Fun Photo Friday — Abu Simbel Favorites

One thing about Abu Simbel I neglected to mention Monday or Wednesday is an interesting factoid, but first I have a little riddle for you. Are you ready? Well, then, here goes:

Question: How do you hide a couple of massive temples this enormous in size?

Answer: No need. The Egyptian desert will hide them for you.

What do I mean by that? I’ll explain in a moment, after today’s photo gallery/slide show:

Now for an amazing fact: Abu Simbel eventually completely disappeared beneath a massive sand dune. Indeed by the 6th century BC., sand had already buried the gigantic statues of Ramses the II up to their knees, and the whole comlex became lost to the “sands” of time and the collective European memory. It was not until March 1813 that Swiss geographer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt came across a portion of the Small Temple and the frieze at the top of the Great Temple, thus “rediscovering” Abu Simbel.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)