Abu Simbel

On the second day we had to get up at a horrible 3am in order to get into a minivan and go with a police convoy down to the site of Abu Simbel. It was freezing when we made it there, quite unexpectedly too considering we were only tens of kilometers from the Sudanese border.

Abu Simbel was built in the 13th century BC by Ramses II to commemorate him and the famous first lady Nefertiti (I guess you must say he accomplished that goal) and also to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. Indeed, I probably wouldn't have gone further if I had run into this monument when going down the Nile... :-)
Me and Bram sitting on the not-very-impressive Aswan high dam
I wanted a picture with the nice flowers behind me.. but I got a lake..
Hungry monkeys eating apples
It must have been a huge cinema or a conference center or something here.. so many seats!!
Me and the beautiful lake.. or it is actually the Nile?I'm staring at the painting in some temple in Philea Island.
It looked exactly like you would expect it too. In the entrace hall they also had an exhibition about how everything had been cut into pieces and moved when the High Dam was built and Lake Nasser created. Well, they did an amazing job because it was really hard to see that these monsters had once been in a completely different place.

(Edward, I agree on everything in your comment...)
The pic I took on the bus to Abu simbel, before the sunrise.. I really like it, especially when I think about, ohh, im almost in Sudan!!