Day 4 - Rod's birthday - Abu Simbel & nature reserve.

Up at 6am to fly down south in a small chartered plane to Abu Simbel, just a few miles north of the border with Sudan. These 2 temples were dedicated to Ramses II and his favourite wife Queen Nefertari. Ramses II was one of the most famous pharaohs of Egypt, fighting a major battle against the Hittites in what is now Palestine and then ruling for 62 years. He started the cult of believing that the pharaoh was actually a living god.

The temples were carved directly into a rock face, and were in danger of being submerged by Lake Nasser as the Aswan Dam was completed. In 1963 a huge international effort costing $36 million enabled the whole side of the rock face to be sliced into thousands of pieces and reassembled 65 meters higher at a site close by. It took 4 years to complete the project.

The facade of Rameses II temple has 4 large statues of Rameses guarding the entrance. At his feet can be seen smaller statues of his mother, wife, sons & daughters.
	Inside at the far end of the temple are seated statues of 3 gods and Ramses II . That he shows himself the same size as the gods indicates his conviction he was a god. Twice a year on the 22nd Feb & 22nd Oct as the sun rises it shines directly through the tomb and illuminates the 3 statues on the right. The ancient Egyptians cleverly designed it to miss the god on the left as that is Ptah the god of darkness.
To the right of Ramses temple is the temple of Nefertari his queen.	The statues on the front are of Ramses II and Nefertari.
We flew back to our boat for lunch, and then we sailed in a felucca across to 'Kitcheners Island', given to Lord Kitchener after his military successes...	...and he turned the island into a botanic garden specialising in palm trees from around the world.
We then took a boat trip past the Aga Khans tomb through the 'cataracts' or rapids. After the construction of the Aswan dam they have become a nature reserve. These cataracts were considered by the ancient Egyptians as the beginning of the world.	There were numerous birds, including small green bee eaters, cormorants, egrets, Hyde kingfishers, and even an osprey. This is a purple swamphen.
Whilst cruising through the cataracts we were attacked by a ferocious crocodile. Bertha helped put up a good fight by tickling it's tail.