TRAVELOG

  Ancient Peoples and New Arrivals:                                                Humans have occupied the Altiplano for at least 3,000 years.  The Tiwanaku culture emerged around AD100 on the shores of Lake Titicaca and developed into the area’s most advanced civilization.  They built monumental temples and pyramids, made copper tools, cultivated a variety of crops and lived in mud-brick houses linked by paved streets.  By the 12 th century, the Tiwanaku had faded, perhaps the victims of a prolonged drought.  The vacuum was filled by the Inca, who would dominate the Altiplano until the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the early 16 th Century.  Silver from a single mountain at Potosi bank-rolled the Spanish empire for centuries.  Since the 20 th century tin, zinc and lead have been mined by multinational companies.  ...

  Seismic Variations                Scientists have long disagreed about what process formed these high plains.   The plateau is undoubtedly associated with tectonic uplift of the Andes, caused by collision between the Pacific and South American plates, but is it the remains of a once-great inland sea or merely the result of millions of years of Andes erosion?                 One of the Altiplano’s   defining features is the absence of an outlet to the ocean, despite its being a drainage basin for water coming off the mountains.   What rivers do exist here empty into Lake Titicaca on the Bolivia-Peru border and other lakes on the plateau.   Titicaca is a geographical   superlative in its own right, being the world’s highest commercially navigable lake.   It   is also home to ancient people, some of whom st...

  VIEW ON ALTIPLANO             Part desert, part grassland, the high Altiplano   of South America has the air of the wild West.   Still home to its native people, it is a place where Llamas graze and flamingos wade across isolated salt lakes.              Always chilly yet blessed with perpetual blue skies, arid yet home to massive lakes, the cradle of several ancient civilizations but relatively under-populated today, the Altiplano of South America is one of the globe’s geographical conundrums.   The high-altitude plateau extends for more than 600 miles (1000km), spanning most of the terrain between Cusco in Peru and Jujuy in northern Argentina.   Much of Bolivia sits on the Altiplano, as does a thin silver of north-eastern Chile.   The name means ‘high plains’ in Spanish, a reference to the fact that the plateau lies at an average height...

THE BROKEN                   One of the four statues of Ramesses II on the facade of the Great Temple is incomplete, the remains of its head and torso lying shattered at its feet.   It was probably smashed in an earthquake in about 1248 BC, before the temple was complete.   The left arm of the statue to the far right of the temple entrance also broke off at this time.   Some restoration took place, but the head and torso remained where they had fallen.                    During the 1960’s rescue operation, there was much discussion about whether this broken statue should be restored to its intended form.   In the end the team decided to position the head and torso as they had been found, face down in the sand in front of the temple-and that is where they remain to this day.

  MASSIVE   INTERIOR                 These themes of war and Ramesses prowess continue inside the temple, in the tapering progression of two primary chambers that lead to the sanctuary, hewn out of the rock.   The first is the Great Hypostyle Hall, named for its massive ‘hypostyle’ supporting columns: eight statues of Ramesses in the form of the god Osiris, each 9m (350ft) high, serve as pillars lining the central passageway, four on each side.   The walls are decorated with bas-relief images of Ramesses, either in worship or at war, personally pulverising his enemies.   Ceiling paintings depict stars and vultures with outstretched wings representing Nekhbet, goddess of Upper Egypt, associated with eternity and patron of the pharaohs.   A passageway leads to the second chamber, similarly decorated, with Ramesses and Nefertari depicted with the sacred barque that they will use to cr...

WHERE ON EARTH                 Abu Simbel stands on the western bank of the Lake Nasser in the southern Egypt, almost 200 miles (300km) south of Aswan by road.   The journey takes three hours by coach.   Police-escorted convoys leave early in the morning and depart from Abu Simbel before 4pm.   Flights are available from Aswan to the town of Abu Simbel.  

  VIEW ON   ABU SIMBEL             Built by the great pharaoh   Ramesses II and dramatically rescued from the rising lake Nasser, the temples of Abu Simbel are the most extraordinary of ancient Egypt’s many wonders.              Travelling south from Aswan, the journey to Abu Simbel can be made by light plane or by boat across lake Nasser, but most visitors go by coach, setting off before dawn to cross the parched and rocky desert.   The temples of Abu Simbel amply reward these modern pilgrims for their dedication.    Waiting to greet them are vast statues of Ramesses II and his favourite wife, Nefertari, carved out of the golden sandstone more than 3,000 years ago. The Great Temple               There are two temples on the Abu Simbel site standing about 100m (330 ft) apart...

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