Abu Simbel Temple

Here it is: The Sun Temple of Ramesses II! It is one of the most impressive temples I saw in Egypt.

Ramses II, son of king Sethi I, reigned 67 years (1290-1224 BC). He was famous for the amount of wives and children he had; more than 6 wives, and more than 100 children. You may think he didn't have time for anything else. This is not the case; he was a military strategist and a builder.

Some of the monuments constructed during his reign are: the temples of Karnak(Luxor), The Ramesseum (on the West Bank near Luxor) and the monumental temples of Abu Simbel. He also commanded his troops in many glorious battles, the most famous of them is the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites, with whose king he signed the world's first peace treaty in 1280 BC.

 Abu Simbel, Abu Simbel Temple, Ramses II statues

In the dictionaries' entry for egotistic there should be a picture of Ramses II. This was not his only defect though, he is also one of the most megalomaniac celebrities of all times.

Officially, he dedicated this temple to the triad Amon-Ra, Ptah and Ra-Harakhte. The main purpose to erect this temple was to glorify himself, though.

Four colossal statues of the great pharaoh more than 65 feet high (20 meters high) take up almost all the space of the 108 feet high and 125 feet wide facade. Smaller size statues of his wives, sons and daughters appear beside his legs.

ABU SIMBEL BY MARIE PARSONS

Perhaps after the Giza pyramids, or coincident with them, the great temple of Abu Simbel presents the most familiar image of ancient Egypt to the modern traveler and reader. When the conservation efforts to preserve the temple from the soon-to be built High Aswan Dam and its rising waters were begun in the 1960s, images of the colossal statues filled newspapers and books. The temples were dismantled and relocated in 1968 on the desert plateau, 200 feet above and 600 feet west of their original location.

Abu Simbel lies south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile, 180 miles south of the First Cataract in what was Nubia. The site was known as Meha in ancient times and was first documented in the 18th Dynasty, when Ay and Horemheb had rock-cut chapels hewn in the hills to the south.

Ramesses II, called "the Great," built seven rock-cut temples in Nubia. The rock-cut temple of Ramesses II on the west bank of the Nile at Abu Simbel is the greatest of these. This temple was not seen by Europeans until J.J. Burckhardt discovered them in 1813.

The temple, called Hwt Ramesses Meryamun, the "Temple of Ramesses, beloved of Amun," was begun fairly early in Ramesses’ long reign, commissioned some time after his fifth regnal year, but not completed until his 35th regnal year. The massive facade of the main temple is dominated by the four seated colossal statues of Ramesses. These familiar representations are of Ramesses II himself. Each statue, 67 feet high, is seated on a throne and wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Each is taller than the famed Memnon Colossus at Thebes, and all are sculpted directly from the rock face. The thrones are decorated on their sides with Nile gods symbolically uniting Egypt.

Burckhardt said of the first face on the left that it "was the most expressive, youthful countenance, approaching nearer to the Grecian model of beauty than that of any ancient Egyptian figure I have seen."

An ancient earthquake damaged the statues. One is demolished from the waist up.

Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world

Not only are the two temples at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the High Dam, the Egyptian Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched a world wide appeal. During the salvage operation which began in 1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain. Most of the joins in the stone have now been filled by antiquity experts, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks were cut. You can also go inside the man made dome and see an exhibition of photographs showing the different stages of the massive removal project.

Abu Simbel was first reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over the mountain and only saw the facade of the great temple as he was preparing to leave that area via the Nile. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte, and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must see for Victorians visiting Egypt, even though it required a trip up the Nile, and often they were covered deeply in sand, as they were when Burckhardt found them.

Temple Dedicated to Hathor at Abu Simbel

Temple Dedicated to Hathor at Abu Simbel

The Temple of Hathor at Abu Simbel was built by Ramesses II (c.1279-1213 B.C.E.) to honor both Hathor as the goddess of love/music and his wife Nefertari as a deified queen. The facade, resembling a pylon, has six standing colossal (over 33 feet/10 meters high) statues. On each side of the entrance, two statues of Ramesses flank one of Nefertari dressed as Hathor. The colossal statues are, in turn, flanked by smaller statues of their children.

Abu Simbel - The Great Temple of Ramesses

Abu Simbel - The Great Temple of Ramesses II

Abu Simbel is a temple built by Ramesses II (c.1279-1213 B.C.E.) in ancient Nubia, where he wished to demonstrate his power and his divine nature. Four colossal (65 feet/20 meters high) statues of him sit in pairs flanking the entrance. The head and torso of the statue to the left of the entrance fell during ancient times, probably the result of an earthquake. This temple faces the east, and Re-Horakhty, one manifestation of the sun god, is shown inside the niche directly above the entrance. The alignment of the temple is such that twice a year the sun's rays reach into the innermost sanctuary to illuminate the seated statues of Ptah, Amun-Re, Ramesses II, and Re-Horakhty.

The temple was cut out of the sandstone cliffs above the Nile River in an area near the Second Cataract. When the High Dam was being constructed in the early 1960s, international cooperation assembled funds and technical expertise to move this temple to higher ground so that it would not be inundated by the waters of Lake Nasser.