Abu Simbel, site of two temples built by the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 BCE), now located in Aswan (governorate) about 240 km (150 mi) southwest of Aswan and near the border with Sudan., southern Egypt. In ancient times the area was at the southern frontier of pharaonic Egypt, facing Nubia. The four colossal statues of Ramses in front of the main temple are spectacular examples of ancient Egyptian art. By means of a complex engineering feat in the 1960s, the temples were salvaged from the rising waters of the Nile River caused by erection of the Aswan High Dam.
Carved out of a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile, south of Korosko, the temples were unknown to the outside world until their rediscovery in 1813 by the Swiss researcher Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. They were first explored in 1817 by the early Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni.
In the past, Abu Simbel was located on the west bank of the Nile between the first and second Cataracts of the Nile. Cataracts are rapids caused by boulders or rock sills; they were only passable with difficulty by Nile ship traffic, especially at baseflow. Today both cataracts near Aswan and Wadi Halfa are covered by Lake Nasser, which is named after Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian president from 1954 to 1970. At the time of Ramses II, the southern border of the realm of the Pharaohs was located near the two cataracts. The construction of the Abu Simbel temple compound there was meant to demonstrate the power and eternal supremacy of Egypt with respect to the tributary Nubia.
The new dam flooded all of Lower Nubia, the inhabitants became homeless and were mostly resettled in the areas of Aswan and Kom Ombo. Only in Abu Simbel was a new village developed with a hotel and airport. Due to a lack of agricultural land the entire population now depends on tourism. Since the turn of the millennium, various projects are underway with the goal of making the elevated desert regions fertile using water from the lake.
The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which took about twenty years to build, was completed around year 24 of the reign of Ramesses the Great (which corresponds to 1265 BC). It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Ramesses himself. It is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned during the reign of Ramesses II, and one of the most beautiful in Egypt. The single entrance is flanked by four colossal, 20 m (66 ft) statues, each representing Ramesses II seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the immediate left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, causing the head and torso to fall away; these fallen pieces were not restored to the statue during the relocation but placed at the statue's feet in the positions originally found. Next to Ramesses's legs are a number of other, smaller statues, none higher than the knees of the pharaoh, depicting: his chief wife, Nefertari Meritmut; his queen mother Mut-Tuy; his first two sons, Amun-her-khepeshef and Ramesses B; and his first six daughters: Bintanath, Baketmut, Nefertari, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Isetnofret.
Graffiti inscribed on the southern pair by Greek mercenaries serving Egypt in the 6th century BCE have provided important evidence of the early history of the Greek alphabet. The temple itself, dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte, consists of three consecutive halls extending 185 feet (56 metres) into the cliff, decorated with more Osirid statues of the king and with painted scenes of his purported victory at the Battle of Kadesh. On two days of the year (about February 22 and October 22), the first rays of the morning sun penetrate the whole length of the temple and illuminate the shrine in its innermost sanctuary.
Just to the north of the main temple is a smaller one, dedicated to Nefertari for the worship of the goddess Hathor and adorned with 35-foot (10.5-metre) statues of the king and queen.
In the mid-20th century, when the reservoir that was created by the construction of the nearby Aswan High Dam threatened to submerge Abu Simbel, UNESCO and the Egyptian government sponsored a project to save the site. An informational and fund-raising campaign was initiated by UNESCO in 1959. Between 1963 and 1968 a workforce and an international team of engineers and scientists, supported by funds from more than 50 countries, dug away the top of the cliff and completely disassembled both temples, reconstructing them on high ground more than 200 feet (60 meters) above their previous site. In all, some 16,000 blocks were moved. In 1979 Abu Simbel, Philae, and other nearby monuments were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.
King Ramesses II:
Known by name: Ramesses The Great, (flourished 13th century BCE), third king of the 19th dynasty (1292–1190 BCE) of ancient Egypt whose reign (1279–13 BCE) was the second longest in Egyptian history. In addition to his wars with the Hittites and Libyans, he is known for his extensive building programs and for the many colossal statues of him found all over Egypt.
He is of nonroyal origin, came to power some decades after the reign of the religious reformer Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV, 1353–36 BCE) and set about restoring Egyptian power in Asia, which had declined under Akhenaton and his successor, Tutankhamen. Ramses’ father, Seti I, subdued a number of rebellious princes in Palestine and southern Syria and waged war on the Hittites of Anatolia in order to recover those provinces in the north that during the recent troubles had passed from Egyptian to Hittite control. Seti achieved some success against the Hittites at first, but his gains were only temporary, for at the end of his reign the enemy was firmly established on the Orontes River at Kadesh, a strong fortress defended by the river, which became the key to their southern frontier.
During his reign Seti gave the crown prince Ramses, the future Ramses II, a special status as regent. Seti provided him with a kingly household and harem, and the young prince accompanied his father on his campaigns, so that when he came to sole rule he already had experience of kingship and of war. It is noteworthy that Ramses was designated as successor at an unusually young age, as if to ensure that he would in fact succeed to the throne. He ranked as a captain of the army while still only 10 years old; at that age his rank must surely have been honorific, though he may well have been receiving military training.
Because his family’s home was in the Nile River delta, and in order to have a convenient base for campaigns in Asia, Ramses built for himself a full-scale residence city called Per Ramessu (“House of Ramses”; biblical Raamses), which was famous for its beautiful layout, with gardens, orchards, and pleasant waters. Each of its four quarters had its own presiding deity: Amon in the west, Seth in the south, the royal cobra goddess, Wadjet, in the north, and, significantly, the Syrian goddess Astarte in the east. A vogue for Asian deities had grown up in Egypt, and Ramses himself had distinct leanings in that direction.
The first public act of Ramses after his accession to sole rule was to visit Thebes, the southern capital, for the great religious festival of Opet, when the god Amon of Karnak made a state visit in his ceremonial barge to the Temple of Luxor. When returning to his home in the north, the king broke his journey at Abydos to worship Osiris and to arrange for the resumption of work on the great temple founded there by his father, which had been interrupted by the old king’s death. He also took the opportunity to appoint as the new high priest of Amon at Thebes a man named Nebwenenef, high priest of Anhur at nearby This (Thinis).
Of Ramses’ personal life virtually nothing is known. His first and perhaps favourite queen was Nefertari; the smaller temple at Abu Simbel was dedicated to her. She seems to have died comparatively early in the reign, and her fine tomb in the Valley of the Queens at Thebes is well known. Other queens whose names are preserved were Isinofre, who bore the king four sons, among whom was Ramses’ eventual successor, Merneptah; Merytamun; and Matnefrure, the Hittite princess. In addition to the official queen or queens, the king possessed a large harem, as was customary, and he took pride in his great family of well over 100 children. The best portrait of Ramses II is a fine statue of him as a young man, now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin; his mummy, preserved in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, is that of a very old man with a long narrow face, prominent nose, and massive jaw.
The reign of Ramses II marks the last peak of Egypt’s imperial power. After his death Egypt was forced on the defensive but managed to maintain its suzerainty over Palestine and the adjacent territories until the later part of the 20th dynasty, when the migration of militant Sea Peoples into the Levant ended Egypt’s power beyond its borders. Ramses II must have been a good soldier, despite the fiasco of Kadesh, or else he would not have been able to penetrate so far into the Hittite empire as he did in the following years; he appears to have been a competent administrator, since the country was prosperous, and he was certainly a popular king. Some of his fame, however, must surely be put down to his flair for publicity: his name and the record of his feats on the field of battle were found everywhere in Egypt and Nubia.