NUBIA, ASWAN HIGH DAM – MAGIC ON THE WATERS OF LIFE NEGATED

Pharaoh Taharqa's pyramid at Nuri in the Sudan - Sue Fleckney - wikipedia.
Pharaoh Taharqa’s pyramid at Nuri in the Sudan – Sue Fleckney – wikipedia.

First impressions as we fly in our Petroleum Airlines Embraer en route to Abu Simbel airport from Aswan. The Nile was impounded first in 1902 by the British, whose history in the Middle East have volumes to lead one to dismay. Displacements to locals at that time were one thing but with the development of the High Dam in 1961, they became totally another thing. Nubia was gone, drowned beneath the Lakes of Lake Nasser. Egypt finally gained its revenge for the 25th Dynasty.

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MAGIC AND RESURRECTION AT ABU SIMBEL

Baboons hold court above the entrance facade at Abu Simbel.
Baboons hold court above the entrance facade at Abu Simbel.

Far to the south, not far from the border of Egypt and Sudan, lies one of the greatest monuments surviving from the New Kingdom and its most prominent pharaoh, Ramses II. The magnificent temple complex erected here at Abu Simbel demonstrated the power and supremacy of Egypt over Nubia lying to the south. This became the most extravagant of all of the many building projects the great Pharaoh commissioned over his long life.

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