Abu Simbel is a spectacular ancient archaeological site in the Aswan Governorate, southern Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It lies on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230–290 km southwest of the city of Aswan

🏛️ What It Is

Abu Simbel consists of two rock cut temples built during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom by Pharaoh Ramses II around 1264 BC to demonstrate his power and divine stature.

✨ Great Temple of Ramses II

  • The larger and most famous of the two temples.
  • Its façade features four colossal seated statues of Ramses II, each about 20 m tall.
  • Inside are halls and chambers richly decorated with reliefs and scenes showing Ramses’s victories, including the famous Battle of Kadesh.

✨ Small Temple (Temple of Hathor and Nefertari)

  • A smaller temple nearby dedicated to Queen Nefertari (Ramses II’s favorite wife) and the goddess Hathor.
  • Its façade has six statues four of Ramses and two of Nefertari unusually portraying the queen at equal scale with the pharaoh

🛠️ Incredible Rescue: The Relocation

In the 1960 the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened to submerge the temples under rising waters of what became Lake Nasser In one of the greatest archaeological preservation projects in history,an international team cut the temples into large blocks and reassembled them higher up on an artificial hill to save them from flooding.

Because of this project, Abu Simbel and other Nubian monuments were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979

🌞 Sun Festival

A remarkable feature of the Great Temple is its solar alignment
Twice a year on 22 February Ramses II coronation day and 22 October his birthday the first rays of the morning sun penetrate deep into the temple and illuminate the sanctuary and the seated statues of the gods and Ramses, except Ptah god of darkness This solar phenomenon is a stunning testament to ancient Egyptian astronomical and architectural precision and attracts many visitors.