A very early morning, starting at 5:00 with a quick breakfast, then onto a bus to Aswan Airport to catch the shortest flight of my life (25 minutes) to the regional airport of Abu Simbel, a small town named for the next-door temple complex. Abu Simbel is the second most popular tourist location in Egypt, the location of the largest temple of Ramses II, aka Ramses the Great. Abu Simbel is named after the local Egyptian boy who assisted the Swiss researcher Burckhardt in discovering the temple in 1813. Burkhardt then led Italian Explorer Belzoni to the site, and it was Belzoni who eventually successfully excavated the entrance to the main temple in 1817.
Abu Simbel has been relocated from its original site, less than 200 meters away and 64 meters lower, due to the creation of Lake Nasser. The process of moving Abu Simbel was similar to the moving of Philae, so I won’t go into it again. Suffice it to say the relocation was impeccably done. Before the temple's relocation, the temple would have been revealed upon navigating a bend in the Nile. The relocators simulated the original mountainside so that travelers approaching the temple today would have a similar experience when approaching its new location.
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| The imposing statues of Ramses II at his Great Temple at Abu Simbel |
The entrance to Ramses the II’s great temple is truly stunning. The second largest statues depicting our man-god, Ramses II, loom 20m (over 66 feet) high, flanking the entrance in pairs on either side. Inside is a trove of images worshiping the deified king. The main hall is flanked by statues of Ramses with the typical crossed arm, feet-together pose that would indicate that the statues were created after his death, but the straight beard indicates that he was alive. Archaeologists believe that this was to indicate that Ramses believed he was a living god and had already communed with the other gods in life instead of in death.
People might have considered him a living god, as he was certainly larger than life. He was taller than most kings, at 5’7” (1.7m), with the exception of Amenhotep I, who had an inch on him. Ramses II was born a commoner, as was his grandfather Ramses I; his grandfather was a general in the army of Pharoah Horemheb, who uncharacteristically appointed him his successor. Ramses II followed his father, Seti I, as Pharaoh and had an incredibly long life with many wives (over 200) and many, many children (88-103, split pretty evenly between boys and girls). He was a very successful warrior-king, with dozens of triumphant campaigns and conquests. He also lived to be 91 years old, an epic feat in 1213 BCE when he finally joined his fellow Pharaohs in the Field of Reeds.
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| Ramses II smiting the Hittites with Ra-Horakhty’s approval |
The engineering marvel of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel is its construction, which allowed the rising sun to shine more than 90 meters through the entire temple to shine light on three of the four statues there twice a year — his birth date and the date of his coronation. The four statues in his sanctuary are the god Ra-Horakhty (the personification of Ra as Horus), Amun-Ra, Ramses as deity, and Ptah, the creator god, who spoke the world into existence. (You can’t know how randy I am for name magic.) Ptah was said to exist in darkness until he brought about the world, so his statue remained in darkness during the alignment days.
The other cool feature of the complex at Abu Simbel is the Small Temple, dedicated to his wife Nefertari and the goddess Hathor. Of the four statues in front of this temple, two are of Ramses II (the fact that he put his own statues in front of his wife’s temple speaks to the level of his vanity, but was also likely a form of protection), and the other two are of Nefertari, who sits at equal height to her husband, an extremely rare occurrence in ancient Egyptian art.
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| The “Small Temple” of Nefertari at Abu Simbel |
The coolest etching in Nefertari’s temple is near the back, opposite the sanctuary, and depicts Nefertari being crowned with the double-feathered crown by Isis and Neftis as if being made a Pharaoh. Not only is this the only representation of a woman receiving this honor, but the color work is very well maintained.
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| Nefertari’s coronation with the crown of Pharaohs by Isis and Hathor |
The crowd inside both the temples at Abu Simbel was oppressive and frankly rude. Everyone jockeyed to get the best photos and pushed and broke queues to get to places first; that behavior, coupled with the heat and the humidity caused by the milling throng’s breathing, made the experience a bit unpleasant in both temples, but we managed to get our photos in the end and snaked our way back to the buses through the little market, where we were once again assailed by vendors.
Much to our relief, the rest of the day was leisure time. Napping, sun deck sitting, iced tea and cocktail drinking, blog article typing, and food consumption. There were no dances, no real presentations other than the usual announcements of the following day’s schedule. The boat set sail back north towards Esna, where we’ll stop briefly tomorrow to see the Temple of Khnum and the little town itself and then continue back to Luxor.
As usual, thanks for reading. Goodnight!
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