Four sixty-foot Ramesses, a solar alignment twice a year, and the whole thing cut up and lifted 65 metres.
Ramesses II had Abu Simbel cut directly into a sandstone cliff around 1264 BC, at the southern edge of his territory, facing Nubia. The message was not subtle: four seated colossi of himself, each roughly twenty metres high, visible to anyone arriving from the south.
Inside, the great hall runs sixty metres into the rock. Twice a year — in late February and late October — the rising sun reaches the length of it and lights three of the four gods in the innermost sanctuary. Ptah, god of the underworld, stays in shadow. Whether that was designed or discovered, nobody can now prove.
The extraordinary part is modern. When the High Dam was built in the 1960s the site was to be drowned by Lake Nasser. Between 1964 and 1968 the entire complex was sawn into more than a thousand blocks, some weighing thirty tonnes, lifted 65 metres up and 200 metres back, and reassembled inside an artificial hill. The joins are visible if you look for them.
Twice a year — in late February and late October — the rising sun reaches the length of it and lights three of the four gods in the innermost sanctuary.
Practically: it is about three hours south of Aswan by road, so trips leave very early or run overnight. Go inside — the exterior is the famous image, but the painted hall behind it is the reason to make the journey.
