I awoke in Aswan, ready to hop on a plane. No, the trip wasn’t over. We drove over the river and through the desert to the small Aswan airport. We had a short flight farther south to the remote site of Abu Simbel. Carved by Ramesses II, it demonstrated the extent of his kingdom, how far south he had exerted control. Abu Simbel is actually a pair of monuments with one dedicated to Ramesses and the other to his favorite wife Nefertari. Besides the facades out front, each was carved back into the cliff-face, decorated from floor to ceiling. When […]