I have a tour book that says you are not allowed to go inside Abu Simbal. Is that true? Do you fly there to just look at the outside of the place? Help me understand the point, please. Doesn't seem that it would be worth the effort if you couldn't go inside. Maybe I'm wrong.

We went inside the Great Temple in January 2008 - guides weren't allowed in due to space contraints (I think that's the reason) - inside is fascinating.

I'm wracking my brain to remember if we went into the Temple of Hathor and Nefertari - I think so but I'll have to check my photos.

It's been several years, but I remember that we went inside but the guides were not allowed to.

There are two "insides." One is inside the restored temple itself which is not all that big. The other is inside the constructed "mountain" to see the bteel structure.

What NoFlyZone says is what I was thinking the "tour book" meant. There is an INSIDE to the mountain that has, on occasion, been open, but is not the be all end all of Abu Simbal. That must be what the book meant. Which book is it? Not exactly the best writing in the world if they didn't even clarify that more clearly.
The inside of the temples will be open, but like Crcxx3 says, your Egyptologist guide will not go in with you.

I really am curious what guide book it is that is that badly written.

Yup, two insides... the temples and the mountain.

If I recall from a post sometime back, visitors are NO longer allowed to take photos inside the temples.

hmmm ...interesting ,because when I was there 3 years ago , we could take pictures inside the Temple.

It does make sense to stop picture taking.

They might not like all those flashes going off, or even video filming.

Hi Debbie
Hi sandi
Hi Grcxx3

I will have to go back and see if we have pictures from inside the temples.....I'm curious now. Of course, that was 2002 - so it's been awhile!

Hi Percy!

Hi Grcxx3

I e-mailed a friend of mine who went in the middle of last year and she was not able to take pictures inside of Abu Simble.

No one told me I could not take a few pictures.....so maybe I was not suppose to( ?!).
There is a guard inside sort of keeping an eye on things.

I have the visitor's guide to ancient egypt.

It says by Abu Simbel:
"You're very unlikely to be allowed inside the temple (a right reserved for priests and the pharaoh alone) but if no one's looking you can peer through the doorway."

What would this mean? Can we go in? Seems like a lot, flight there, etc. just to see the outside.

koryandleslie -that makes no sense. What publication is this in???

koryandleslie

I agree with Grcxx3, throw away whatever you are reading !

You can definitely go inside and look around all you want...but as has been mentioned ...no pictures,so do not count on taking pictures.

Also do not miss Abu Simble if you are doing the Nile Cruise

The quote from the book makes no sense at all. Last I checked, there are NO priests and pharaohs left to worry about who does/doesn't go into the temples!!!!

Maybe...just maybe....this part is describing what it might have been like as a local Egyptian living at the time???

It just seems such a weird thing to write.........

What they are talking about is the very very very inside chamber. It is roped off, from what I recall and there is some sort of soemthing in there with Anubis on it (maybe) so you can see it all. It's a tiny room that you can see entirely from the doorway.

The author of that book really chose poor words to describe it. Perhaps they weren't any better with other areas either. Just goes to show that guide books are not the be-all end-all of instructions. They are written by mear mortals that were there for 2 hours and had to learn as much as possible in that time, or they got their info from an Egyptian that knew about 10% English. Better to get your information here.

<<Better to get your information here.>>

Yup - because we ARE "the be-all end-all of instructions"!!!!

We visited in, I believe, '99 or '00. We could visit/enter both temples and even under the mountain. The nice thing about the latter... it was dark and rather cool compared to the heat outside . And, at that time, we were able to take photos... in fact have photo of another visitor taking photos.

Priests and Pharoah's only... must be an ancient book writen on papyrus!