11/12/2024
Abu Simbel: My favorite temple in Egypt 🇪🇬 Unknown to the outside world until their rediscovery in 1813 ✨
The twin temples were built to serve as a lasting monument to the king and his queen Nefertari, located south of Aswan along Lake Nasser’s shore is the most famous in all of Egypt after the Giza Pyramids.
Built by the greatest of the pharaohs, Ramesses II, which made it also known as the Temple of Ramses II or Ramesses II, these huge rock-cut temples marked the southern boundary of the Egyptian Empire with Nubia at the peak of its power during the New Kingdom.
They were meant to convey the power of Egypt’s rulers to anyone who laid eyes upon them. The four statues guarding the doorway to the larger of these temples are the largest sculptures that survive from the ancient Pharaonic era.
After being lost form civilization for a while, the Abu Simbel Temples was rediscovered in 1813 by Swiss explorer John Lewis Burckhardt. The temples had long been forgotten and the sands of the desert had covered all but the tops of the heads of the huge statues in front of their entrances.
Since 1909 when the sand was finally cleared away, these twin temples have become the most famous site in Egypt’s south.
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