Relocated temples of Abu Simbel stand on the banks of Lake Nasser

On the western bank of Lake Nasser, two temples stand, meticulously carved into the mountainside during Egypt's 19th Dynasty, under Pharaoh Ramesses II. Originally built to display Egypt's power and Egyptianize the people of Nubia, these temples - the Great Temple, dedicated to the pharaoh, and the Small Temple, dedicated to his chief wife Queen Nefertari - were relocated in 1968. They were moved to higher ground to avoid being submerged by the Aswan Dam reservoir as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, under the supervision of Polish archaeologist Kazimierz Michałowski.

As part of this effort, an artificial hill was made from a domed structure to house the Abu Simbel Temples. The complex is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Nubian Monuments. The temples' huge external rock relief figures of Ramesses II have become iconic, with smaller figures of his wife, Nefertari, and his children visible by his feet. Inside the Great Temple, sculptures commemorate Ramesses II's leadership at the Battle of Kadesh.

For centuries, the temples fell into disuse, and the Great Temple became mostly covered by a sand dune. By the 6th century BC, the sand already covered the statues of the main temple up to their knees. The site remained unknown to Europeans until 1813, when the Swiss researcher Johann Ludwig Burckhardt found the small temple and the top frieze of the main temple.

Today, the complex remains a major site of the ancient Egyptian civilization near the border with Sudan. Located about 230 km southwest of Aswan, the temples stand on the western bank of the reservoir, preserved as a massive record of the building program undertaken by Ramesses II to impress upon the Nubians the might of Egypt.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons