Abu Simbel: Egypt
Abu Simbel in Upper Egypt was
saved from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, growing behind the Aswan
Dam, in a massive archaeological rescue plan sponsored by UNESCO in
the 1960s. The complex of temples dedicated to the Pharaoh Ramsis II
"the Great" remain an evocative and unforgettable destination. Abu
Simbel is a village lying 280 km south of Aswan and only 40 km north of
the Sudanese border. It is a very small settlement with very little to
attract visitors other than its great temples for which it is famous.
Few tourists linger for more than a few hours, although there are 5
hotels to attract visitors to stay the night.The
temples at Abu Simbel were formerly located further down the hillside,
facing the Nile in the same relative positions, but due to the rising
waters of Lake Nasser, the original locations are underwater. In the 1960's, each temple was carefully sawed into numbered stone cubes, moved uphill, and reassembled before the water rose.
The
Great Temple of Ramses II was reassembled fronting a fake mountain,
built like a domed basketball court, where the stone cubes occupy a
section under the dome; from outside, the fake mountain looks like solid
rock.
Archaeologists
have concluded that the immense sizes of the statues in the Great
Temple were intended to scare potential enemies approaching Egypt's
southern region, as they travelled down the Nile from out of Africa.
The
Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which took about twenty years to build, was
completed around year 24 of the reign of Ramesses the Great (which
corresponds to 1265 BCE). It was dedicated to the
gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Rameses
himself. It is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of
the temples commissioned during the reign of Rameses II, and one of the
most beautiful in Egypt.
Four
colossal 20 meter statues of the pharaoh with the double Atef crown of
Upper and Lower Egypt decorate the facade of the temple, which is 35
meters wide and is topped by a frieze with 22 baboons, worshippers of
the sun and flank the entrance.The colossal statues were sculptured
directly from the rock in which the temple was located before it was
moved. All statues represent Ramesses II, seated on a throne and wearing
the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the left of
the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part
of the statue still intact. The head and torso can still be seen at the
statue's feet.
Next
to the legs of the colossi, there are other statues no higher than the
knees of the pharaoh.These depict Nefertari, Ramesses's chief wife, and
queen motherMut-Tuy, his first two sons Amun-her-khepeshef, Ramesses,
and his first six daughters Bintanath, Baketmut,
Nefertari, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Isetnofret.
The
entrance itself is crowned by a bas-relief representing two images of
the king worshiping the falcon-headed Ra Harakhti, whose statue stands
in a large niche.This god is holding the hieroglyph “user” and a feather
in his right hand, with Ma'at, (the goddess of truth and justice) in
his left; this is nothing less than a gigantic cryptogram for Ramesses
II's throne name, User-Maat-Re. The facade is topped by a row of
22 baboons, their arms raised in the air, supposedly worshipping the
rising sun. Another notable feature of the facade is a stele which
records the marriage of Ramesses with a daughter of king Hattusili III,
which sealed the peace between Egypt and the Hittites.
The
inner part of the temple has the same triangular layout that most
ancient Egyptian temples follow, with rooms decreasing in size from the
entrance to the sanctuary. The temple is complex in structure and quite
unusual because of its many side chambers. The hypostyle hall (sometimes
also called a pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16.7 meters wide and is
supported by eight huge Osirid pillars depicting the deified Ramses
linked to the god Osiris, the god of the Underworld, to indicate the
everlasting nature of the pharaoh. The colossal statues along the
left-hand wall bear the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the
opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower
Egypt (pschent).The bas-reliefs on the walls of the pronaos depict
battle scenes in the military campaigns the ruler waged. Much of the
sculpture is given to the Battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes river in
present-day Syria, in which the Egyptian king fought against
the Hittites. The most famous relief shows the king on his chariot
shooting arrows against his fleeing enemies, who are being taken
prisoner.Other scenes show Egyptian victories in Libya and Nubia.
From the hypostyle hall, one enters the second pillared hall, which has four pillars decorated with beautiful scenes of offerings to the gods. There are depictions of Ramesses and Nefertari with the sacred boats of Amun and Ra-Harakhti. This hall gives access to a transverse vestibule in the middle of which is the entrance to the sanctuary. Here, on a black wall, are rock cut sculptures of four seated figures: Ra-Horakhty, the deified king Ramesses, and the gods Amun Ra and Ptah. Ra-Horakhty,Amun Ra and Ptah were the main divinities in that period and their cult centers were at Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis respectively.