Rita was here

Friday the 13th -- They saved the best for last. Abu Simbel apparently is best viewed between 5-7 am. At least, that's when we were there. Wake-up at 2:30 (!!), on Memphis Air by 4 and back in Aswan by 9. Ramses II built Abu Simbel in honor of himself, with whom he was clearly smitten. You've probably seen pictures of the front of the temple -- four gigantic (80 ft high) statues of the pharoah, who considered himself a god and ruled for 67 years. He also had 68 wives who bore him 120 sons and 83 daughters. That's about 200 too many by my count. But the most amazing thing about the temple is that it was disassembled and relocated at its current location on the shore of Lake Nasser after the high dam was guilt. Between 1964-68, at a cost of $36 milliion, the original temple was cut into 1,200 blocks weighing 10 tons each and 800 more blocks, each weighing three tons. One of the four giant statues was pretty much wrecked in an earthquake but the others look pretty good. Above the statues sit 24 baboons, slaves of the sun, each representing an hour of the day.

The interior takes your breath away. It's elaborately carved and painted, unbelievably well-preserved and depicts Ramses' victories in battle, his roles as king and god and his general power and strength. Among other things, the walls show the first peace treaty and the first represenation of locomotion in the form of a moving horse.

The most amazing room is the holy of holies, where a large statue of Ramses sits with three other gods. On the far left is the god of darkness. The temple is structured so that two days a year, Feb. 22 and Oct. 24 (his birthday and coronation and my mother's birthday), the sun strikes Ramses and the two other gods for 20 minutes a day. (It shines down a long corridor leading to the sanctuary.) The god of darkness remains dark. Sadly, the engineers charged with the rebuilding miscalculated slightly and the two big events now are off by one day. How could they mess up like that?!?!?!?!?!?

Next door, Ramses built a temple for his favorite wife, Neferteri, but there are more statues of him than her. However, her face graces 8-12 columns and written clearly on one of her cheeks is "Rita was here." Can you believe it?

We're off to Cairo on another o'nite train ride and I just can't wait for breakfast.

By the way, photos inside the temples are forbidden, so I don't have anything pretty to show.