We booked a trip to Egypt through a Spanish travel agency. We began out adventures by flying to the city of Aswan in Egypt to take a cruise on the Nile river.

We landed at the airport and met with our Guide. He spoke perfect Spanish and Arabic but absolutely no English.  His name was Aladino and he was our guide for the entire trip.

We began our trip by  going to the cruise boat and getting settled in to our room. The cruise ship was called, “Grand Princess”  and had four levels plus a large deck on top with a pool and bar. Our room was quaint and simple but comfortable.

Our guide Aladino told us that the first excursion was at 3:30 A.M.  We managed to get a few hours of rest before heading to the lobby to meet our guide. We boarded a bus and headed for our first of many Unesco World Heritage Sites in Egypt. This site was called “Abu Simbel Temple” which is located in the village  of Abu Simbel in Aswan Governorate .

We arrived before dawn and walked to the temples. The first sight of the temple was amazing and a surreal experience for us.

As we walked closer it became even more amazing just how big the stone sculptures were. The four statues representing Ramesses II are 20 m (66 ft) high. They represent Ramesses II seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

We went to the base and admired the statues before heading inside the single entrance into the temple. Once we were inside we saw more statues of Ramesses II in columns.

This was an amazing first experience for us to be able to walk within the Temple and to actually touch these amazing historical artifacts.

We explored the inside of the temple admiring the carvings and statues. We noticed that the sun was beginning to rise and we saw a beautiful dawn.

We left the Temple and went to look at the second temple located there. They serve as a lasting monument to the king and his queen Nefertari, and commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh.

We entered into the smaller temple and explored the interior. It was equally impressive and contained many stone carvings.

We explored the twin temples and discovered that these two temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. What we did not realize until the tour was that these temples were moved to this new location.

The relocation of the temples were necessary or they would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile.

The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 under an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.

We found the tour to Abu Simbel very interesting. There were so many unique and amazing artifacts to see in the Temples. The tour was completely in Spanish. There was no english during our entire trip to Egypt. It was a great way for us to practice and improve our Spanish.

“أتمنى لك يومًا رائعًا واحتضان الحياة”