Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel temples
The Great Temple of Ramesses II (left) and the Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari (right).
Abu Simbel is located in Egypt
Abu Simbel
Shown within Egypt
Abu Simbel is located in Northeast Africa
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel (Northeast Africa)
LocationAswan Governorate, Egypt
RegionNubia
Coordinates22°20′13″N 31°37′32″E / 22.33694°N 31.62556°E / 22.33694; 31.62556
TypeTemple
History
BuilderRamesses II
FoundedApproximately 1264 BC
PeriodsNew Kingdom of Egypt
Official nameNubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae
TypeCultural
Criteriai, iii, vi
Designated1979 (3rd session)
Reference no.88
RegionArab States

Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel (Arabic: أبو سمبل), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is located on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan (about 300 km (190 mi) by road). The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Their huge external rock relief figures of Ramesses II have become iconic. His wife, Nefertari, and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Sculptures inside the Great Temple commemorate Ramesses II's heroic leadership at the Battle of Kadesh.

The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 to higher ground to avoid it being submerged by Lake Nasser, the Aswan Dam reservoir. As part of International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, an artificial hill was made from a domed structure to house the Abu Simbel Temples, under the supervision of a Polish archaeologist, Kazimierz Michałowski, from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw.[1][2]

The Abu Simbel complex, and other relocated temples from Nubian sites such as Philae, Amada, Wadi es-Sebua, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Nubian Monuments.[2]

  1. ^ "Abu Simbel". pcma.uw.edu.pl. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  2. ^ a b Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae". whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-02-24.