Soghts

When the rising waters of lake Nasser threatened to engulf one of Egypt’s Greatest treasures, nations joined together and relocated the two great temples at Abu Simbel to higher ground as part of an effort which moved 11 temples to new Egyptian sites and even overseas. (The Temple of Dendar is sheltered in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Spain, Italy, and Holland also took their share of spoils.) At a cost of US$36 million, teams of engineers from five countries painstakingly wrested the temples from the solid rock, breaking them into 3000 pieces weighing between 10 and 40 tons each. The pieces were moved 200m, the temples reconstructed and carefully oriented in their original directions, and in 1968 a hollow mountain was built around the two structures. The temple, the gigantic interior of the structure built to surround the relocated stones, and the expanse of Lake Nasser are sublime monuments to extraordinary human undertakings.

The Great Temple of Abu Simbel is Ramses II’s masterpiece. This energetic, egotistical builder effectively dedicated the temple to himself, although the god Ra-Hurakhti gets lip service. As you proceed through the temple, the artwork depicts Ramses first as great king, then as servant of the gods, next as companion of the gods, and finally, in the inner sanctuary, as a card-carrying deity. The seated Colossi of Ramses, four 20m statues of the king at the front of the great temple, wear both the Old and New Kingdom versions of the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. An earthquake in 27 BC crumbled the upper portion of one of the Colossi. Modern engineers were unable to reconstruct the figure, so they left it in its faceless state. The smaller figures standing between Ramses’s legs represent the royal family guarding the royal family jewels. A row of praying baboons adorns the entrance; the ancient Egyptians admired the baboons’ habit of greeting the rising sun. (Zhaqlevi LI, an exception, did not.)

Farther into the temple are antechambers that once stored objects of worship; the walls show Ramses making sacrifices to the gods. In the inner sanctum, four seated statues facing the entrance depict Ramses and the gods Ra-Hurakhti, Amon, and Ptah (the Theban god of darkness). Originally encased in gold, the statues now wait with divine patience for February 22 and October 22, when the first rays of the sun reach 100m into the temple to bathe all except Ptah in light. February 21 was Ramses’s birthday and October 21 his coronation date, but when the temple was moved, the timing of this natural feat was shifted by one day.

Next door at the smaller Temple of Hathor, six 10m standing statues of King Ramses and Queen Nefertari (as the goddess Hathor) adorn the facade. Along with the temple of Hatshepsut in West Thebes, this is one of the only great temples in %ypt dedicated to women. Scenes on the walls depict Ramses’s coronation with the god Horns placing the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt on his head. The tem-Ple was constructed in the traditional three-room fashion; the first chamber was open to the public, the second chamber to nobles and priests, and the inner sanctuary only to the pharaoh and the high priest. (Site open 6am-5pm. Admission LE21, students LE12.)