Abu Simbel - Egypt

Report Egypt : Abu Simbel

Between 1963 and 1970, 40 buildings were saved thanks to a titanic project and Abu Simbel is the most well-known amongst them. The temple seems to have also been there, hieratic in the middle of the desert and a long, long way from Thebes, the Pharaonic capital, 620 miles to the north. It is difficult to imagine that the original site was over 200ft lower under the water and that each one of the giants was cut down and then put back up block by block. The Hathor Temple, which is dedicated to Queen Nefertari, the wife of Ramesses II, the master builder, adds to the magic of the site. Covered in enormous representations of Ramesses, these two temples seem to hide an invisible gate; that of the absolute power of the pharaohs faced with a void, with the barbarism of a land without life, without hope.