Travel: Aswan and Abu Simbel

The Hundu Magazine (Sudha Mahalingam)

Travellers to Abu Simbel have to move in a convoy that leaves twice a day. Ever since a bunch of rogue Nubian tribesmen swooped on a bus-load of Canadian and European tourists and stabbed quite a few of them to death some years ago, the Egyptian government takes no chances. In fact, in most parts of Egypt, Tourism Policemen are ubiquitous and here, they tote guns and pistols. After all, isn’t tourism Egypt’s second highest money-spinner after the Suez Canal? The 280-km ride to Abu Simbel is done in just two hours through a smooth tar ribbon that stretches endlessly in a straight line across a desert dotted with mounds of sand and shimmering mirages.

The temple at Abu Simbel has its back to the visitor. In order to access it, you have to navigate a minefield of persistent Nubian salesmen chorusing “Namaste” and hurling in rapid fire, the names of our Bollywood heroes in the hope you’d buy their kitsch. You dodge them deftly and go around a barren mountain and suddenly come upon the three massive statues, each 20 meter high, and depicting Ramses II in a seated position watching over the Nile for any intruders who might be foolhardy enough to challenge his supremacy. Having seen this scene in a myriad pictures, if you expect to be overcome by a sense of déjÀ vu, forget it. The real thing dwarfs the imagery in your mind’s eye.