Abu Simbel Temples
The monumental Abu Simbel temples form one of ancient Egypt’s most famous archaeological complexes, truly showcasing the ancient Egyptians’ architectural and artistic achievements. This iconic site, near the Nile River in southern Aswan, features breathtaking rock-cut temples dedicated to Pharaoh Ramesses II and his beloved queen, Nefertari.
The grandeur of the Abu Simbel temples, with their colossal statues and intricate carvings, not only reflects Ramesses II’s power and authority during the 13th century BCE but also symbolizes Egypt’s rich cultural heritage and historical significance. Today, the site attracts thousands of visitors worldwide. They eagerly explore its fascinating history and marvel at ancient engineering’s ingenuity. This includes the incredible feat of relocating the temples to higher ground, preserving them from Lake Nasser’s rising waters.
Abu Simbel: The Village
Abu Simbel is a village in Egyptian Nubia. It lies about 240 kilometers southwest of Aswan, near the Sudanese border. As of 2020, it has about 3100 inhabitants.
The Temples’ Creator: Ramesses II
King Ramses II built the Abu Simbel temples. During his reign, Ramesses II began an extensive building program throughout Egypt and Nubia. Nubia was vital to Egyptians as a source of gold and other precious trade goods. Therefore, he built several grand temples there. He wanted to impress Egypt’s might upon the Nubians.
The Temple Complex: Design and Dedication
The most famous temples are the rock-cut temples near the modern village of Abu Simbel. These stand at the Second Nile Cataract, the border between Lower and Upper Nubia. Two temples exist: the Great Temple, dedicated to Ramesses II as a God, and the Small Temple, dedicated to his chief wife Queen Nefertari and Goddess Hathor.
Construction Timeline
Construction of the temple complex began in approximately 1264 BC. It lasted for about 20 years, until 1244 BC. People knew it as the “Temple of Ramesses, beloved by Amun.”
King Ramses II
Over time, the temples fell into disuse and sand eventually covered them. By the 6th century BC, sand already buried the main temple’s statues up to their knees. The temple remained forgotten until 1813. That year, Swiss orientalist Jean-Louis Burckhardt discovered the main temple’s top frieze.
Burckhardt discussed his find with Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni. Belzoni then traveled to the site but could not dig an entry into the temple. He returned in 1817, and this time, he succeeded in entering the complex. Edward William Lane’s Description of Egypt (1825–1828) offers a detailed early description of the temples, alongside contemporaneous line drawings.
Abu Simbel Temples Relocation
In 1959, an international donations campaign to save the monuments of Nubia began: the southernmost relics of this ancient human civilization were under threat from the rising waters of the Nile that were about to result from the construction of the Aswan High Dam.
Early Preservation Efforts
One scheme aimed to save the temples. William MacQuitty conceived the idea to build a clear freshwater dam around them. The water inside would remain at the Nile’s height. This plan included underwater viewing chambers. In 1962, architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, along with civil engineer Ove Arup, formalized this idea into a proposal. They believed simply raising the temples ignored sandstone erosion from desert winds. However, authorities rejected this proposal, though they acknowledged its elegance.
The UNESCO Salvage Project
The salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964. A multinational team initiated this project. Archaeologists, engineers, and skilled heavy equipment operators worked together. They operated under the UNESCO banner. The project cost about US$40 million at the time, equivalent to $300 million in 2017.
Between 1964 and 1968, the team carefully cut the entire site into large blocks. These blocks weighed up to 30 tons, averaging 20 tons. Workers dismantled, lifted, and reassembled them in a new location. This new site sat 65 meters higher and 200 meters back from the river. This constituted one of archaeological engineering’s greatest historical challenges. Some structures even required saving from beneath Lake Nasser’s waters.
Visiting Abu Simbel Today
Today, a few hundred tourists visit the temples daily. Guarded convoys of buses and cars depart twice a day from Aswan, the nearest city. Many visitors also arrive by plane at a specially constructed airfield near the temple complex.
The Temple Complex: Overview
The complex consists of two temples. The larger temple dedicates itself to Ra-Harakhty, Ptah, and Amun. These were Egypt’s three state deities at the time. It features four large statues of Ramesses II on its facade. The smaller temple dedicates itself to the goddess Hathor, personified by Nefertari. Nefertari was Ramesses’s most beloved of his many wives. The temple is now open to the public.
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The Great Temple of King Ramses II
The Great Temple of King Ramses II is the largest among the Abu Simbel temples. Construction took about twenty years, finishing around year 24 of Ramesses the Great’s reign (which corresponds to 1265 BC). He dedicated it to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to himself as a deified ruler. People generally consider it the grandest and most beautiful temple commissioned during Ramesses II’s reign, and truly one of the most beautiful in all of Egypt.
Entrance of Abu Simbel Temple
Four colossal, 20-meter (66 ft) statues flank the single entrance. Each statue depicts Ramesses II seated on a throne, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. An earthquake damaged the statue immediately to the left of the entrance; its head and torso fell away. These fallen pieces were not reattached during the relocation. Instead, they were placed at the statue’s feet in their originally discovered positions.
Several smaller statues stand next to Ramesses’s legs. None rise higher than the pharaoh’s knees. They depict 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.
Facade and Inscriptions
The façade behind the colossi measures 33 meters (108 ft) high and 38 meters (125 ft) wide. It features a frieze showing twenty-two baboons worshipping the rising sun with upraised arms. A stele also records Ramesses’s marriage to a daughter of King Ḫattušili III, which sealed peace between Egypt and the Hittites.
Bas-relief images above the entrance doorway show the king worshipping the falcon-headed Ra Horakhty. Ra’s statue stands in a large niche. He holds the hieroglyph user and a feather in his right hand, with Maat (the goddess of truth and justice) in his left. This forms a cryptogram for Ramesses II’s throne name, User-Maat-Re.
Interior of the Great Temple of Ramses II
The temple’s inner part follows the typical triangular layout of most ancient Egyptian temples. Rooms decrease in size from the entrance to the sanctuary. The temple has a complex and quite unusual structure due to its many side chambers.
The Great Hypostyle Hall
The hypostyle hall, sometimes called a pronaos, measures 18 meters (59 ft) long and 16.7 meters (55 ft) wide. Eight huge Osirian pillars support it. These depict the deified Ramesses linked to Osiris, the god of the Underworld. This symbolizes the pharaoh’s everlasting nature.
Colossal statues along the left-hand wall wear the white crown of Upper Egypt. Conversely, those on the opposite side wear the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (pschent). Bas-reliefs on the pronaos walls depict battle scenes. These show Ramesses’s military campaigns.
Much of the sculpture details the Battle of Kadesh. This took place on the Orontes river in present-day Syria. The Egyptian king fought the Hittites there. The most famous relief shows the king on his chariot. He shoots arrows against his fleeing enemies, whom soldiers capture. Other scenes depict Egyptian victories in Libya and Nubia.
Second Pillared Hall and Sanctuary
From the hypostyle hall, one enters the second pillared hall. This hall has four pillars. Beautiful scenes of offerings to the gods decorate them. You’ll see depictions of Ramesses and Nefertari with the sacred boats of Amun and Ra-Horakhty. This hall leads to a transverse vestibule. The sanctuary entrance lies in its middle.
Here, on a black wall, rock-cut sculptures depict four seated figures: Ra-Horakhty, the deified King Ramesses, and the gods Amun Ra and Ptah. Ra-Horakhty, Amun Ra, and Ptah were the main divinities during that period. Their cult centers were at Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis, respectively.
Solar Alignment
Architects positioned the temple’s axis precisely. On October 22 and February 22, the sun’s rays penetrate the sanctuary. They illuminate the sculptures on the back wall. However, the statue of Ptah, a god connected with the Egyptian underworld, always remains in darkness. People gather at Abu Simbel on these days to witness this phenomenon.
Alleged Significance of Solar Alignment Dates
These dates are allegedly the king’s birthday and coronation day, respectively. However, “Dr. Zahi Hawass’s invention!” There is no direct evidence to support this. Logically, though, these dates likely related to a great event. Perhaps it was the jubilee celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the King’s rule. In fact, calculations based on the heliacal rising of the star Sirius (Sothis) and archaeological inscriptions suggest this date must have been October 22.
The energy of the solar star enhanced and revitalized the king’s image. Thus, the deified Ramesses the Great could take his place next to Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Due to the accumulated drift of the Tropic of Cancer, caused by Earth’s axial precession over the past three millennia, the event’s date must have differed when builders constructed the temple. This compounds the imprecision, as the temple’s relocation from its original setting means the current alignment may not be as precise as the original.
Greek Graffito
A well-known Greek graffito appears inscribed on the left leg of Ramesses II’s colossal seated statue. This statue stands on the south side of the temple’s entrance. The inscription records: “When King Psammetichus (i.e., Psamtik II) came to Elephantine, those who sailed with Psammetichus, the son of Theocles, wrote this. They came beyond Kerkis as far as the river permits. Potasimto led those who spoke foreign tongues (Greeks and Carians also scratched their names on the monument). Amasis led the Egyptians.”Kerkis was located near the Fifth Cataract of the Nile, “which stood well within the Cushite Kingdom.”
2. Small Temple of Queen Nefertari
The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, stands about 100 meters (330 ft) northeast of Ramesses II’s temple. Builders dedicated it to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II’s chief consort, Nefertari. This marked only the second time in ancient Egyptian history that a temple was dedicated to a queen. Akhenaten first dedicated a temple to his great royal wife, Nefertiti.
Small Temple Entrance Colossi
A huge entrance divides the two groups of colossal statues that adorn the rock-cut exterior. These sculptures depict the monarch and his queen, standing a little over 10 meters (33 feet) tall. Two sculptures of the king, one on each side of the gateway, flank statues of the queen. They wear the white crown of Upper Egypt (the south colossus) and the double crown (the north colossus).
Remarkably, this is one of the very few instances in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and his consort have equal size. Traditionally, queens’ statues stood next to those of the king but never exceeded his knees in height. Ramesses visited Abu Simbel with his wife in the 24th year of his reign.
Symmetrical Royal Figures
In contrast to the Great Temple of the King, which features small statues of princes and princesses next to their parents, these figures are positioned symmetrically. On the south side (to the left as one faces the gateway) are, from left to right, princes Meryatum and Meryre, princesses Meritamen and Henuttawy, and princes Rahirwenemef and Amun-her-khepeshef. On the north side, the same figures appear in reverse order. The Small Temple’s plan offers a simplified version of the Great Temple’s layou
The Hypostyle Hall of the Small Temple
Like the larger temple, the smaller temple’s hypostyle hall, or pronaos, relies on six pillars for support. However, these pillars are not Osirid, so they do not depict the king. Instead, they feature scenes where the queen plays the sistrum, an instrument sacred to the goddess Hathor. These depictions also include the gods Horus, Khnum, Khonsu, and Thoth, as well as the goddesses Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut of Asher, Satis, and Taweret. In one scene, Ramesses offers flowers or burns incense.
The capitals of these pillars bear the face of the goddess Hathor, giving this column type its name: Hathoric. Bas-reliefs in the pillared hall illustrate the king’s deification. They also show the destruction of his enemies in the north and south, with his wife accompanying him in these scenes. Finally, the reliefs depict the queen making offerings to the goddesses Hathor and Mut.
Vestibule and Sanctuary
A vestibule follows the hypostyle hall; three large doors provide access to it. This chamber’s south and north walls display two graceful, poetic bas-reliefs. These show the king and his consort presenting papyrus plants to Hathor, who appears as a cow on a boat sailing through a thicket of papyri. On the west wall, Ramesses II and Nefertari offer gifts to the god Horus and the divinities of the Cataracts—Satis, Anubis, and Khnum.
The rock-cut sanctuary and its two side chambers connect to the transverse vestibule. They align with the temple’s main axis. Bas-reliefs on the small sanctuary’s sidewalls represent scenes of offerings to various gods, presented either by the pharaoh or the queen.
On the back wall, situated to the west along the temple’s axis, a niche contains a depiction of Hathor. She appears as a divine cow seemingly emerging from the mountain. The goddess is portrayed as the Mistress of the temple, which dedicates itself to her and to Queen Nefertari, who maintains an intimate link with the goddess.
