Ever since we got to Aswan we’ve been debating whether to go to this site which was 3 hours each way to get there and you had to go in a police convoy. It is very near the border with Sudan. In the end we decided to go (not a cheap day out) to Abu Simbel.

We hired a car which ended up being quite a posh one. I contented myself with my book and the desert scenery most of the way.

Once you get there you get quite a lot of hassle from scarf sellers. The site (like Philae) Abu Simbel  would have gone underwater after they built the dam so UNESCO moved it block by block 50-100 meters or so from the shore.

It was built by Ramses II.

The main temple consists of 4 giant statues (20 metres tall) of Ramses guarding the entrance with the bird of Horus standing near the steps. It is a real Wow when you first catch sight of them as they really are massive.

The inside is just as fascinating. At the end of the room there was 4 statues . It is said that the light from the door hits just 3 statues leaving 1 in darkness which is Ptah (god of darkness) on two dates every year (22 feb and 22 october) and they obviously didn’t like him as his head has been chipped off.

Outside the temple it said no photographs inside but mum still sneaked a few pictures with her phone.

The guard kept walking about watching everybody with a close eye.

TUT said he would watch out for the guard and warn her if he came but he wandered off and the guard came to mum and demanded her phone.

He turned it on and looked for gallery and demanded mum tell him where the photos were . She kept saying it was a new phone and she didn’t know where the photo file was and said she hadn’t take any (well done mum, arguing again).

After another 10 minutes he gave up and said it was a present for the baby but no more pictures. I hated him even more now and mum was really put off. What does it matter if you take photos or not, without a flash?!

There was 1 more temple we went to see

and after 2 hours and a picnic by the beautiful Lake Nasser

we drove our second part of the journey. Mum even bought some scarves.