Abu Simbel Temples

Egypt, Egypt

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The Abu Simbel Temples in southern Egypt are two massive rock‑cut temples carved into a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile, near the border with Sudan. They were built in the 13th century BCE by Pharaoh Ramesses II, featuring the larger “Great Temple” with four towering seated statues of the king himself and a smaller temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor and his queen Nefertari, where her statues are unusually as large as his. The Great Temple is famous for its precise alignment so that sunlight reaches the inner sanctuary and illuminates three of the four main statues twice a year, a phenomenon that modern visitors still come to see. Originally facing the river, the temples were moved block‑by‑block to higher ground between 1964 and 1968 to save them from flooding caused by the Aswan High Dam, in one of the most ambitious international conservation projects of the 20th century.