ABU SIMBEL – LAKE NASSER NEARLY DROWNS RAMESES THE GREAT

The Abu Simbel temples are two massive carved rock temples in Nubia, situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 230 kilometers as the crow flies southwest of Aswan. Today they are among the best known monuments in all of Egypt.  The complex is the most southern portion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments."

The physically imposing twin temples were originally carved out of a sandstone massif adjacent to the Nile River during the reign of Pharaoh Rameses II as a monument to himself and his queen Nefertari.  It was intended to commemorate among other achievements his claimed victory at the Battle of Kadesh over the Hittites of present day Syria.

Construction of the temple complex started in approximately 1264 BC and lasted for nearly 20 years. Known as the "Temple of Rameses, Beloved By Amun" it was one of six rock temples erected in Nubia during the 66 year reign of Rameses The Great. Their purpose was to provide an obvious show of Egyptian might and to buttress the status of Egyptian gods (including Rameses as a living god) in the region.

Partly due to their isolation deep into Nubia, the temples fell into disuse and eventually became obscured by sand. The temples were forgotten until 1813, when Swiss archeologist Jean-Louis Burckhardt found the top facade of the main temple (easily identified by its series of 22 sacred baboons lining its tier). Burckhardt talked about his discovery with Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, who travelled to the site, but was unable to access the temple itself. Belzoni returned in 1817, this time succeeding in attempts to enter the complex.

Tour guides today intimate the name "Abu Simbel" was that of a young local boy who guided these early explorers to the location of the buried temple which he had seen from time to time in the shifting sands – very much in the same manner Machu Picchu was discovered nearly 100 years later in Peru. Eventually, they named the complex after him.

However, the temples were threatened with being lost a second time – on this occasion from submersion by water due to the rising of Lake Nasser, forming downstream in Aswan after construction began on the Aswan High Dam in the sixties.  Taking a clue from the solution begun at the Temple of Philae in Aswan, continuously threatened by Nile flooding from 1902 on, relocation was planned to avoid a complete loss of the twin structures.

In 1959 an international donations campaign to save the monuments began.  The actual salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964 with a multinational team of archeologists, engineers and skilled heavy equipment operators working together under a UNESCO rescue banner.  A price tag of $40 million was the cost of the operation.

Between 1964 and 1965, a cofferdam was built around the temple to protect it from rising waters. Then the entire site was carefully measured, numbered, cut into 1042 large blocks (up to 30 tons), dismantled, lifted and reassembled in a new location on a high bluff 65 meters higher and 200 meters back from the river.  The operation – like the transplantation of The Temple of Isis further north -- was probably the greatest feat of archaeological engineering in history.  It was completed in May of 1968.

My visit began with an early morning departure from Aswan by bus in a guarded convoy.  This was necessary due to the ongoing threat of Islamic jihadist activity in the area. This stemmed primarily from an attack on September 17, 1997 in which 62 innocents were killed at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor.  Some visitors also arrive by plane, at an airfield that was specially constructed for Abu Simbel.

The reconstructed complex – now located on a skillfully engineered artificial hilltop dome high above the river -- consists of two spectacular temples. The larger one is dedicated to Ra-Harakhty, Ptah, and Amun, Egypt’s three most important deities at the time.  Its focal point is four colossal statues of Rameses II in its facade. The smaller temple (100 meters removed) is dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Nefertari, Rameses' primary wife.

Rameses (The Great) is personified throughout wearing the red and white double crown symbolizing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.  By way of explanation, Upper being the Nubia region because it is located in the “upriver” portion of the Nile, and Lower being the area loosely from Aswan north due to it being the “downstream” or lower portion of the Nile.  The statue of him just to the left of the temple entrance was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part intact. The head and torso can still be seen lying at its feet.

Also located on the façade next to Rameses’ legs are other statues.  None of them reach any higher than the knees of the pharaoh. These depict Nefertari, Ramses’ mother Queen Mut-Tuy, his first two sons, and first six daughters (he had over 150 children total).  Another memorable feature of the facade is a stelae which records the marriage of Rameses with a Hittite princess, sealing an armistice not decided on the battlefield and capping history’s first peace treaty in 1258 BC.

The inner part of the temple may be more interesting than the commanding exterior, though by much subtler means.  It has the same narrowing fulcrum-type layout that most ancient Egyptian temples follow, with rooms decreasing in size as one proceeds the 55 meter length from entrance to sanctuary.  This involves a central hippostolic hall, and multiple side chambers.  Once again Rameses is featured, and tied frequently to Osiris, god of the underworld.

Many relief carvings on the wall represent Rameses in his royal garb, or in action against his enemies in Libya, Nubia, and Syria.  Tourists are not supposed to take photos in the interior of the temple.  Due to the quality, lighting, preservation, and beauty of both the carvings and statuary however it is too much a temptation to avoid trying to sneak one or two in.  I am not the only one to fall prey to this impulse.

My camera was confiscated in the process of taking one of these surreptitious shots.  The temple guards actually hope to nab you in the act.  They can then make vague threats re:  huge fines and leverage most tourists for an out of pocket settlement. Mine cost about $8.

From the hippostolic hall, visitors enter a second hall, which has four pillars decorated with beautiful scenes illustrating offerings to the gods. There are depictions of Rameses and Nefertari with sacred boats directed to Amun and Ra-Harakhti. This hall gives access to a cross passageway in the middle which offers entrance to the sanctuary. Here on a black wall, are rock-cut sculptures of four seated deities: the living god Rameses and the gods Amun Ra, Ptah, and Ra-Horakhty.

It is believed that the axis of the temple was positioned by Rameses’ architects in such a way that on October 22 and February 22, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate its sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah (the god of the underworld, who always remained in the dark). Visitors have traditionally gathered at Abu Simbel to witness this unique sight on October 21 and February 21.

One female visitor in 1874 said of this phenomena: “In the east, the sun comes up above the tops of the hills.  Its light enters the temple, and like an arrow it strikes the darkness inside.  Then it reaches the sanctuary and at last it falls on the altar.  It looks like fire from heaven.”

However … due to the moving of the temple and/or the accumulated drift of the Tropic of Cancer during the past 3,280 years, it is widely believed that each of these two events has moved one day closer to the Solstice, which would now be occurring on October 22 and February 20 (60 days before and 60 days after the Solstice, respectively).   This is affirmed by calculations based on inscriptions onsite found by Egyptologists.

The Temple of Hathor (really Temple of Nefertari), also known as the “Small Temple,” was built about one hundred meters northeast of the temple of Rameses and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Rameses’Queen, Nefertari. This was in fact the second time in ancient Egyptian chronicles that a temple was dedicated to a queen – the first being to the aforementioned Hatshepsut in her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor.

The rock-cut facade is notable in that it illustrates for the only time in the history of Egyptian art or sculpture the Pharaoh and his Queen being of the same height and size.  As in the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, there are small statues of princes and princesses next to the royals.  The interior plan of the Small Temple is a simplified version of that of the Great Temple.

At one place or another inside the Small Temple, Nefertari is shown consorting with the gods Horus, Khnum, Khonsu, Thoth, and the goddesses Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut, Satis and Taweret.  The interior pillar summit caps (capitals) each bear a carving of the face of the goddess Hathor – wife of the God Horus, and goddess of music and dance.  Hathor is also illustrated oddly in two clear bas-reliefs carvings of the king and Nefertari presenting papyrus plants to her, depicted as a cow on a boat sailing in a marshy thicket of papyrus.

The interior of the Small Temple is not as memorable to me as the Great Temple.  One of the reasons for that is, only as I was leaving Rameses’ larger monument did a very diligent guard return my camera.  He then was very careful to enthusiastically point out my impending arrival to tour guides and the guards at the adjacent smaller temple.  Despite a tactical delay on my part, by the time I was ready to walk in, they were fully aware I’d been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.   No extra-curricular photos this go-round!