesses of the sanctuary on both February 22nd and October 22nd. Modern engineers spent a full year calculating the new placement of the temple to reproduce this miracle. Today, on those dates each year, the sun rays illuminate the holy statues for 20 minutes.
The massive job took four years to be completed, between 1964-1968. Abu Simbel Tours remain one of Egypt’s top tourist attractions after the pyramids of Giza. After finished, transfer back to your hotel in Aswan.
After finished, you will then be transferred back to your hotel in Aswan
