Abu Simbel:
The next morning we woke up extremely early to catch a bus at 4:30am for a trip all the way down Lake Nasser to see the huge temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel. It is a very impressive Temple complex. This is the famous temple that has four gigantic statues of Ramses II sitting in front. To the right of the temple is the temple Ramses II built for his wife, Nefertari, his most beloved of the three wives.
Inside the Temple of Ramses II, there are several side corridors in which are reliefs depicting Ramses himself worshiping nearly all of the 800+ gods of the Egyptian pantheon. To each one, he is bowing down and offering some sort of sacrifice, whether fruit, bread, animals, or something that resembled a chemistry set. He obviously wanted to make a statement about how religious he was.

Abu Simbel was another huge temple that had to be moved to higher ground due to the creation of Lake Nasser.

Note on Egyptian Temples: All Egyptian style temples follow the same basic pattern. The have some sort of gateway (pylons) leading into an open court where commoners could enter and worship. Then another gateway leads to a half-opened pillared section where only priests could go. After that there was an area with several vestibules where the idol of the god was brought to “eat” and to be washed and clothed. At the heart of the Temple lies the “Holy of Holies” as our guide called it. This is where the god would live. This was where the idol was kept, along with an “ark” which housed the 14 commandments of Egyptian law.