Cruising Lake Nasser on board of Prince Abbas Part .B

Sailing lake Nasser on board of Prince Abbass is the most enjoyable way to reach these temples . Prince Abbass is one of the most famous cruise-ships in lake Nasser and among the best ones in Egypt. This massive cruise- ship has unique features as it has larger cabins than other lake cruisers and giant deluxe suites ,also an outstanding design allow all cabins to enjoy the view with extra ordinary space in the surroundings of each , a large dining room and an impressive lounge- bar, a smart ship-manager and a qualified crew. On my last trip we had done the four-night itinerary on Prince Abbass and we all enjoyed it so much.


Prince Abbas





A professional Ship-Manager.Mr Naser.



Ship-Manager assistant.Mr Wael


Friendly crew






Our first visit was to kalabesha temples ,we sailed early morning, Tuesday to kalabesha site where we could reach three main temples. All of it were transferred miles northward to original location therefore The new kalabesha had become the nearest site to the high dam. It's main temple was saved by West-Germany between 1961-1963 as they dismantled the whole temple into 13000 blocks then assembled the whole temple in a new spot . Originally The current temple was built during the 18th dynasty which is around 1400 BC, as we can read some royal names belong to that dynasty such as the cartouche of Amenhotep ll, while the rest of the main temple dates back to the Greek and the Roman dynasty . The foundations of kalabesha dates back to the old kingdom which is around 2600 BC. The outer-gate or the pylon was most probably founded by Octavian Augustus as we can spot the emperors names in most of the sanctuary .The Hypostyle hall or the colonnade is famous of it's columns with their unique composite capitals which each of it is different with capital style. The temple was dedicated to large number of Egyptian gods who had been worshiped by both Egyptians and Nubians including god Merwel or Mandulis who was worshiped by Nubians of Egypt as the sun-god RA and in some other cases was associated with Horus .


Kalabesha Temple.



Kalabesha .The pillared Hall.



Isis and Merwel


Merwel.a matching Nubian god to Ra.

Temple of Kalabesha was a basic station for the Egyptians and the Non-Egyptians on their way to accomplish the pilgrimage to Isis temple at Philae then passing the other Egyptian temples such as Komombow and Edfu while heading to the holy-land of Abydus. Many of these pilgrims used to leave their foot-prints on these holy temples to sign to their visit, while some others used to incise their texts and some graffiti on these temples. Also early Copts or Christians of Egypt while Roman torture ,had sheltered in most of the deserted temples and tombs as we can see their marks on walls of Kalabesha as they converted some parts of the temple to a church.


A graffiti of a coptic saint on a horse.



A sanctuary for A coptic Church.Kalabesha.



Cave-Age Nubia.Gazelles and antelopes



Cave-Age Nubia.A pair of giraffes




The second temple at Kalabesha site is Bait El Wali Temple which is much older as it dates back to 1200 BC, the 19th dynasty, specifically to the reign of king Ramasess ll .The title of the temple is Arabic and means house of the saint which indicates to the fact that the Copts had been using it as a monastery for a long time as they incised their crosses on it's walls. On the gate of Bait El Wali we could see next to the titles of Ramasess ll , a praise to king Senusert l as being him the first conqueror to Nubia in 1900 BC.


A praise to king SenusertI "May the sun rise on his soul in the Orion"



King Ramasses is smashing an Asian fortress.

As it is so traditional to Ramasess ll , the temple of Bait El Wali represents all of victories of Egypt over the Hittites and the Nubians in general . Among the most interesting carvings some are found on walls of the ruined hall of pillars where you see the victorious pharaoh is smiting some of his enemies in their fort and on the opposite wall the pharaoh is depicted while receiving spoils of war from Nubian delegations. The rest of carvings are about offerings of gods and most of it are found in the inner part of the temple.


The chapel of Qertacy

Our third stop at Kalabesha was to view a Roman chapel known as chapel of Qertacy . This chapel which is around 2000 years old, has a lot of resemblance to what the Roman emperor Trojan built at Philae temple except the Hathoric columns which are special feature for Qertacy chapel . Then we passed the cancer tropic while sailing to Wadi EL Sebuaa.