City of Abu Simbel :
City of Egypt on Lake Nasser, Abu Simbel is situated 290 km from Aswan not far from the Sudanese border.Access is by plane and also by road, in perfect condition, from Aswan. Abu Simbel is easily explored on foot in one day.
On the plane taking me to Abu Simbel, I look out the window this huge lake that has displaced more than 100,000 Nubians and engulfed towns, villages and temples (both speak the Nubian culture). Between 1963 and 1970 fourteen buildings were saved at the cost of a titanic work. Abu Simbel is the most famous of them. It seems always to have been there, hieratic in the desert, far, far from Thebes, the capital of the Pharaohs located some 1000 km further north. Hard to realize that the original location of the Abu Simbel temple is 65m lower under water and that each of the Colossi of 20m high was cut and reassembled block by block. Ramses II, the builder of genius, would not have denied such a performance. Its four gigantic statues are always serene, wearing beard hairpiece, Nemes and pschent -the attributes of his Rang facing the sunset.
His mother, Queen Tuya, his wife Nefertari and her daughter seem Meritamun snuggling between the huge legs of pharaoh protector and warrior like like to remind the frescoes engraved on the interior walls of the narthex. The sun itself participates in the omnipotence of the king. 20 February and 20 October, dates of birth and coronation of Ramses, its rays pass through the temple sanctuary until illuminating one by one the statues of Amun-Re, Ramesses II and Re-Horakhty. One remains in the shadows, that of Ptah, the god of death. Ramses, no doubt, knew he was immortal. The best evidence: he was also rescued from the water!
To know :
Between 1963 and 1970 fourteen buildings were saved at the cost of a titanic work. Abu Simbel is the most famous of them. The temple seems to have always been there, hieratic in the desert, far, far from Thebes, the capital of the Pharaohs located some 1000 km further north. Hard to realize that the original location is 65m lower under water and that each of the Colossi of 20m high was cut and reassembled block by block. Ramses II, the builder of genius, would not have denied such a performance. Put it also identical, the temple of Hathor dedicated to Queen Nefertari, wife of Pharaoh, adds to the magic of the place. Clad colossus of Ramesses, these two temples seem to keep an invisible door, that of the omnipotence of the Pharaohs face of nothingness, facing barbarism of land lifeless and hopeless.
