Abu Simbel Temples are situated 280 km to the
south of Aswan and close to the Sudanese border. The
two temple were built more than 3250 years ago by one
of the greatest and most famous Pharaoh Ramses II, who
reigned for 67 years during the 13th century BC (19th
Dynasty). The temples were built at a site on the west
bank of the Nile south of Aswan in the land of Nubia,
known today as Abu Simbel. Because of their remote
location near the Sudanese border in southern Egypt,
the temples were unknown until their rediscovery in
1813. They were first explored in 1817 by the
Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni.
The great temple of Ra-Horakhate was originally
dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Ra and Ra-Horakhate but
its main purpose was to glorify the Great Ramses II
and impress and scare off raiding Nubians from the
South. It is also here that the "miracle of the sun"
took place twice a year. At exactly 5:58 am on 21st of
February and 21 of October, the first rays of the
morning sun penetrate the
entire length of the temple-cave to illuminate the
back wall of the innermost shrine and the statues of
Amon-Ra, Ramses II and Ra-Horakhate, never striking
Ptah, the god of darkness.
The building of this awe-inspiring and most
beautiful temple didn't only pose a challenge to
Ramses' engineers, who carved it from a single piece
of rock in the middle of the Nubian desert, but later
it challenged the engineers of the world community as
well. In 1965, UNESCO undertook the fascinating
salvage operations of this temple. The two temples
were completely dug inside the rocky mountain.
The salvage actually
took place in 6 phases: Removing 300000 tons of rocks
surrounding the temples, cutting the temple into 1036
blocks, and enumerating each one of them, transferring
the 1050 tons of enumerated blocks to another site, 90
metres above the original level, reconstruction of the
temples, and finally reconstruction of the mountain
surrounding the temples. The reconstruction is nearly
perfect, and every year on 22 February and 22 October
, a day later than originally planned , the sun rays
reach the sanctuary to revive the "miracle of the
sun".
The great temple of Ra-Horakhate was cut into
the face of the cliff, before which is a rock-cut
terrace. The temple is approached across this terrace
up a flight of steps with an inclined plane in the
middle, and enclosed on either side by a balustrade
behind which stood a row of hawks and statues of
Ramses in various forms.
The rock-cut façade of the temple represents
the front of a pylon in front of which are four
colossal seated figures of Ramses 20m high. This
facade is 38 metres wide, and 65 metres high. Below
the seat of one of the colossal statues of Ramses II,
is the sunk relief of the god Hapy, the
personification of the Nile flood. At the top of the
pylon, above the cornice, is a row of baboons, who, as
Watchers of the Dawn, are shown with their hands
raised in adoration of the rising sun. The actual
interior of the temple is inside the cliff in the form
of a man-made cave cut out of the living rock. Inside
is the hypostyle hall, leading to the sanctuary,
flanked with 10 metre high Osirid Statues of Ramses.
The walls of the temple are decorated with fine
reliefs of Ramses' campaigns in Syria and Nubia,
played up for propaganda purposes.
The smaller temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel was
built by Ramses II as well, to honor both Hathor as
the goddess of love and music and his wife Nefertari
as the deified queen. Never before on Egypt had the
wife of a pharaoh been depicted on the façade of a
temple. The façade, resembling a pylon, has six
standing colossal, 10 metre high statues. On each side
of the entrance, two statues of Ramses flank one of
Nefertari dressed as Hathor. The colossal statues are,
in turn, flanked by smaller statues of their children.
The hypostyle hall contains reliefs of the beautiful
Nefertari watching Ramses conquering his enemies, and
of the royal couple in front of the gods. The
sanctuary contains a ruined cow statue of Hathor and
is decorated with reliefs of Nefertari offering
incense to Mut and Hathor, and of Ramses adoring
himself and his wife.
The temples can be reached by road, air or
boat. Arrival by boat is achieved by cruising from the
Aswan High Dam on a beautiful 3-day Lake Nasser
cruise.
