Abu Simbel Temples are situated on the shores of Lake Nasser, in the depths of the Nubian Desert. Themselves temples hewn into the rock and are evidence of the triumph of the Pharaoh Ramses II over the Hittites, and devoted to his wife – Nefertari. Abu Simbel consists of two temples: the temple of the Great and Lesser Temple. Large temple dedicated to the most pharaoh Ramses II and the ancient Egyptian gods. Small temple, in turn, is devoted to his wife of Pharaoh Ramses II – Nefertari.
Until the beginning of the XIX century temples of Abu Simbel were lost in the desert sands. Only 22 March 1813 the Swiss historian Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, landed on the shores of the Nile, came upon the temple complex.
The facade of churches carved into the rock, the height of 31 meters and a width of 38 meters. Columned facade is four statues of the pharaoh depicted sit on the throne. The height of these statues about 20 meters and the head of each of these sculptures as high as 4 meters! Over the facade is carved ornament in the form of baboons. Total number of monkeys there are 22 pieces, each increasing by 2.5 meters.
Entering the temple, we find ourselves immersed in the darkness room, which precedes the sanctuary. Hall has the size of the parties in the 18 and 16.7 meters. In the center of the room are 10 columns representing the god Osiris, but with the facial features of Pharaoh Ramses II.
Almost the entire year immersed in the premises of the temple gloom, but twice a year (February 22 and October 22 – Pharaoh’s birthday and the day of his coronation), at dawn, the rays of the sun all the same cut temples of darkness and illuminate the statue of the Ramses II and a ray of sunshine for a few minutes delay on the face of the pharaoh. Such an optical effect is possible thanks to incredibly precise calculations of the Egyptian astrologers and priests, who were engaged in the design and construction of temples 33 centuries ago.
Abu Simbel Temples
Although the temples of Abu Simbel and stood in the sand for over 3000 years, in 60 of the last century against them in grave danger in the form of flooding. Engineers who were building the Aswan Dam, it was calculated that Lake Nasser becomes more affluent, and churches will be under water. To avoid flooding of cultural heritage, it was decided to disassemble the Abu Simbel in parts and assemble again in the new location. To this end, the temples were sawn to 1036 blocks, weighing from 5 to 20 tons. All were numbered and transported to another place. ?Piece by piece, like a mosaic, the temples were again collected and covered with hollow reinforced concrete cap, which was poured on a hill. It turned out so perfectly that it seemed that the Abu Simbel on this site and there was all this time. The whole operation of transferring the temples took three years from 1965 to 68 years.