abu simbel - progress

The egyptian nite in winter is chilly. But inside the air-conditioned van, it's warm. It left the cruise docking location in aswan at 3.00am in the morning and has to wait for 30 minutes in another area where all the buses going to abu simbel gathered and go thru some security check before it actually leaves aswan, heading south on a 3-hr journey.

After leaving the road lit by street lights, they are into the desert with no street lights and no other man-made lights other than the headlamps of the van and occasionally head lights from other vehicles.

Marathon man did not have a good sleep , though he tunned in before 9 last nite. But he does not feel like shutting his eyes, but is quite at a lost of what else to do in the next 3 hrs. Looking outside, it's featureless, desert-like lanscape. Then it stikes him when he looks up; there are countless stars hanging in the sky.it reminded him of the nites he spent in the arabian desrt, many years ago. if there's a milky way up there, it would definitley not be seen in the cities, with their lights cutting off all dimly lit starlets and stardusts...

just before they arrive at abu simbel, the sun rises up from the horizon, coloring the cloudless sky crimsonly red, and lighting the trees and plants scattered along the abu simbel village into some brilliant creatures ready to begin the day of sand eating.

the village is a small one, mainly accupied by the nubians, the dark-skin egyptians who inhabit the southern egypt and northern sudan, and who is supposed to be the first civilized people in the world, dated to the years before 3800bc.

abu simbel, 2 beautiful temples dedicated to remesses II and his wife nefertari was moved from the lower part of the nasser lake in 1960's when the aswan dam was constructed. still it retains its glorious mountain-carved structures and also the positionin of the remesses' temple such that the sun's ray will illuminate the three statues in the sanctuary room on the dates 22 feb and 22 oct, every year.

egyptian history like any other ancient or even recent history is mostly about kings, conquerers - most of the relics and artifacts left behind are big structures dedicated to the kings.

for the 200o years of ancient egyptian history, it seems the kings of the 1st dynatsy and those of the 30th dynasty had many things in common, in their beliefs, their attires, their customers..... to them, it seemed thare's no generation gap.... there's only one generation for the 2000 over years.

but now, just within the last century, egypt has changed from a monarchy to a republic and has followed the step of the global changes quite closely, espceially in the big cities like cairo and alexandria.

autocratic society progresses only if the person in power does so - whereas, for an opened society, the motivation for progress comes from the people.