Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

Location: Lake Nasse Map

 

Description of Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

The Temples of Abu Simbel are two rock-cut temples on the western shore of Lake Nasser. They are located in the Egyptian part of Nubia on the southeastern edge of the town of Abu Simbel and were built in the 13th century BC. Built under King (Pharaoh) Ramses II from the 19th Dynasty of the ancient Egyptian New Kingdom.

The rock temples of Abu Simbel, the large temple to the glory of Ramses II and the small Temple of Hathor in memory of Nefertari, his great royal wife, have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. Both temples are no longer in their original location. To save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, the reservoir of the Nile dammed by the Aswan Dam, they were dismantled between 1963 and 1968 and rebuilt 64 meters higher on the Abu Simbel plateau. There they rise today on an island in Lake Nasser, which is connected to the town of Abu Simbel on the northwest side by a navigable causeway.

The name Abu Simbel is a European conversion of the Arabic Abu Sunbul, a derivation from the ancient place name Ipsambul. During the time of the New Kingdom kings, the region where the temples were built was probably called Meha. However, a secure assignment has not yet been made.

In today's Sudan, about 20 kilometers southwest of Abu Simbel and a little north of the second Nile cataract, there was the New Kingdom town of Ibshek with a temple of Hathor of Ibshek, who was also worshiped in the Small Temple of Abu Simbel. This area is now flooded by Lake Nubia.


 Abu Simbel Archaeological Site  Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

Location

Abu Simbel is located in the south of Egypt in the Aswan Governorate (Aswan), not far from the border with Sudan. The Sudanese border in the southwest at the so-called Wadi Halfa Salient is only about 20 kilometers away. Abu Simbel is connected to the governorate capital Aswan, 240 kilometers northeast, by a road that leads through the Libyan Desert west of Lake Nasser. It is mainly used by tourist buses that take visitors to the two temples of Abu Simbel. Lake Nasser is navigable, so the temple area can also be accessed from the lake side. Some cruise ships only sail on the lake above the Aswan Dam. The place can also be reached by air through Abu Simbel Airport.

In the past, Abu Simbel was located on the west bank of the Nile between the first and second cataracts. Cataracts are rapids structured by blocks or rocky bars; they were difficult for Nile shipping to pass, especially when the water was low. Today, the two cataracts mentioned near Aswan and the 65 kilometers southeast of Wadi Halfa in Sudan have sunk into Lake Nasser, which on the Egyptian side is named after Gamal Abdel Nasser, the former Egyptian president from 1954 to 1970. At the time of Ramses II, the southern border of the pharaonic empire was located near the second cataract. The construction of the Abu Simbel temple complex there was intended to demonstrate the power and eternal superiority of Egypt over tributary Nubia.

 

Abu Simbel Archaeological Site

Research history and temple relocation

Discovery of the temples

In 1813, the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817), alias Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah, explored the area south of Kasr Ibrîm in Nubia. On the way back he learned from locals about a particularly beautiful temple on the banks of the Nile near Ebsambal, as the place is later called in Burckhardt's notes. He then reached the Hathor Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel on March 22, 1813. While exploring the area, Burckhardt also found the Great Temple of Ramses II, which was largely hidden by a sand dune. The interior of the temple was inaccessible to him due to the accumulated masses of sand.

About the arrival at the Great Temple, Burckhardt noted in his diary: “My eye fell on the still visible part of four colossal statues... They were in a deep hollow dug into the hill; It's a shame that they were almost completely buried by sand, which the wind causes to fall from the mountain like the water of a torrent. The head and part of the chest and arms of one statue still stick out of the sand. The one next to it is almost impossible to see because its head is missing and its body is covered in sand up to its shoulders. Of the other two, only the headdress stands out.”

After his return to Cairo, Burckhardt described the temples he had discovered to the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823), and he also introduced him to the British Consul General Henry Salt. On behalf of Salt, Belzoni traveled to Nubia in 1817 and visited Abu Simbel. On August 1, 1817, he freed the upper part of the entrance to the Great Temple from sand and penetrated inside. Belzoni wrote of the temple: “Our first impression was that it was obviously a fairly large structure; Our astonishment increased when we discovered that it was an extraordinarily rich sanctuary, decorated with bas-reliefs, paintings and colossal statues of great beauty.”

The scientific study of the temples began in 1828 by a Franco-Tuscan expedition under Jean-François Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini, who created documentation of the temple's condition. Further expeditions to Abu Simbel were led by Robert Hay in 1830 and by Karl Richard Lepsius in 1844. Robert Hay was the first to use technical measures to protect the large temple from being constantly filled with sand. As the temples of Abu Simbel became known in Europe, many travelers to Egypt visited the rock shrines on the Nile as early as the 19th century. Some immortalized themselves by carving their names on the temple facades. At the end of the century, the sand on the seated colossal statues of Ramses II was increasingly removed. However, it was not until 1909 that the facade of the Great Temple was completely exposed to sand.

 

Relocation of the two temples

In the 1950s, the planned construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened the accessibility and architectural integrity of the two temples of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. They would have been flooded by the planned Lake Nasser alongside the temples of Philae, Kalabsha and others. As early as 1955, an international documentation center was founded with the aim of covering the area from Aswan to across the border of Sudan. On March 8, 1960, UNESCO asked for international help to save the temple complex. Among the numerous proposals and plans to save the structures, a Swedish project received approval in June 1963; It called for the dismantling of the temples, the removal of the entire rock mass and the reconstruction at a higher location.

The relocation of the two Abu Simbel temples finally took place between November 1963 and September 1968 as a worldwide joint project. The work was carried out by Egyptian, German, French, Italian and Swedish construction companies. Hochtief led the consortium under the planning of Walter Jurecka. The plan to saw up the temple came from the Swedes. At the inauguration of the dam on January 15, 1971, the then Egyptian President Anwar as-Sadat praised the relocation of the 23 Nubian temples and shrines: “Peoples can achieve miracles when they work together for a good cause.”

For removal and reconstruction, 17,000 holes were first drilled into the rock in order to solidify the rock with 33 tons of epoxy resin. Iron clamps were also used for stabilization. The temples of Abu Simbel were then cut into 1,036 blocks using a wire saw, each weighing between 7 and a maximum of 30 tons. The cuts of the individual blocks are now visible from the outside. Their new location should be approximately 180 meters northwest and 64 meters above the level of the old temple area, with particular emphasis being placed on the exact original orientation (alignment) of the temples. The first block was loaded on May 12, 1965 with the number GA 1A01. In addition to the temple blocks, 1,112 pieces of rock from the immediate surroundings were added to create a true-to-original replica of the temple view at the new location. The completion of the relocation of the temple complex was celebrated with a solemn ceremony on September 22, 1968.

The interior of the temple is held - partly hanging - by reinforced concrete domes above; that of the Great Temple measures 140 meters. So these are no longer real cave temples. The dome is externally hidden by heaped sand, rubble and original rocks (including the original facade), preserving the original impression of a rock temple. For the time, this represented a structural engineering achievement that is occasionally compared to the construction of the temples by Ramses II. The cost of the temple relocation was approximately $80 million, donated by over 50 countries. Abu Simbel was one of the occasions for the adoption of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention and for the creation of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

 

The temple buildings

As a “branch of the royal palace”, the temples took over the representation as a “divine abode” in which the king symbolically invokes the deities through his divine legitimacy as an earthly ruler in order to come into contact with them. The temples thus function as a link between heaven and earth within the framework of the divine celestial cosmology.

Exact data about the planning and construction of the temples at Abu Simbel do not exist, but it can be assumed that the work took place during the time of the Nubian viceroy Iunj: an inscription found near the small temple indicates that the king had entrusted one of his closest confidants to oversee the initial work. In general, the years between 1260 and 1250 BC apply. BC as the presumed time of temple construction. The death of the great royal wife Nefertari Meritenmut around 1255 BC occurred during this period. BC, which played a prominent role at the court from 1279 to 1213 BC. King Ramses II, who reigned in BC, played. It is last mentioned in the 24th year of Ramses II's reign on the occasion of the inauguration of the two temples at Abu Simbel.

The colored reliefs inside the temples provide clues to the time when they were built. In the large temple, for example, military campaigns of Ramses, also from the time as co-regent of his father Seti I, are depicted, which could be dated using other sources. Further clues to the time when the temple complex was built can be found in the way individual people are depicted or positioned. The third-born son of Ramses II, Prince Ramses, son of the second great royal wife Isisnofret, who died before the 26th year of the king's reign, is immortalized three times in the great temple without the death symbol typical of the ancient Egyptians, which indicates a dating of the Interior decoration began before 1253 BC. BC can be concluded.

The daughter of Ramses II and Isisnofret Bintanat was initially referred to with the simple title “King's Daughter” on her sculpture at the feet of the southern colossal statue of the seated king on the outer facade of the large temple, but appears on the lower band of the relief in the large pillared hall, also called Pronaos, already as a great royal wife, a title she had already held before her mother's death in 1246 BC. received. The interior work of the Great Temple must have been completed in the 34th year of Ramses II's reign, as the so-called “wedding stele” to commemorate the king's wedding to the Hittite princess Maathorneferure no longer found a place inside the temple, but rather on the rock wall at the end of the south facade.

The two temples of Abu Simbel were built like traditional Egyptian rock tombs and underground quarries; they were completely cut into the rock massif. Dieter Arnold describes them as “masterpieces of rock architecture, whose importance is only comparable to the Indian rock temples of Ellora”. The Hathor Temple of Nefertari is about half the size of the main temple of Ramses II, which was driven into the rock formation to a depth of 63 meters (measured from the front edge of the foundation). The builders of the king's Great Temple were "a multitude of workmen taken captive by his sword" under the supervision of the chief sculptor Piai, according to an inscription inside the temple.

 

Big temple

Building description and mythological connections

In terms of architectural elements, the great temple of Abu Simbel is the transfer of an Egyptian holy of holies temple into a rock. Here the mountain side serves as a gate system (pylon), where the architect was able to dispense with the flank towers. The temple facade is modeled on such a flank tower. Inside the temple, several halls decorated with writings and wall reliefs line up one behind the other leading up to the sanctuary. The images of the gods worshiped in the temple are placed there. The large temple of Ramses is dedicated to the “Imperial Triad” of the 18th to 20th dynasties, the gods Ptah of Memphis, Amun-Re of Thebes and Re-Harachte of Heliopolis as well as Ramses.

In addition, Horus of Meha (also Harmachis) was worshiped in the relief depictions of the interior of the temple, whereby the god Horus in his sub-form Harachte was also worshiped by merging with Re to form Re-Harachte. Horus and Re-Harachte have the falcon-headed face in common; the difference was the representation of Re-Harachte with a sun disk and uraeus serpent. In some cases, Re-Harachte of Heliopolis was considered to have the same essence as the god Horus, for example in Upper Egyptian Behdet (Edfu). The Horus cult in Meha goes back to this god through King Sesostris III. consecrated four places in Nubia, which, in addition to Meha, included Baki (Quban), Mi'am (Aniba) and Buhen (Wadi Halfa). The royal consecration of Horus in the 12th Dynasty was intended to integrate lower Nubia into Egypt.

The worship of Horus of Meha only played a secondary role in Ramses II's choice of location for the great temple of Abu Simbel, since Horus of Meha was a local god. Rather, as an expression of ancient Egyptian royal philosophy, the temples of Abu Simbel were intended to be symbols of power that sent clear signals to regions near the border. Ramses II wanted to emphasize his status as the “personified son of the god” and his divine legitimacy on earth. This mythological relationship was also manifested in the Pharaoh's name Horus.

There are indications of the appearance of Ramses II as Horus of Meha in the relief depictions of the large temple. The falcon-headed god with a human ear and a ram's horn on the first southern pillar of the large pillar hall, above the depiction of Hathor of Ibshek, the wife of Horus, bears the full first name of Ramses User-maat-Re-setep-en-Re, Ramses himself offers gifts. On the west wall of a side room in this hall, Ramesisumeriamun (Ramses' personal name) with a falcon's head, known as the "Great God", takes the place of Horus of Meha, who is missing there. In addition to him, the scenes there are dedicated to the gods Amun-Re of Thebes, Re-Harachte of Heliopolis, Horus of Buhen, Horus of Mi'am and Horus of Baki.

The great temple of Abu Simbel served in particular to provide a new understanding of the royal philosophy of Ramses, who wanted to be seen as a divinely legitimate ruler on an equal footing with other deities. This can be seen in the four 21 meter high colossal statues of Ramses with the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (Pschent) shown above, whose seated images “guard” the entrance to the Great Temple. The distance between each figure's ears alone is more than four meters, and the lip line is more than a meter long. The two northern seat images bear the inscription: “Ramses, the lover of Amun” and “Ramses, the lover of Atum”, the southern statues “Ramses, sun of the rulers” and “Ramses, ruler of the two lands”.

The royal figure south of the temple entrance is incomplete; parts of the head and torso lie on the ground in front of the facade. It was damaged by an earthquake shortly after the temple complex was built in the 34th year of Ramses II's reign. The colossal statues of the Pharaoh form the main eye-catcher of the 38 meter wide and 32 meter high facade structure. The seated images are placed in pairs on a terrace to the right and left of the temple entrance. A nine-step staircase leads in the middle to its level, from where the gate to the temple can be walked through.

Above the temple facade there is a frieze made up of 16, at least partially preserved, of the former 21 crouching, approximately 2.5 meter high baboons, the so-called sun monkeys or sacred monkeys. It was this frieze that, when the temple was rediscovered in 1813, drew the attention of the Swiss Jean Louis Burckhardt to the Great Temple, which was otherwise completely silted up. The baboon frieze, pictured above this paragraph in a 2009 photo, is the first part of the temple to be illuminated by the rising sun. Below the frieze, placed on the convex cornice of the façade border, a groove with uraeus snakes and characters adorns the upper outer edge of the temple. The snake frieze served to symbolically protect the building. Directly below the uraeus snakes, as part of the actual temple facade, an inscription in hieroglyphs was made as a dedication.

Above the temple entrance in the middle of the facade, Re-Harachte, the sun god of Heliopolis, emerges frontally from a niche. It is provided with the attributes of the sun disk of Re, holding the Wsr symbol in the right hand, a head and stylized neck of an animal meaning "user" - "strong, powerful", and the mate figure in the left for the Egyptian representation of the world order. These symbols can be read as Ramses II's throne name: "User-Maat-Re" - "Strong/powerful is the Maat of Re", which makes the king an incarnation of Re, the "Great Soul of Re-Harachte", becomes. The depiction of Re with the falcon's head also symbolizes the "Red Horus" or "Horus in the Horizon" (Harmachis), a personification of the sunrise, which corresponds to the eastern orientation of the temple entrance. The figure of the god is flanked on both sides by bas-reliefs in which Ramses II offers an image of the goddess Maat to Re-Harachte.

At the feet of the four seated colossal statues of Ramses II at the entrance to the Great Temple are smaller statues representing members of the king's family. To the side and between his legs are the sculptures of his Great Royal Wife Nefertari, his mother and wife of Seti I, Tuja, who bore the title Mut-Tuja as co-regent of Ramses II, and some of the king's children. These include the princes Ramses and Amunherchepeschef as well as the princesses Bintanat, Nebettaui and Meritamun. A fourth princess pictured is nameless. All statues are elevated on the throne bases of the four seated images of Ramses above the terrace level. The bases have reliefs of Nubian and Asian prisoners on the front and sides.

The temple complex, which extends 63 meters into the rock from the edge of the foundation on the facade to the sanctum, the rearmost chamber with the statues of the gods, begins with the large three-aisled pillared hall or pronaos. Two four statue pillars with reliefs divide the 18 meter long and 16.7 meter wide room into three areas. The statues placed in front of the ten meter high pillars form a trellis along the central aisle into the next hall. They show Ramses II, depicted with the attributes and posture of Osiris, on the right with the ancient Egyptian double crown, on the left with the crown of Upper Egypt. However, the inscriptions speak against equating the Pharaoh with Osiris; they place the king in a very complex relationship with the three deities Amun, Atum and Re-Harachte (according to R. Gundlach).

The central nave of the large pillared hall with the royal statues is about twice as wide as the two side aisles behind the four pillars, which are connected to each other by architraves. On the ceiling of the central nave there is a painting with crowned vultures of the goddess Nekhbet spreading their wings, protectively holding feather fans around the king's cartouche in their claws. On the north wall is a 17 meter long and 9 meter high relief depicting the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC. BC against the Hittites, in which neither side was able to force a decision, but it was glorified as a victory. The text, written in hieroglyphs, comes from the court poet Pentaur (pntAwr.t). Even if the victorious depiction did not correspond to the actual events, it still gives an insight into how the Egyptians fought at the time. After further minor disputes, Ramses II concluded in 1259 BC. BC signed a peace treaty with the Hittite Empire.

In the hall you can also see scenes from the battles against Libya, Kush and Retjenu, which the king defeated. The decorations of the hall glorify the military deeds of Ramses II as the victor. In the rear area of the large hall you can access a total of eight side chambers from the side aisles on both sides through four door openings, two of which were antechambers, which were probably used to store supplies or utensils for cult activities in the temple.

On the temple axis, behind the large pillared hall, through an originally two-leaf door, you reach the smaller four-pillared hall with pillars arranged in pairs on both sides of the main aisle, which, like the eight pillars of the large hall, divide the room into three areas under architraves. The pillars are decorated with depictions of the pharaoh's reception and embrace by the gods, a sign of community and favoritism. On the walls of the hall there are liturgical scenes: sacrifice and worship rituals as well as the procession of the sacred barge, the Sunbark. Another door opening leads to the transverse anteroom of the sanctuary. From there you can look into the holy of holies, the sancta sanctorum, on the back wall of which the life-size statues of Ptah, Amun-Re, Ramses II and Re-Harachte are lined up from left to right, sitting on a low stone bench. Here the pharaoh is equal to the triad of gods.

It is striking that the quality of the relief work, in terms of technique and accuracy, gradually decreases towards the rear area of the temple. Additional supporting walls also prove that the Great Temple was damaged by an earthquake during Ramses II's lifetime. This may have been the same quake that brought down the colossal statue of the pharaoh south of the temple entrance.

In front of the temple there are two small chapels to the south and north, of which the northern one is unroofed and represents a sun sanctuary. In the center is an altar with four baboons worshiping the sun, flanked by two obelisks. The northern chapel may represent a birthplace.

 

The miracle of the sun in the Holy of Holies

The “Sun Miracle” of Abu Simbel is an event that takes place twice a year. During a certain period of time, the sun's rays penetrating through the temple entrance illuminate for about 20 minutes three of the four statues of gods depicted in a sitting position in the sanctuary located deep in the temple: Amun-Re from Thebes, the deified Ramses and Re-Harachte from Heliopolis. The leftmost statue of Ptah of Memphis, an earth god associated with the realm of the dead, remains out of sunlight except for his left shoulder.

After the temple complex was completed, this always happened in the fourth month of the seasons Peret (February 21) and Achet (October 21) during the reign of Ramesses II. The different length of a mean solar year compared to the calendar year is responsible for the fact that the azimuth of the sun's position shifts every year. In addition, the leap day that occurs every four years influences the date of the “miracle of the sun”. This results in a fluctuation range of one day in both directions. For this reason, different information about the day of the miracle of the sun is published in the literature and in publications. Assumptions that the relocation of the temple was the cause of the changing days can be ruled out from an astronomical perspective.

Since the miracle of the sun always occurs around the days of October 21st and February 21st, the often stated statements that it takes place on the equinoxes in March and September are also incorrect. The equinoxes between March 19th and 21st and September 22nd or 23rd mark the astronomical beginning of spring and autumn, respectively. They are the same everywhere on earth and do not shift like the calendar equinoxes, so the miracle of the sun has no connection with them.

 

Small temple

About 150 meters northeast of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel stands the so-called small temple; It is dedicated to the goddess Hathor of Ibshek and Nefertari and was called “Nefertari, for whose sake Re shines”. In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was the wife of Horus and the main goddess of the ancient Egyptian town of Ibshek near the temple complex. The appearance of Ramses II in relation to his kingship corresponded to the falcon-headed Horus in the large temple. With a similar theological focus, he had the smaller temple built for his great royal wife Nefertari, who here represents the goddess Hathor as the royal wife. A pillar inscription inside the temple reads: "Ramses, strong in truth, beloved of Amun, created this heavenly abode for his beloved royal consort Nefertari."

The facade of the small temple is also sunk into the rock. The figures carved out of the rock face, standing upright and at ground level, with each left leg placed slightly forward, show Ramses II and his wife Nefertari as Hathor. The six statues are separated from each other by pillars with deeply carved hieroglyphs and are all the same size, over ten meters high. This represented a special distinction for Nefertari, as the wives of the kings were usually depicted smaller than them, as was also the case in the large temple at Abu Simbel. Here the children of the royal couple stand in reduced size next to the statues of their parents, the princes Amunherchepeschef, Paraherwenemef, Merire and Meriatum as well as the princesses Meritamun and Henuttaui.

The two figures of the queen carry on their heads the sun disk with two large feathers between the horns of the “cow goddess” Hathor, each holding a sistrum in their left hand, an instrument consecrated to Hathor. They are each flanked by four differently depicted royal statues. On the left side of the facade, the two statues of the king wear the crown of Upper Egypt, the statue to the right of the entrance is decorated with the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and the head of the statue of Ramses on the right side of the facade is covered with a headdress with ram's horns, which is surrounded by a sun disk surmounted by two large ostrich feathers. This is the Henu crown, also called the “ostrich feather crown” or “Henu crown of the morning house” (Egyptian: henu en per-duat aa cheperu). Among other things, it was an insignia worn at coronations and possibly a sign of royal rebirth. The images of the king are depicted with the typical Egyptian apron and ceremonial beard.

The small temple leads 21 meters into the rock formation, built like the large temple with the sanctuary at the end, but with a simpler floor plan. The gate to the temple is crowned by a bas-relief beneath a frieze of uraeus snakes. Above the snake frieze are the cartouches with the name Ramses II. In the entrance area there are relief depictions on both sides, on the left hand with the king paying homage to the goddess Hathor by giving a gift, on the right with a scene of worship of Isis by Nefertari. You then enter a three-aisled hall, the three areas of which are divided by three pillars each connected with architraves along the central aisle. Towards the central nave, the pillars have stylized heads of the face of the goddess Hathor. Among them, events from the lives of Nefertari and Ramses are described in hieroglyphs.

The six-pillar hall of the small temple, the first room in the temple also called Pronaos, is predominantly decorated with scenes of a religious nature. Various deities from Egyptian mythology are depicted on the sides of the Hathor pillars. The walls of the hall show ritual killings of Libyan and Nubian enemies by Ramses II in the face of the gods Re and Amun, accompanied by Nefertari standing behind him with a Hathor headdress. In other scenes, the king presents offerings to various deities.

From the six-pillar hall you can reach the transverse anteroom of the sanctuary through three door openings, corresponding to the division of the hall with the Hathor pillars into three areas. There is an unadorned room on each of its north and south sides. In the middle of the room, on the main axis of the temple, another doorway opens the way to the inner sanctum of the small temple of Abu Simbel. In a niche slightly to the right on the back wall, the goddess Hathor is depicted in the form of a sacred cow between two pillars. Nefertari is addressed here as a manifestation of the goddess Hathor, which is comparable to the depictions of Hatshepsut in her temple in Deir el-Bahari. The reliefs show coronation scenes and the protection of the queen by goddesses of love and fertility.