Abu Simbel is the site of two ancient temples located in Aswan, Egypt. At least, this is where they’re located now. This isn’t their original location. And how they got here was no easy feat.
The History of Abu Simbel
The ancient Egyptians built the two temples in the 13th Century BC under the reign of king Ramesses II (aka Ramses II). Many scholars believe that the temples commemorated the king’s victory at the Battle of Kadesh; a battle against the Hittite Empire in 1274 BC.
The two temples were originally carved from a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile River. Four huge statues of Ramesses II flank the entrance to the main temple.
This is the entrance to the Great Temple:
The figures are approximately 22 meters high! (Subtlety was not a strong suit of the Egyptian pharaohs).
The temple was dedicated to three gods: Amon Re, Re Horakhte and Ptah. Amon Re and Re Horakhte were both sun gods. Amon Re was the king of the gods and creator of all things. Re Horakhte was associated with the rising and setting sun. The third god, Ptah, was the god of craftsmen as well as the Underworld and rebirth.
Two days out of the year, around February 22 and October 22, (dates vary with the reference, some say it’s on the 21st) the morning sun shines through the entrance of the temple into the inner sanctuary. February 22 was celebrated as Ramesses II’s birthday, while October 22 was celebrated as the date of his coronation.
Every year, thousands of tourists still come out to watch the sun pierce the inner sanctuary. The sunlight illuminates the seated figures of Ramesses II, Amon Re and Re Horakhte inside. By design, the figure of Ptah remains in darkness all year round.
Here is another photo of the statues on the Great Temple for the sake of scale. You can also see smaller figures carved around the large statues. These represented Ramesses II’s children, his favourite wife, Nefertari, and his mother, Queen Ti:
Ramesses II devoted the smaller temple to his wife, Nefertari. It’s dedicated to the goddess Hathor, the sky goddess.
The statues on the Small Temple stand about 10 meters high. That sounds practically diminutive by comparison!
There are six figures on the front of the Small Temple. Four represent Ramesses II and two represent Nefertari. It seems rather self-serving of Ramesses to put so many figures of himself on a temple he supposedly built for his wife! However, the temple is significant for a few reasons.
Ancient Egyptian art and sculpture usually depicted wives on a smaller scale than their husbands. But here, Nefertari’s statues are on the same scale as Ramesses. This indicates her importance and status.
Also, the Small Temple is only the second example of a temple dedicated to a pharoah’s wife. (Akhenaton previously dedicated a temple to his wife, Nefertiti, during his reign in the 14th Century BC).
Eventually the ancient Egyptians abandoned the site, and the Egyptian sands blew in around it. Around 1813 a Swiss researcher named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered Abu Simbel. (Incidentally, he had also rediscovered the site of Petra in Jordan!)
Burckhardt had no luck in uncovering the temple entrance, though. But he did tell his friend, Giovanni Belzoni about his discovery. Belzoni later went to the site in 1817 and excavated the temples.
As time passed, Egypt’s population grew. Eventually the need for electricity prompted the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. The project, while deemed necessary, was controversial. The dam created Lake Nasser. The subsequent rise in the waters flooded several archaeological sites, as well as displaced thousands of people.
The project also threatened the future of Abu Simbel. UNESCO, with support from the Egyptian government, stepped in to save the structure from destruction.
Between 1963 and 1968, an international team of 2000 engineers and craftsmen worked at the site. The workers used bulldozers, pneumatic breakers, compressors and drills to dismantle the temples.
They cut the walls, roof and facade into blocks, using handsaws. (Power saws caused too much damage to the porous sandstone.) Some of the stone blocks weighed up to 30 tons! Then they disassembled the blocks and lifted them to their new location.
The workers then reassembled the blocks on higher ground 200 meters back from the river. At the time, the project cost around $40 million! UNESCO referred to the project as “the most daring engineering project of modern times.”
If you look closely, you can see the lines in between the blocks:
Abu Simbel is definitely one of the most spectacular ancient sites in Egypt. But it’s particularly interesting if you’re into learning about engineering projects on such a large scale.
Getting There:
Address: Aswan Governorate, Egypt
Hours of Operation: Open daily from 9am to 5pm
Travel tip: It gets incredibly hot here during the day. So I would highly recommend getting here as early as possible. And be sure to bring some bottled water with you!
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Hi John, it’s too bad they allowed other archaeological sites to flood with the creation of the dam, but it’s wonderful they decided to preserve this one. 🙂
Hard to believe that they could move something so humongous. And without destroying it. What an interesting story. An incredible Temple too.
Hi Vanessa,
it’s hard to wrap your head around the efforts they took to pick it up and move it, even when you see the photos. And I don’t think it detracts from the grandeur of it at all. Amazing what people can accomplish when they put their minds to it!
Thanks so much! Egypt has a fascinating history, and Abu Simbel is really a remarkable site. The government was smart to preserve it, even though it took quite an effort to move it and re-assemble it.
What an incredibly interesting post! I have always wanted to visit Eygpt and am fascinated by the history. I had no idea that they had moved it to a new location but glad they did to preserve it!
I love reading about the history of a place, not only about the sights. Thank you for introducing a bit of the Egyptian culture in your Abu Simbel guide.