Sand Castles

When I was little, I loved making sand castles. My bucket would be the castle form and then I would always try to dig out the insides as far as possible without having it collapse. I imagined the spiral stairs and the cavernous rooms inside. Well, today, I found my imagination in reality. I found Abu Simbel. This is a temple carved out of a sandy mountain along the Nile by Ramses II for his queen Nefratari. The entrance is collosal, with 4 gigantic sitting figures on each side of the massive entryway. The door faces the sunrise and we arrived at 7AM, so we were able to experience the beauty of having natural light stream into the temple rooms. I cannot imagine how simple men scooped out enough mountain to make rooms with 18 foot ceilings and then engrave heiroglyphs and paintings on every surface inside. 4000 year old paint is still there on the walls. And although the crowd of tourists was a bit overwhelming, Bailey and I managed to find ourselves alone in one of the rooms at one point. These are always special moments, and the sand castle was ours for a minute, letting us inhabit it as our own and feel like queens. As we walked out, squinting towards the sun and the Nile, I felt proud of being human, for once, knowing we are capable of making amazing beautiful things.