Great Temple of Ramses II | R. Doug Wicker

Abu Simbel — Great Temple of Ramesses II (left); Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari

Bright and early the next morning, after our Philae Temple adventure of the day before, we met up with our exceptional companion/guide for this trip, Mohamad Salah. Our boat, Jaz Celebrity, was still moored in Aswan, and not scheduled to depart until early afternoon, which left us with time for an optional excurstion to Abu Simbel. As this excursion would take us close to the Egypt-Sudan border, and as relations between the two countries are iffy at best, our vehicle would have to caravan southward with many other tourist buses and cars, and we would have to pass checkpoints along the way. Fortunately, Mohamad had our trip well-managed, save for a less-than-cooperative drive (more on that little glitch on Wednesday).

As with Philae Temple Complex (which I showed you beginning with: Nile Cruise — Boating Lake Nasser to Philae Temples) this immense complex of two enormous temples that had to be relocated because they would otherwise be flooded upon completion of the Aswan High Dam and the subsequent creation of Lake Nasser. Stone by stone. The entire site was cut into large blocks that weighed, on average, around 20 tons. The pieces were then transported to their current location and reassembled. This incredible feat was accomplished between 1964 and 1968, and it went like this:

Reassembly of Ramses (Ramesses) the Great statue; Great Temple of Ramsses II (image: ***Wikipedia***)

The larger of the two temples is the Great Temple dedicated to Ramses II a.k.a., Ramesses the Great; alternate spelling Ramses), who reigned between 1279 BC and 1213 BC during Ancient Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty.

This façade of the Great Temple is 115 feet/35 meters wide and 98 feet/30 meters in height. I use the word façade because it is in fact an entrance into which you may pass:

The “Small Temple“ (if you can refer to either of these as “small”) is dedicated to the first of Ramses II’s first “Great Royal Wife“, Queen Nefertari, and the Egyptian goddess Hathor. And despite it’s “small” designation, this behemoth is 92 feet/28 meters long and reaches to a height of 40 feet/12 meters. Here you see the façade of the Temple of Nefertari, an enduring symbol of Ramses II’s love and devotion to his queen:

Abu Simbel’s Small Temple — The Temple of Hathor and Nefertari

I’ll be presenting on Wednesday many more images from these two Abu Simbel temples, but until then I’ll leave you with this photo gallery/slide show :