Today was one of the highlights of our trip to Egypt. We left our Nile cruise and went to the airport in Aswan, where we took a charter flight to Abu Simbel.

There is obviously nothing in Abu Simbel except this one temple, because we landed, went to the temple and then went straight back to the airport to get on the same plane to fly back to Cairo. A big day, but totally worth it.

Abu Simbel is simply stunning. Built 3,500 years ago by Pharaoh Ramesses II, it comprises two temples, one for him and one for his wife Nefertari. Both are impressive, but his temple is mind-blowing. Four massive seated statues lead into a temple built into a mountain which contains statues, carved friezes, etc. What makes it even more impressive is that it was moved to it's present site by UNESCO when Egypt built their dam, which would have left the entire temple under water. It is hard to imagine how they moved it, given they had to literally move the entire mountain it was carved into. But they did it and the results are amazing.

The lake that resulted in the dam being built is 500km long and they moved three temples, leaving many discovered and undiscovered Egyptian history buried in the lake. Such a shame.