Nubiana

Stefano Faravelli 128 MAY 23 Oh, to be Belzoni (that thief!) and see them sticking out of the sand. – ABU SIMBEL, 7 A.M. The shores of Lake Nasser glitter like the sea in June. Yellow and ocher rocks look like gold. The first round of visitors spews out legions of Japanese and Spaniards. I crouch down,without shelter from the sweltering heat of the sun, rapidly drawing the outline of the face of Osiris/Ramesses,which stares at the horizon from its lofty height of twenty meters. Already infected with the ideology of Greek supremacy,Burckhardt described it as resembling the face of Pallas. But the one I draw is a Semitic face, with a long pointed beard. Abu Simbel