Abu Simbel, the great Egyptian temple

When you hear Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind is the pyramids, the oldest of the 7 wonders of the world and the only one that has survived to this day. And the empire of the pharaohs was not only the longest-lived in history. This powerful, technologically advanced civilisation left to mankind many discoveries, from the decimal number system to the modern calendar. And in construction, the pharaohs pioneered the monumental style. Not just in the pyramids.

In Nubia, the southern Egyptian region, there is one of the most famous and beautiful sites in the country - Abu Simbel. It is a striking complex of two temples. They are carved into a solid rock 100 metres high, which was called the sacred mountain even before construction began. The name Abu Simbel came later. These gigantic temples have an amazing history.

Risen from the Sand

Many of Egypt's famous landmarks were hidden by the desert sand some 200 years ago. Today we see them in their former glory, thanks to explorers, archaeologists and treasure hunters.

So in Nubia once from under the sands was visible a single bas-relief of the temple - a male figure in an Egyptian apron, outwardly similar to a measure of bread. And sailors sailing down the Nile called the place "the father of bread" - Abu Simbel. The Swiss researcher of the main river of Egypt Burkhardt in 1813 discovered the heads with crowns of pharaohs covered with sand. Italian archaeologist and treasure hunter Giovanni Belzoni learnt about the discovery. The expedition of this adventurer managed in 1817 to find and excavate first 1 temple, then the whole complex. To the disappointment of the discoverer, there was no gold or jewellery in it.

After Belzoni the desert sands began to be overcome by numerous travellers, among them the famous Egyptologists François Champollion, Ippolito Rosellini and the legendary Heinrich Schliemann. All of them were keen to see the temples built by the best of Egypt's pharaohs. There is a stele at Abu Simbel that tells the story of its discovery in 1813.

Today, this postcard symbol has become one of the most visited sites in Egypt, despite its remoteness from holiday destinations. The temple complex is impressive and memorable forever. So is its history. Abu Simbel was saved twice - from the sands and from the water. And the miracle of the second rescue entered the annals of world history. And Abu Simbel was also built twice - in the 13th century BC and in the 20th century, after its rescue. A trip to these temples makes every traveller proud.

Equal among the gods

Who was the creator of the greatest temple complex in history, Abu Simbel? Ramses II is the one who revived Egypt's former glory and did more for the prosperity of the empire than any other known pharaoh. He came to the throne as a young man and ruled Egypt for over 66 years, a long and successful reign. It is the longest reign in the country's history.

Ramses led a number of military campaigns against neighbouring kingdoms, always successful. The pharaoh's troops displayed military might from his southern border, Nubia, to Syria. At the zenith of his reign, in 1274 BC, the young pharaoh won one of the greatest battles of the Bronze Age, the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittite kingdom. It was the first battle in the history of mankind, information about which was preserved both by the winners and the defeated. And also Ramses remained in the world history the first who concluded a peace treaty. All with the same Hittites. And the treaty was valid until the very end of the existence of the Hittite power.

Military victories promoted development of economy and prosperity of Egypt. The reign of Ramses II in Egyptian history was called the Golden Age. Pharaohs in general were considered sons of the god Ra, and successors of the gods. Ramses II considered himself not only the son of the god Ra, but also an equal among the other gods. Even his tomb in the Valley of the Kings is the largest. The grounds were sufficient. And he embodied the idea of his own deification in the great temple of Abu Simbel.

Nicknamed the Builder

The ruler not only fought but also built, for which Ramses was popularly nicknamed the Builder. He:

• founded the new capital Per-Ramses, it is famous for its halls of lapis lazuli and turquoise and its beautiful balconies

• reconstructed the Luxor Temple

• built in Luxor the famous hypostyle hall in the Karnak Temple

• erected temples at Abydos, Memphis, and Thebes

• built the largest tomb for his sons

• created at least 50 colossi across the country in memory of himself

• built the Ramesseum, one of the largest memorial temples.

In short, Ramses II turned the country into a major construction site. Most of these structures were dedicated to the gods, today they are all considered the greatest masterpieces of ancient Egyptian architecture. But the main monument to Ramses II himself and his favourite wife Nefertari was the Abu Simbel temple complex.

Ramses II considered the victory over the Hittites as the work of a lifetime and decided to give thanks to the gods by building a temple. He chose the sacred mountain in Nubia, on the southern border of the kingdom, as the place of construction. The future temple was to become a symbol of victory, the embodiment of the rule of Ramses II. Well visible from the border in the neighbouring state, Abu Simbel became a demonstration to enemies of Egypt's greatness.

The pharaoh decided not to build the temple out of stone, but to carve it directly into the sacred mountain. The carving in the rock of fine-grained sandstone was labour-intensive and took 20 years. The construction turned out to be monumental - 30 metres high and 35 metres long. Nearby they built a small temple in honour of the favourite wife of the pharaoh Nefertari. This is how the Abu Simbel temple complex came into being.

Cave temples, in rocks and cliffs, appeared precisely in the era of Ramses II. Their construction became fashionable. But the grandiose Abu Simbel surpasses all similar structures.

The statues of the great temple are a recognisable symbol of Egypt

Photo: AussieActive. Source: Unsplash

At the entrance to the temple sit 4 huge statues. Three of the statues are of the gods Ra-Horakhti, Amon and Ptah, they were considered by the ruler to be his patrons. The fourth is the statue of Ramses II, as we remember, he equated himself to the gods and decided to consolidate this in his lifetime. Therefore, the faces of the 3 colossi have a clear portrait resemblance to the face of the statue of the king. It is amazing how with such enormous size it was possible to achieve this resemblance. The double crowns on the heads of the sculptures emphasise the equality of the characters.

The 20-metre-high sculptures occupy the entire facade of the temple and face the rising sun. The sculptures look particularly impressive at dawn, when the sandstone is coloured bright brown.

Beneath the giants are smaller statues. They depict the defeated enemies of Pharaoh - Libyans, Nubians, Hittites. Above the statues are carved stone baboons praying to the rising sun. At the feet of the colossi in perfect proportion are sculptures of Nefertari's wife, as well as the mother and children of Ramses II.

The entrance to the great temple of Abu Simbel is the most publicised depiction of one of Egypt's major Egyptian landmarks and one of the country's 3 symbols, on a par with the Sphinx and the Pyramid of Cheops.

The temple is a history textbook for ancient Egyptian students

Photo: atlantistours. Source: Pixabay

This is exactly what you could call the interior of a large temple. Inside the array, there are 4 halls with a triangular layout adopted in ancient Egypt and a total length of over 60 metres. The hall where 8 statues of Ramses II in the image of Osiris, the god of rebirth, were intended for everyone. The next hall was for the nobility only. The third hall could be used by the priests, and the fourth hall was created for the ruler and his family. Like the facade of the temple, it is decorated with the same 4 sculptures, only smaller.

The Great Hall with 8 monuments of the pharaoh occupies an area of 288 square metres, its ceiling depicts the sun, the personification of powerful royalty. Below, a cobra is clearly visible, symbolising the imminence of punishment for the Pharaoh's betrayal. The walls are covered with bas-reliefs, frescoes and sacred texts. These are accounts of significant events in the life of Ramses II, such as:

• the great victory at Kadesh

• the council of war in the king's tent

• preparation of the Egyptians for battle

• interrogation of Hittite spies

• several episodes of the battle

• the victorious pharaoh towers over his opponent.

There are other images, mostly of military events. In short, the main points of the history of the reign of Ramses II can be studied in a large temple.

The play of light

Natural builders and good mathematicians, the Egyptians designed the Abu Simbel temple in an unusual way. Twice a year, exactly at 5.58 am, the rays of the rising sun penetrate all 4 halls of the temple and reach the statues in the last hall. These dates - 21 February and 21 October - fall on the birthday of Ramses II and the day of the Pharaoh's accession to the throne.

What follows is an invariable natural ritual. For the first six minutes, a ray of sunlight illuminates the statues of Amon and Ra-Khorakhti. Then it passes to the statue of Ramses and lingers for 12 minutes. During these minutes it seems that the face of the pharaoh lights up with a smile. Moreover, the countenance of the god Ptah, lord of the underworld and lover of darkness, is never illuminated.

After that, the sunbeam disappears, and the stone gods wait for six whole months for everything to happen again. During these 2 days, thousands of people come to Abu Simbel to see with their own eyes the incredible optical effect obtained thanks to the finest calculations of Egyptian priests and stargazers.

The Small Temple of Abu Simbel

Photo: AXP Photography. Source: Unsplash

Ramses II had 200 wives and concubines. But only Nefertari already in the first year of his reign he called the main queen. Her beauty put her in a row with such famous Egyptians as Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Becoming the wife of young Ramses, she gave him 8 children and all her life remained a favourite.

In honour of the wife and was built a small temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor. Its facade is decorated with 6 monumental sculptures 11 metres high. On the sides of the entrance there are 2 statues of the pharaoh and one statue of his wife. Both of them - Nefertari and the ruler himself - are of the same height. In Egypt it was considered a rare honour for wives of any class. So was being immortalised in a temple on an equal footing with her husband.

Nefertari herself is depicted as the goddess Hathor. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Hathor was considered one of the main and revered goddesses, patroness of love, motherhood, fertility and beauty.

The temple is also carved into the sandstone rock. It is more graceful. It consists of a hall, whose columns are crowned with the image of the goddess Hathor, and a small sanctuary with three niches. Inside the temple, coloured carved bas-reliefs depict offerings to the gods as well as the ruler himself paying homage to his beloved Nefertari. The images are very beautiful, as is the whole temple. There is less grandeur here, but more cosiness. And on one of the columns of the temple by order of Ramses carved a dedication to the one "for whose sake the sun shines".

The dam had to be built

The southern border city of Aswan lies at the first of the 7 rapids which, in the form of granite ridges, cross the course of the Nile. At all times, the main Egyptian river used to overflow every summer, flooding agricultural land. In order not to depend on the floods of the Nile, the country needed a dam.

The first, unsuccessful, attempt to create a dam dates back to the 11th century. At the beginning of the last century, British engineers decided to take control of the Nile's floods. They built a dam near Aswan, which has survived to this day. But it did not solve the problem. Only in 1960 began the construction of a grandiose dam, which exists to this day.

The dam of Aswan is called the pyramid of the 20th century: its construction took so much sand, clay, stones and concrete that it was possible to erect 17 pyramids of Cheops. Thanks to the construction of the dam:

• stopped flooding

• a network of irrigation canals for agriculture was formed

• the largest hydraulic engineering system of structures appeared, which gave an impetus to the development of the country's economy.

Today, Aswan is known for the largest hydropower plant in Africa - it supplies a quarter of the electricity needs of Egypt's 100 million people.

Another result of the Aswan Dam was the creation of the huge Lake Nasser, with an area of 5,250 square kilometres and a maximum width of 40 kilometres. The problems of flooding were solved. But with the advent of the reservoir, other, no less massive ones arose. A new city had to be built to resettle residents of the flooded areas. The main thing was that ancient Egyptian monuments of world importance, including Abu Simbel, were flooded. It was decided to relocate the temples to a safe distance in a similar environment.

The miracle of the rescue of the Abu Simbel temples

The task seemed impossible. The world community under the auspices of UNESCO, whose World Heritage List included the temples, became involved in saving the temples.

The dismantling of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964. Steel scaffolding was erected inside each temple, then the sculptures were sawed down (by hand!). The result was 1050 blocks of 30 tonnes each. The sawing was done in such a way that the damage to the temple was minimal. This work went on day and night for 9 months. The internal slabs (walls and ceilings) were carried on a reinforced concrete frame.

At the same time, a sandstone cliff was reconstructed 180 metres north-west of the original site. The next stage was no less labour-intensive. It was necessary to assemble the temples anew, and in such a way as Pharaoh intended - so that at a certain time the sun rays shone on the faces of the gods.

The incredibly painstaking job of skilfully caulking 10 kilometres of seams was done perfectly. The parts of the temples are assembled so neatly that it is impossible to determine where they are joined. The reconstruction can be called flawless.

The other statues surrounding the two temples have also been moved and placed in their respective places. Among them is a stele telling the story of a ritual festival called heb-sed. It was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Pharaoh's reign.

The grand transfer of the world's heritage lasted four years. It became UNESCO's most expensive project - $42 million. And the rescue operation itself was called the Egyptian Miracle. If Abu Simbel had not been saved, it would have lived only in the history books.

Interesting and important:

• saving the Abu Simbel temples was the first UNESCO project that started its famous "World Heritage List". The experience gained has enabled the organisation to preserve hundreds of other historic sites

• It is not only the Abu Simbel complex that has been relocated. Similarly, but faster and less costly, the Temple of Isis moved. It was located on the island of Philae, now it is on the island of Agilkia

• relocated the ancient temple of Calabsha, built during Roman rule in Egypt

• also relocated many small, scattered cultural monuments.

Abu Simbel - how to get there

Photo: KHGraf. Source: Pixabay

Built 33 centuries ago, survived the second birth, Abu Simbel pleases with its majestic beauty, impresses not only with the size of the statues, but also with the genius of ancient Egyptian engineers.

One of Egypt's most inaccessible sights is located near the very border with Sudan. The nearest city is Aswan, 280 kilometres away. But Abu Simbel is worthy of a long, 3-4-hour trip across the desert. In front of the temple is never empty, there are always a lot of excursionists. Staying alone with the majestic temple will not work - this is the fate of all world-famous places.

Bus is the most affordable mode of transport, but it runs from Aswan only once a day. It is possible to spend the night in the nearest settlement to the Abu Simbel complex, there are several hotels there, including 4* category. The journey will not seem exhausting - the southern parts of Egypt are like a desert with oases. Of course, these green islands with vegetation and palm trees appear only where channels from the Nile are made. But they really decorate the trip. And there is also an opportunity to see real mirages: among golden sands and desert mountains suddenly appears a sea or a lake. Emotions are incredible!

Holiday in the hotel can be combined with a boat trip on Lake Nasser or on foot - in its vicinity. After a date with eternity in the grandiose, a little overwhelming in its grandeur Abu Simbel, it is pleasant to visit a beautiful space of peace and tranquility, admire the wildlife and even fish.

The hotel is located in the centre of Nasser Lake.

As more and more people want to come to Abu Simbel and see its incredible temples every year, other options for travelling there have emerged.

So, if tourists have already made it to Aswan, there are options:

• travelling by taxi, then it is possible to fit into one day. The price is worth haggling with the driver

• there has been a regular air service from Aswan for several years. The flight takes about 50 minutes

• there are charter boat trips on Lake Nasser

• you can go on a full cruise on a comfortable motorboat on the reservoir for a few days with a stopover in Abu Simbel.

Whichever way you get to this great architectural complex, the fatigue of the trip will pass quickly and the temples will be remembered for a lifetime.