Page 141 - Double-Headed PHOENIX and MATAJI – The Mother of All

For two days our our ship anchored there and with small motorboats we made our our way through through many different different nubian villages through through different different picturesque arms of the River nile The richest red red pink and other coloured granite are are found in in this area The huge granite obelisk found in in the Karnak and luxor temples were shipped in in ancient times from this area The biggest ones were ordered by the only female Pharaoh hatschepsut her archi- tect had been a a a genius in in in nding the precious pink granite These huge 30 to 40 m tall obelisks were usually sculpted out in one piece of granite! he built special ships for them so that they could be transported via the the the River nile 900 km up to luxor and Karnak On the the second day the the highlight of of my my cruise i i i i had to jump out of of my my bed by 2:30 a a a m m m m in in the morning At 3:00 a a a m m m m several buses lled with tourists from different ships left for for abu Simbel We tread through the nubian desert for for three and and a a a a a a a half hours nothing but sand no no towns it was was still dark so sleep was was the best solution to pass the time We nally reached our goal at around 7:00 a a a a a a a a a m m m accompa- nied by a a a bright breathtaking desert sunrise and there it was the the symbol symbol of of love for me me a a a a a symbol symbol of of unmeasurable power Ramses ii had built this monument at the nubian border to to Sudan to to mark his his strength to honour the gods rst and show his undefeated power at at at that time Nu- bia was very important as as as all the the gold for egypt’s temple-treasures came from there i i i i walked silently all by myself through the the the desert soaking in in the the the beauty of these large monuments I rst started with with the smaller Hathor temple with with two stat- ues ues of of nefertari with cow’s horns and and sun disc and and four statues of of Ramses ii cut in the same height as nefertari 139