The grand temple of Ramesses II that moved and started the UNESCO WHS - Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae 88; Handmade weaving in Upper Egypt (Sa'eed) 01605
What and Why
The great temple of Abu Simbel (Arabic: أبو سمبل) is perhaps the most remarkable sites of Egypt (مصر, Miṣr), past and present. The grandiose and majesty of the temple needs no introduction, but its cultural signature is definitely more significant. The temple itself is already an exceptional feat of engineering during its construction in 1264 BCE. However in a major twist of fate more engineering marvel was needed to dismantle, relocate and reconstruct the temple in the 1960s CE, which made it one of the most complicated civil projects in history. This also directly began the entire UNESCO WHS campaign (and as a result this website) and made Abu Simbel more special and revered.
The temple was built during the reign of the great Ramesses II (Egyptian: Rꜥ-ms-sw) when he embarked on massive construction programmes to build his own statues everywhere in his kingdom. The Abu Simbel site was particularly important to him as it neighbours Nubia (Nobiin: Nobīn) and he wanted to impress the Nubians and convert them to join his kingdom. He built two temples the Great Temple, dedicated for himself a smaller one next door for his chief wife Queen Nefertari (Egyptian: Nfrt Jrj). The rock-hewn temple celebrates the reign of ancient Egypt’s mightiest pharaoh (Egyptian: pr ꜥꜣ) with a stunning show of technical and artistic skills. The construction was completed in 1244 BCE.
Similar to many historic landmarks, the temple fell into disuse and neglect and it was almost fully covered under a sand dune until the 19th century CE. It took a Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt to rediscover it in 1813 CE.
As described in our blogged Aswan (أسوان), the construction of the Aswan Dam (السد العالي) had changed the fate of a number of these monuments in the area, including Abu Simbel, Philae (Greek: Φιλαί) and Kalabsha (كلابشة) in our earlier blog. A large portion of the site was flooded and part of the temple was already attacked and submerged by the resulting artificial lake Lake Nasser (بحيرة ناصر, Boħeiret Nāṣer). In fact by 1960 CE the lower part of the temple had been attacked by the waters and some loose structures and pieces of rocks had already dropped into the lake bottom. UNESCO took up the challenge, orchestrated under the flag International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia in 1960 CE to safeguard this temple complex and came up with a radical engineering plan: dismantle the temple piece by piece like lego blocks, moved to higher grounds to reassemble them back, to be handled with top experts of archaeologists, engineers, hydrologists and architects. The temple was eventually cut into more than 1,000 blocks, many weighing more than 30 tonnes.
Egypt initially contested UNESCO's leadership and insisted that they could foot the bill without UNESCO involvement, national pride being the main reason of course. Despite this, UNESCO continued a significant amount of oversight throughout the duration of the campaign. As a result Abu Simbel was mainly managed by UNESCO, subsequent monuments were mostly led by Egypt.
The project was described by UNESCO as the 'greatest archaeological rescue operation of all time'. The Abu Simbel relocation alone is also the most expensive, costing UNESCO more than USD $40 million at the time.
This model in the museum shows where the temple was originally and after the relocation, which is 65 m higher and 200 m inland. One can visualise the water level of Lake Nasser and how it would have totally submerged the entire temple complex had it not been relocated.
The reconstruction of the temple.
There is a big catch though. The temple was constructed and positioned that on 22nd October, apparently Ramesses's birthday, and 22nd February, Ramesses's coronation, every year, the first solar ray of dawn would penetrate into the sanctuary and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah (Egyptian: Ptḥ), the god of connected to the underworld Duat (Egyptian: Dwꜣt), who would always remain in the dark. Clearly after 3000 years, astronomical drifts and Earth's axial precession and all other factors had made it quite impossible for this to achieve, especially in a totally different location. Eventually the current location misses the above days by a day or two, depending on the year. Not that bad though.
The epic project was also a race against time and water: Lake Nasser was filling up fast. After eight years of engineering, Abu Simbel was inaugurated in its new location on 22nd September 1968 CE.
Toponymy
The site was rediscovered by Burckhardt, who was allegedly led to the site by a boy named Abu Simbel and the site was thence named after him. The name itself literally means 'father hyacinth' in Arabic.
It has also been mentioned the area was called Ipsambul in Nobiin, and was later arabicised to Abu Simbel. Neither conjecture is certain.
See
Great Temple (المعبد الكبير)
The Great Temple (المعبد الكبير, Al-Maebad Al-Qabir) is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned and one of the most beautiful in Egypt. Technically the Great Temple was dedicated to the gods Amun (Egyptian: Jmn), (king of gods), Ra-Horakhty (Egyptian: Rꜥ-Hr-Akhet), the synchretisation of Ra (Egyptian: Rꜥ) (sun god) and Horus (Egyptian: Ḥr) (god of kings) and Ptah, as well as to the deified Ramesses himself. Incredibly Ramesses must have been a narcissistic as all four massive sitting statues in the front facade are depictions of himself. The four colossal statues are 20 m tall and all wears the pschent (Egyptian: pꜣ-ḫm.ty), which symbolises the united Upper and Lower Egypt (Egyptian: Tȝ.wy). Between the second and third statues is a niche containing the statue of Ra-Horakhty. It is worth-noting this statue is actually a hieroglyph of Ramesses's throne name 'User-Maat-Re (Egyptian: Wsr-Mꜣꜥt-Rꜥ)': the hieroglyph '𓄊 (wsr)', '𓆄 (mꜣꜥt)' and Ra himself, translating roughly to 'power, justice, Ra'.
Smaller statues of Ramesses's wife Nefetari, his mother, his children are found behind the legs.
The second statue from the left of the entrance was damaged during an earthquake shortly after the construction, with the head and torso fallen off. These pieces were purposefully not restored to the statue during the relocation and left at the statue's feet in the positions where they were found.
On top of the front facade are 22 squatting baboons worshipping the sun, with a stele recording the marriage of Ramesses to a daughter of king Ḫattušili III, which represents a peace accord between Egypt and the Hittite Empire (Hittite: 𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭, Ḫattuša). More inside the atrium regarding why the accord.
The interior of the temple stretches into the mountain for about 60 m. The first room is a hypostyle atrium made up of eight pillars, four on each side, depicting Ramesses in the guise of the god Osiris (Egyptian: Wsjr), god of afterlife.
The atrium area includes images and hieroglyphs describing Ramesses’s supposed victory at the Battle of Qadesh, the war between Egypt and the Hittite Empire. The war was led by Ramesses himself, and he was almost captured as Egypt was outmanoeuvred. However Ramesses was so self-absorbed he believed had won the war after he escaped, even though most historians considered the war had ended in a stalemate. This war is particularly important in military history as this is the first known war with detailed tactics and formations properly recorded, mostly in Abu Simbel.
Other wall carvings inside the temple, showing various deities.
The deepest end of the temple is the sanctuary where four rock-cut seated statuettes are found: Ra-Horakhty, Ramesses, Amun and Ptah, against a blackish wall. As mentioned, on 22nd February and October each year, all of these statuettes, except that of Ptah at the far right, will be lit up by the first beam of sunlight.
Small Temple (معبد صغير)
Around 100 m to the right of the Great Temple finds the Small Temple (معبد صغير, Maebad Saghir). The front facade of the Small Temple is exceptional in the sense of gender equality, at least in Ramesses's eyes and during the time. The two groups of three statues, 10 m in height, either side of the doorway represents Nefertari, Hathor (Egyptian: Ḥwt-ḥr), and Ramesses in that order towards the central entrance. Hathor is the god of feminity and the sky. Remarkably, this is one of very few instances in Egyptian art where the statues of the king and the queen are of equal size. Almost every other simple statues the king is much larger than the queen.
At the facade also contains smaller statues of Ramesses's children, and these knee-sized statues represents the princes and the princesses. Consistent with the theme, the statues of the princesses are taller than those of the princes. This is perhaps the first slogan of gender equality in the ancient world, where Nefertari and women of Ramesses’s household were being paid proper and equal tribute.
The interior of the temple is simpler than that of the Great Temple. It contains six pillars that show depictions of the goddess Hathor. Most of the reliefs show Nefertari being crowned by Hathor and Isis (Egyptian: Ꜣūsat), goddess of motherhood. Again this is a sign that the temple was designed to honour the feminine gender.
As seen from the picture above, the sanctuary behind the wall is not a statuette, but simply a wall-carving. It depicts Hathor as a cow coming out of the mountain. It is not designed to be lit up by any sun beam.
Buy and Do
One can try to do a boat trip in Lake Nasser to see the sunrise. One may be interested to look at the local handmade woven fabric which is an ICH, as in our blog Aswan (أسوان).
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
Visiting Abu Simbel needs some organisation as recent regulations only allow visit entries during the morning. Since most of the visitors come from Aswan (أسوان, ʾAswān), one will have take a very early one-hour flight or four-hour bus ride from Aswan to reach Abu Simbel. The temple complex will spend one a good day.
As mentioned above, one will definitely combine this visit as a side-trip from Aswan. The Nile cruises do not usually cover Abu Simbel. The town itself has nothing interesting, other than the usual not-so-useful souvenirs and tourist traps.
UNESCO Inscription
This outstanding archaeological area contains such magnificent monuments as the Temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Sanctuary of Isis at Philae, which were saved from the rising waters of the Nile thanks to the International Campaign launched by UNESCO, in 1960 to 1980.
References
Comments
Please share your thoughts and comments about the blog. If you need suggestions to build a travel itinerary, please let me know. More than willing to help. I would also like to build a bespoke-in-depth travel community around UNESCO WHS and ICH.
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