Abu Simbel: The Temples of Ramesses and the Light That Returns

Abu Simbel sits at the southern frontier of ancient Egypt, carved directly into the sandstone cliff of a Nubian mountainside on the orders of Ramesses II (r. 1279-1213 BCE) — the longest-reigning and most architecturally prolific pharaoh in Egyptian history. Two temples: the Great Temple, whose four 20-meter colossal statues of Ramesses face the Nile, and the Small Temple, dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to Nefertari, Ramesses's favorite wife — the only Egyptian temple dedicated to a queen, whom Ramesses caused to be depicted at the same scale as the gods, an extraordinary theological statement. The temples were built with an astronomical precision that Ramesses's architects sustained for three thousand years: twice a year, on February 22 and October 22 (Ramesses's birthday and coronation day, according to some scholars), the rising sun penetrates the full length of the 65-meter sanctuary and illuminates the four statues at its inner sanctum — all except Ptah, god of the underworld, who remains permanently in darkness.

The Great Temple of Ramesses II — four colossal seated statues of Ramesses II (c. 1264 BCE), each 20 meters high, dominating the Nile approach to Nubia; the temple proclaimed Egyptian power to any traveler approaching from the south, a statement of divine kingship carved into the living rock of the mountain

The Temple of Nefertari — dedicated to Hathor and to Queen Nefertari, whose statues are carved at the same scale as those of Ramesses; the inscription reads: 'For whose sake the sun doth shine' — Ramesses's dedicatory formula for the wife he elevated to divine status in her lifetime

Interior hall of the Small Temple — the Hathor-headed pillars bear the faces of Nefertari identified with the goddess; Hathor, goddess of love, beauty, and the sky, was the consort of Ra-Harakhty, the rising sun — the same solar deity whose light illuminates the inner sanctuary of the Great Temple on the solstice

Interior reliefs of the Great Temple — the walls of the sanctuary record Ramesses's military campaigns in exhaustive detail, particularly the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites (c. 1274 BCE); the battle was, strategically, a draw — but Ramesses inscribed his personal heroism on every temple wall in Egypt, creating the most extensive ancient propaganda program in history

Abu Simbel by David Roberts (1838) — the Scottish painter David Roberts traveled to Egypt and Nubia in 1838, producing a series of lithographs that introduced the monuments of ancient Egypt to European audiences; Roberts depicted the temples half-buried in sand, as they had been for centuries before European rediscovery

Abu Simbel interior by David Roberts (1838) — the sanctuary illuminated by torchlight; the first European to enter the temple after its rediscovery in 1813 (by Jean-Louis Burckhardt, directed by a local boy) described crawling through sand to reach the inner chamber; the sand had preserved the interior reliefs perfectly

The façade of the Great Temple by David Roberts — the colossi as Roberts found them, the smaller statues of queens and princes at their feet; the scale of the colossi defeated Roberts's attempts at compositional balance; he solved the problem by including human figures at the base to provide a scale reference

Abu Simbel photographic study, Metropolitan Museum of Art collection (19th century) — the earliest photographs of Abu Simbel, taken by Maxime Du Camp during his 1849-1851 expedition with Gustave Flaubert; photography arrived in Egypt just in time to document the monuments before the Aswan Dam began to flood the region

The Abu Simbel relocation, 1964-1968 — when the Aswan High Dam threatened to permanently flood the temples beneath Lake Nasser, UNESCO organized the largest archaeological rescue operation in history; the temples were cut into 807 blocks weighing up to 30 tons each and reassembled 65 meters higher on the cliff; the solar alignment was preserved

Abu Simbel from the water — the reconstructed temples on their new cliff, Lake Nasser behind them; the artificial mountain built to house the relocated temples was made hollow, so the internal temperature could be controlled to preserve the reliefs; 3,200 years of Nile floods exchanged for the engineered permanence of a concrete dome