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The village of Abu Simbel is about a 300 drive south-west of Aswan, mainly through featureless desert. It lies on the shores of Lake Nasser, not far from the Sudan border. What makes it so worth visiting are the two temples from the 13^th century BC cut entirely into the mountainside. These were in fact moved from nearby in 1968 to prevent their being flooded as the construction of the Aswan High Dam caused the Nile River to expand and become Lake Nasser.

The road trip from Aswan is a 7+ hour drive, so we were glad the organisers of our small group tour arranged for us to fly there and back from Aswan. It made for a hectic day (passing through Egyptian airports’ multiple scanners is always stressful). But the upside was I got to see the Aswan High Dam from the air and as we approached Abu Simbel we had great views of the indented shoreline of Lake Nasser, and just before we landed views of the two temple entrances themselves.

The ferry was not part of our tour, but Abu Simbel is a small place and as we drove from the airport to the temple site I saw the ferry approaching its dock. The ferry serves mainly trucks as it crosses about 10 to the other side of Lake Nasser, from where a road heads south for another 30-40 to the Sudan border, and then on to the town of Wadi Haifa. The ferry is an important link in trade between Egypt and Sudan; there are only two other land crossings of this border. A look at Google Maps satellite view shows long lines of trucks queuing at the border.

There is also a ferry that goes from the Aswan High Dam to Wadi Halfa in Sudan—a long and infrequent trip, and like the Abu Simbel ferry intended for truck and bus. Intrepid world travellers figure out ways of using these, but not me—I'm just a regular guy enjoying the easy way to visit some great places and noting some interesting ferries on the way.