Abu Simbel, Amazing Nubian Monuments near Aswan, Egypt

I thought I'd seen the best of the best. What can top the Pyramids of Giza? The legendary Sphinx? Zoser's Step Pyramid? The pyramid texts inside Teti?

What single experience could approach the claustrophobic bliss of ascending the narrow passageways inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops and emerging into the vaulted Great Gallery, the enormous and empty King's Chamber?

facade of the Great Temple

The answer: Abu Simbel. Located in the extreme south of Egypt (50km [31m] north of the Sudanese border), Abu Simbel is the most spectacular ancient Egyptian monument that I've visited so far.

For the Love of Gods (Egotism Too)
Built around 1200 BC by Ramses II, the Great Temple of Abu Simbel is an enormous monument carved into the face of a mountain on the west bank of the Nile. Built in supposed honor of the gods Amun, Ptah, and Ra-Hurakhti, the temple is more a tribute to the pharaoh himself. Four colossal statues (22m [72ft] in height) of Ramses adorn the temple's façade, their serene, stoic faces greeting the rising sun each morning.

An earthquake in 27 BC cracked the head off one of the statues, and it lies in the sand in front of the monument. Towering over the shoulders of most visitors, this broken head provides a superb sense of the statues' scale.

giant Ramses pillars support the ceiling of the Great Temple

Pillared Halls, Storerooms, and a Sacred Sanctuary
Eight additional statues of Ramses form the giant pillars of the Great Hypostyle Hall, directly inside the main entrance. The walls in this hall are adorned with deeply-carved, larger-than-life bas-reliefs depicting a series of military victories. In one scene Ramses holds a great cluster of severed enemy heads.

The lighting in this room – and the whole temple – is superb: concealed bulbs on the floor throw soft, warm light up onto the bas-reliefs, accentuating their deep lines and fading colors.

superbly-lit storeroom

Six long, narrow, low-ceilinged storerooms stem off the Great Hypostyle Hall. The walls in these rooms are covered with smaller, gentler scenes depicting Ramses making sacrifices to the gods.

Occupying the innermost chamber of the temple are life-sized statues of Ramses and three gods – Amun, Ptah, and Ra-Hurakhti. Once encased in gold, the crumbled remains of these statues wait silently each year for February 22 and October 22 (Ramses' birthday and coronation day), when the sun's first rays penetrate the depths of the temple and illuminate all but Ptah, god of darkness.

Much Love for His Nubian Queen

Hathor Temple entrance

Next door to the Great Temple is the smaller but no less magnificent Hathor Temple, dedicated to Nefertari, Ramses' favorite wife. One of the few Egyptian temples dedicated to a woman, Hathor is also carved out of the solid rock face of a mountain. Six 10m (33ft) statues – four of Ramses and two of Nefertari – greet visitors at the temple's entrance.

The inner columns and walls of the temple feature beautifully cut and painted bas-reliefs of Nefertari standing before the gods, honoring her husband, and being attended to by servants. Not one to stay out of the limelight for long, Ramses also presides over military victories in a few scenes.

I Can Move, Move, Move Any Mountain
Aside from their beauty and grandeur, one of the most interesting things about the temples of Abu Simbel is that they're not supposed to be there in the first place.

To regulate the flow of the Nile, control flooding, increase the amount of cultivable land, and provide the country with tremendous amounts of hydroelectric power, Egypt (along with Soviet funding and designs) began construction of the monumental High Dam in 1960. This dam would create the biggest man-made lake in the world – Lake Nassir – and, in the process, rob Upper Egypt of many ancient monuments.

The dismantling and relocation of Abu Simbel was the crowning achievement of the multi-national, UNESCO-led effort to save Nubia's antiquities. Because they were hewn out of single pieces of stone, the temples had to be sawed into more than 3,000 10-40 ton blocks. The blocks were then moved away from the riverbank to higher ground where a specially-built artificial mountain had been constructed.

bas-relief of Ramses II making a sacrifice to the gods

In all, the operation took four years and $40 million to complete.

A sign at the entrance of the Great Temple commemorates the achievement. "Through this restoration of the past," it reads, "we have indeed helped to build the future of mankind."

One can only hope that the future of mankind can approach the beauty and complexity of this monument built on the banks of the Nile more than 3,200 years ago.