One of the highlights of my recent trip to Egypt was an early morning visit to the Temple of Ramsses II and the Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel. Sure, it required a 2:30 am check out from my Cairo hotel and a pre-dawn flight to Abu Simbel, but it was worth it. Even the seas of tourists couldn’t break the spell of seeing a place that has lived in my mind since seeing the National Geographic article on the efforts to save the temple from the rising waters caused by the building of the high dam at Aswan back in the late ’60s. Here is a pdf with details of the relocation. Imagine the task involved in not only cutting up and relocating the temple facade to higher ground, but also the multiple rooms that had been carved inside the mountain.

I wish the temples had never had to have been moved in the first place — the surrounding “mountain” has a Disney-ish appearance — but I’m glad to have had the opportunity to go inside without scuba equipment. It’s truly incredible the effort that went into saving these structures.