North Africa · Egypt

Temples of Abu Simbel

Historic Half day difficulty: Easy with kids: yes

Four seated colossi over 20 meters tall guard the entrance of the temple that Ramses II carved into the rock 3,300 years ago, beside Lake Nasser. The astonishing part: in the 1960s it was cut into blocks and moved whole to a higher spot to save it from the waters.

With kids

Stand next to one of the colossus's feet to see how tiny you are
Go into the temple and look for the statues and paintings inside the mountain
Count how many colossi are on the façade (and the one missing its head)
Imagine the giant crane that moved the temple stone by stone

Accessibility: All ages; it gets extremely hot and you rise early for the transfer, bring water

With family

Learn how humanity came together to save the temple from the water
Arrive early to see the façade lit by the rising sun
Combine it with the Aswan dam and the great Lake Nasser
Talk about why it's worth rescuing everyone's history

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