History indicates that Ramses’ expansionist vision of again annexing Asia Minor was foiled by the Hittites at Kadesh, but you would not know it when ‘reading’ the reliefs inside the right-hand wall, where he is shown leading his warriors into battle and destroying his enemies.
At the far end of the temple lies the sanctuary where the three gods of Memphis - Ptah, Amun-Re and Re-Harakhte – are seated and where on the 21st of February and October each year were illuminated by the rays of the rising sun. Next to this massive temple lies another, this time dedicated to Nefertari, Ramses II’s wife. She too is deified here, her image mixed with that of Hathor to whom the temple is ostensibly dedicated.
The site of these temples is a modern construction phenomenon; originally they were some 60m lower but, as with Philae, they were de-constructed by UNESCO and reassembles higher up to prevent the rising waters of Lake Nasser swamping them when the New Dam was built at Aswan. As a result the sun now illuminates the Sanctuary in the Great Temple on the morning of the 22nd of February and October each year, one day later than in Pharaonic times.
Nile Valley, Egypt
Kalabsha Temple was another monument saved from the rising waters of Lake Nasser along with Abu Simbel and the temples at Wadi as-Subua. Kalabsha is a Ptolemaic-era temple dating from the reign of Aug...
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Nile Valley, Egypt
Some 145 km south of Aswan can be found another temple complex saved from Lake Nasser by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. The Valley of the Lions or temples of the Wadi as-Subua are so named be...
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