temple of abu simbel

Abu Simbel

Posted by carol.fletcher@rocketmail.com
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To Abu Simbel

It was still night at the Happi Hotel in Aswan when we took coffee, and picked up breakfast/lunch boxes with boiled eggs and snacks. On the way out of Aswan, we stopped for our “co-pilot”–more like a bus/road marshall or security officer–as we were headed into a border area considered risky for tourists. Some slept on the bus as we waited in a line of traffic to cross the old dam. More night. Finally, red highlighted the horizon. It took over three hours driving through the desert to reach this place called Abu Simbel, just 12 miles from Sudan.

Mythic in Scale

Abu Simbel is mythic in every way. For it’s sheer scale and construction–monumental seated statues carved straight back into a mountain along the banks of the Nile. Ramesses II ordered the building of his temple in the 1260s BC to warn, impress, and awe anyone entering Egypt via the Nile. One can only imagine the fear and wonder sailors felt when they first saw it from the river.

Abu Simbel Egypt
Abu Simbel, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in the 1260s BC to impress upon anyone sailing down the Nile that they were entering the land of the Pharaohs, and moved in the 1960s to prevent submersion in Lake Nasser. The temple’s doorway leads to a chamber with more Ramesses II statues and alcoves filled with bas relief stories of epic battles. In the back is a final chamber, with 3 gods and god-wanna-be, Ramesses II. Two days each year, the first rays of sun reach into this chamber and shine upon 3 of the inner statues. The 4th god, Ptah of the underworld, prefers the darkness.

 

Mythic for the Ancient Architects’ Precision

Mythic for how the ancient architects figured out a precise solar alignment so that the first rays of the sun reached all the way into the inner chamber on two days each year (February 22 and October 22–said to be Ramesses II’s birthday and coronation date).

Abu Simbel inner chamber
In the first chamber, statues of Ramesses II line the way to the inner chamber. Bas reliefs in the alcoves behind tell the stories of battles won.
abu simbel innermost chamber
This is Abu Simbel’s inner-most chamber. On February 22 and October 22, the first rays of the sun shine through the doorway into this space, lighting the faces of 3 of the 4 figures here. Ptah, the god of the underworld–faceless on the left, never gets the sunbeams. The dates have changed now because of the temple’s relocation: some say it is on/around the 23rd-24th of February and October now.

 

Lost and Found

Abu Simbel was “lost” over time, and nearly buried with blowing sand until it was “rediscovered” in the 1800s.  Astounding old photos of the massive sand dune– pouring over the mountain and covering the entrance while long-dead souls stand in the lap of one of the Ramesses II statues. Mythic stories of discovery.

Abu Simbel 1800 graffiti
1800s graffiti. The temples had been forgotten until rediscovery around 1813. They were first photographed around 1854, when a dune spilled over the top of the temple’s mountain, and sand filled the entryway. The sand enabled early exploring vandals to etch their names high on the legs of the 66 foot tall statues.
Abu Simbel face of Ramesses II
The face of Ramesses II. The far left one. Ramesses II (aka Ramesses the Great) lived to be 96. It is said that he had more than 200 wives and concubines, and 96 children. His name and accomplishments are carved all over Egypt, and most every ancient site mentions Ramesses the Great. So long was his reign, and so prolific was his ego, that there was panic that the world would end when he died.

 

Abu Simbel Moves

And finally, Abu Simbel is mythic because the entire temple was MOVED in an engineering miracle in the 1960s to avoid being submerged by the Aswan Dam’s Lake Nasser. Impressive photos of cranes lifting away the statues in pieces, of a magic mountain built with similar chambers– 213 feet up and 656 feet back from the water. A feat as audacious as Ramesses II’s building of the temple in the first place. What must have the locals felt when witnessing the disassembly and movement of so ancient a monument?

A face of Ramesses II Abu Simbel
A face of Ramesses II. One on the right. Note the lines where the engineers cut the face for moving, and the old graffiti carved high on his chest.
Abu Simbel-Ramesses II on the left.
Abu Simbel:  The two Ramesses II on the left. Ramesses II #2 lost his upper body to an earthquake believed to have happened not long after construction. During the monument’s move in the 1960s, because the fallen face had eroded, engineers decided to leave the broken piece in the exact same position at his feet in the new location.
Abu Simbel Ramesses II
Abu Simbel:  The two Ramesses II on the right. Tucked in between Ramesses’ legs are smaller statues of his favorite wife, his mom, and some of his 96 kids.

Second Temple for Nefertari

Did I mention there are TWO temples? Just to the right of Ramesses II’s temple to himself is a smaller temple to his favorite wife, Nefertari. Its sanctuary, also carved into the mountain, is filled with bas reliefs of the king and queen making offerings. This temple is one of very few in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and his queen are carved in equal size.

Temple of Nefertari
The smaller temple to the right of Ramesses II’s monument to himself, is a temple for his wife, Nefertari. Temples cut into the mountains and cut from them 3,220 years later, to be moved up-and-over into newly created “mountains”.
Bryan and Carol at Abu Simbel
Us at Abu Simbel, just in front of the fallen top half of Ramesses II statue #2.
film holga Abu Simbel
Old film shot with a Holga at Abu Simbel. The film has been through one too many X-ray machines.

 

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Carol Fletcher is a traveling, dog-loving, tree-hugging, coffee-addicted, Nashville born-and-raised photographer living in Chicago. To see more photo essays and projects, please visit www.carolfletcher.com.