Abu Simbel
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
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THE GREAT AND LESSER TEMPLES AT ABU SIMBEL, NUBIA, EGYPT</HEADER>
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Pharoah Ramses II ('The Great')left Egypt littered with statues of himself. At the farthest southern reaches of his kingdom, on what is now the Egypt/Sudan border he constructed two mammoth temples. The Great Temple has four 22m high seated statues of himself while the lesser temple was dedicated to his favourite wife Nefertari.
The temples carved deep into the solid cliff face stood at a sweeping bend in the Nile, as if to say "you are now entering my kingdom". With the contruction of the Aswan High Dam in the late 1960's the artifical lake ( Lake Nasser) which grew behind the dam would have engulfed these two magnificent temples forever.
Luckily UNESCO <FOOTNOTE>United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation </FOOTNOTE>
came to the rescue and literally cut them out of the cliff and rebuilt them on an artificial hillside 200m higher and about 250m inland. This site has to be the most amazing place to visit in Egpyt. If you arrive by air, as I did, you walk up behind the artificial hill, around it's edge until suddenly the colossal statues of Ramses are there. Although I haven't (yet!)done so you can also sail up to them on Lake Nasser the waters of which are now only about 20m away.
Part of the relocation exercise conducted by UNESCO was the construction of an artifical mountainside into which the temples were inserted. You can visit the interiors of both temples. In the large temple, Ramses' victory over the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh is depicted in heroic outline. Gradually, as the visitor progresses through the temple, Ramses slowly appears mingling with the pantheon of the great egyptian Gods, until ultimately at the innermost sanctum of the temple, Ramses appears seated among three gods - the Pharoah defied.
Ramses' builders had the temple aligned so that twice a year (once on Ramses birthday,and again on the anniversary of his assession to the throne) the rays of the rising sun pierce the full depth of the temple to illuminate the four seated statues.
the modern day builders could not quite emulate the ancient craftsmen - the sun still illuminates the seated deities - but a day later.
After the visit to the temples, the tourist will note a small door to the right of the four massive statues of Ramses. Passing through this doorway takes the visitor inside the artifical mountain built to house the temple. This quiet, echoing air-conditioned chamber is perhaps the oddest sight at Abu Simbel - a site justifiably on the United Nations "World Heritage Site" list.
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THE GREAT AND LESSER TEMPLES AT ABU SIMBEL, NUBIA, EGYPT</HEADER>
<BODY>
Pharoah Ramses II ('The Great')left Egypt littered with statues of himself. At the farthest southern reaches of his kingdom, on what is now the Egypt/Sudan border he constructed two mammoth temples. The Great Temple has four 22m high seated statues of himself while the lesser temple was dedicated to his favourite wife Nefertari.
The temples carved deep into the solid cliff face stood at a sweeping bend in the Nile, as if to say "you are now entering my kingdom". With the contruction of the Aswan High Dam in the late 1960's the artifical lake ( Lake Nasser) which grew behind the dam would have engulfed these two magnificent temples forever.
Luckily UNESCO <FOOTNOTE>United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation </FOOTNOTE>
came to the rescue and literally cut them out of the cliff and rebuilt them on an artificial hillside 200m higher and about 250m inland. This site has to be the most amazing place to visit in Egpyt. If you arrive by air, as I did, you walk up behind the artificial hill, around it's edge until suddenly the colossal statues of Ramses are there. Although I haven't (yet!)done so you can also sail up to them on Lake Nasser the waters of which are now only about 20m away.
Part of the relocation exercise conducted by UNESCO was the construction of an artifical mountainside into which the temples were inserted. You can visit the interiors of both temples. In the large temple, Ramses' victory over the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh is depicted in heroic outline. Gradually, as the visitor progresses through the temple, Ramses slowly appears mingling with the pantheon of the great egyptian Gods, until ultimately at the innermost sanctum of the temple, Ramses appears seated among three gods - the Pharoah defied.
Ramses' builders had the temple aligned so that twice a year (once on Ramses birthday,and again on the anniversary of his assession to the throne) the rays of the rising sun pierce the full depth of the temple to illuminate the four seated statues.
the modern day builders could not quite emulate the ancient craftsmen - the sun still illuminates the seated deities - but a day later.
After the visit to the temples, the tourist will note a small door to the right of the four massive statues of Ramses. Passing through this doorway takes the visitor inside the artifical mountain built to house the temple. This quiet, echoing air-conditioned chamber is perhaps the oddest sight at Abu Simbel - a site justifiably on the United Nations "World Heritage Site" list.
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