The entrance to the sandstone Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel. He reigned from 1279–13 BCE. Photo taken from the deck of the small ship cruising Lake Nasser, which was created when the Nile was dammed at Aswan. The entire temple complex was raised piece by piece to rescue it from rising waters. The rescue was part of an international effort to save the tombs and temples in Nubia from the rising lake.
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Temple of Nefertari, Abu Simbel, Egypt
The Temple of Nefertari is one of two massive 13th-century BCE rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel, a village in Nubia, part of southern Egypt. They are dedicated to Pharaoh Ramses II and his favorite wife, Nefertari, whose giant relief images decorate the of the temple, and commemorate the Pharoah’s victory at the Battle of Kadesh. Neferatri wasn’t granted equal status on the temple dedicated to Ramses II, who had an inflated ego based upon the number of representations of himself he commissioned.
Abu Simbel is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the “Nubian Monuments.” Between 1960 and 1980, through the use of international campaign, 19 temples or monuments were rescued from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The monuments were dismantled, carved up and moved to other sites. Fifteen were reassembled in six groups along the shores of the lake; Egypt donated four temples to countries whose efforts had greatly contributed to the success of the salvage and rescue operation. Between 1964 and 1968, Abu Simbel was cut into blocks, dismantled and relocated to a location 65 meters higher than its original location on the western bank of the Nile River.
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