Day 275 - Simultaneously Horrified and Fascinated

We flew from Luxor to see the temple of Abu Simbel, next to the Aswan Dam in Nubia, Southern Egypt. The temple was carved out of solid rock, and would have been flooded when the Aswan Dam was built on the Nile, but it was moved, block by block, in 1968 and although the hill appears to be solid stone (you can still see the outlines of the blocks above the carved facade) it is actually hollow and supported by an internal steel structure.

The temple had to be precisely moved so that on a certain days (February 22nd & October 22nd by our calendar) the first beam of light at sunrise shines directly down into the interior of the temple from the entrance opening and hits the face of a sculpture on the back wall as the Egyptian Architects intended (note: this is quite a distance, at least 100 ft from memory). It is not known what significance these dates had to contemporary Egyptian culture, but historians have speculated it was an anniversary of the Pharoah's rule.

The Temples at Abu Simbel were built by Ramesses II in approximately 1264BC.

Moving the Temples block by Block:

Scale model of the original and relocated positions showing the water level of the new dam.

My Photos. You can see evidence of the blocks above the carvings:

Those of you familiar with pre-digital photography will recognise the 'end of roll/not wound on properly' double exposure!

Some of the steel structure near an exit from the internal cavern, showing the dammed water in the background. The dam contains crocodiles, whereas the water the other side of the is said to be crocodile free. I'm not sure how true this is!