The Relocation of Abu Simbel Temples

Hundreds of towns and villages have perished due to massive earth-moving projects such as the construction of dams. But the temples at Abu Simbel, in Egypt, were historically and culturally far too important to let that happen. So when the newly built Aswan High Dam and reservoir threatened to swallow the 3,300-year-old temples, the international community banded together for an extraordinary salvage operation. The Abu Simbel temples were originally located along the Nile river, carved out of the solid mountain rock. They were commissioned by Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, who is often regarded as the greatest and the most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom. During his reign, Ramesses II built many temples throughout Egypt and Nubia, particularly Nubia, in order to impress upon the Nubian people the might of the Egyptians. The most famous of these are the rock-cut temples near the modern village of Abu Simbel. The Great Temple of Abu Simbel. Photo: Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock.com Ramesses II built two colossal temples here—the bigger one, called the Great Temple, is incredible to behold. Four epic statues depicting the pharaoh himself seated on a throne face the entrance. Each statue is twenty meters tall. The façade behind the seated statues is largely blank, but on the upper edge is a frieze depicting an army of baboons worshipping the rising sun. Between the statues lie the entrance surmounted by a bas-relief of the king worshipping the falcon-headed god Ra Horakhty. Inside the great hall of the temple are eight columns, each carved in the resemblance of Ramesses. The spacious interior is decorated from floor to the ceiling with heliographic glorifying Ramesses’s military campaigns. In the middle of the complex is the sacred inner sanctuary, where Ramesses is shown sharing the throne with the three gods—Ra-Horakhty, Amun Ra and Ptah.