Detailed interactive map Abu Simbel
Comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser and being staggering large, Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.
Abu Simbel lies south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile, 180 miles south of the First Cataract in what was Nubia. Ramesses II built seven rock-cut temples in Nubia and Abu Simbel is the greatest of these. It was not seen by Europeans until J.J. Burckhardt discovered them in 1813.
The Great Temple at Abu Simbel was dedicated to the gods Amun Ra, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah, and to the deified Ramesses himself. Four colossal 20 meter statues of the pharaoh decorate the facade of the temple which is 35 meters wide. Next to the legs of the colossi, there are other statues no higher than the knees of the pharaoh. These depict Nefertari, Ramesses's wife, and queen mother Mut-Tuy, his first two sons and his first six daughters. The facade is topped by a row of 22 baboons, their arms raised in the air, supposedly worshipping the rising sun. Twice a year a shaft of light from the rising sun mystically illuminates the deity statues inside the innermost room. This occurs late February and October.
The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, was built about one hundred meters northeast of the temple of Ramesses II and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Nefertari. At the entrance six 10-metre-high rock-cut statues stand, two of Ramesses and one of Nefertari on either side of the doorway. For the only time in Egyptian art, the statues of the king and his consort are equal in size.
Due to the construction of the High Dam the temples were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser. The removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. During a salvage operation 1964-1968, two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before.
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