Three millennia ago Egypt was at the height of its Empire. After the war campaigns of Senusret III and a period of splendour and Egyptian pax during the government of Amenhotep III, and having saved a phase of weakness and decadence led by pharaohs like Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, the times of splendour returned with the help of a new dynasty.
Ramesses II was a warrior pharaoh who turned to war campaigns to maintain the dominion of the empire and stop the increasingly daring Hittite invasions. The battle of Kadesh between both armies should have been the turning point but ended practically in stalemates.
However the capacity of Ramesses for self-glorification was proverbial and not only he attributed himself an overwhelming victory but he sowed the country with monuments commemorating the feat. The temple of Abu Simbel is perhaps the most spectacular.
It is a hemi-speos, that is to say, excavated in the rock (in fact the name means pure mountain), which was endowed with an imposing facade of 34 meters high and 38 meters wide with four giant statues of the pharaoh himself (22 meters, measure).
It took 20 years to build (1284-1264 B.C.) on the border with Nubia because it was there that the flooding of the Nile entered Egyptian soil, and the bellicose local inhabitants were impressed. Furthermore, another temple was built next to it (dedicated to the goddess Hathor and to the favorite wife of Ramesses, Nefertari), also great although somewhat smaller.
Abu Simbel, which remained forgotten for centuries after being buried by tons of desert sand, was rediscovered in 1813 but entered the History of Art with capital letters already in the twentieth century, when the project to build the Aswan dam threatened to flood it under the waters of Lake Nasser along with many other monuments.
UNESCO launched an initiative to save it in 1959 and, with the funds raised, proceeded to dismantle it stone by stone to rebuild it 210 meters beyond, at 65 meters of height, safe from any flood.
Thanks to this, today it is a World Heritage Site and Spain, which collaborated in the works, received as a reward the Temple of Debod, installed in Madrid.
One of the peculiarities of this temple is that twice a year it is crossed by the rays of the sun from the entrance to the sancta-sanctorum, passing through the pronaos and the halls of colossus and hypostyle and, at the end, illuminating for 20 minutes the statues of the gods Amun, Ra-Heractates and the pharaoh himself divinized, leaving the statue of Ptah dark because it represents the darkness.
Traditionally, it occurred 61 days before and after the winter solstice, on 21 October and 21 February, anniversaries of the coronation and birth of the pharaoh respectively, but since the transfer, and due to the displacement of the Tropic of Cancer during the last 3280 years, the calendar was slightly out of phase, shifting to 22 October and 20 February.
Those days are when the perpendicular call takes place, celebrated by the present Egyptians with parties and spectacles. If somebody has a chance to be there, don’t miss it.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 6th, 2018. Puedes leer la versión en español en El alineamiento solar que ocurre dos veces al año en el templo de Abu Simbel
- Share on:
Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A heroon with intact tombs filled with luxurious jewels and lions sculpted in Pentelic marble, found in the ancient Greek city of Ripes in Achaea
At the beginning of October, the systematic archaeological excavation season concluded on the Trapezá plateau, located eight kilometers southwest of Aigio, Greece. This site is identified with the ancient city…
Statue Possibly Representing Cleopatra VII and Numerous Coins Featuring Her Effigy Found at the Temple of Taposiris Magna, West of Alexandria
The Egyptian-Dominican archaeological mission, led by Dr. Kathleen Martínez in collaboration with the National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU), has made new discoveries at the Temple of Taposiris Magna, located…
Roman Soldier Flaccus’ Tomb Discovered in the Netherlands, Dating to the Late 1st Century BCE
In late November 2024, during archaeological investigations conducted in Heerlen (Netherlands), an exceptional discovery was made: the tomb of a Roman soldier named Flaccus. This find, dating to the late…
The Mystery of the Mardaites: The Christian Highlanders Who Maintained Their Autonomy Between Byzantium and the Caliphate
In the province of Hatay, in southern Turkey, there is a mountain range locally known as Nur Dağları. Arabs call it Jabal al-Lukkam, and in Spanish, its Greek name, Amanus,…
The Jaxartes River, the Battle Where Alexander Defeated the Scythians Using Catapults, Wounded and with Nearly His Entire Army Sick with Dysentery
As its name indicates, the Spanish Cape of Finisterre (finis terrae) was considered in Antiquity as the westernmost limit of the known world. But where was the eastern border located…
Nature of the Enigmatic “Armas de la tierra” of the Coronado Expedition in the 16th Century Revealed
Recent research has unveiled the nature of the weaponry used by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition (which crossed the present-day U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas),…
A Megalography Depicting a Rare Mythological Scene of Achilles and Bronze Statuettes Found in a Roman “Domus” in Reims
The urban organization of Durocortorum, the Gallo-Roman city now known as Reims in France, faithfully adhered to the principles of Roman urbanism. The city was divided into blocks bounded by…
Neolithic Rondel Found in Poland Reveals These Ceremonial Centers May Have Been Managed by Organizations Similar to Secret Societies 7,000 Years Ago
An archaeological discovery in the locality of Nowe Objezierze, in the northwest of Poland, has led to a significant breakthrough in understanding the Neolithic societies of Central Europe. An interdisciplinary…
New Geoarchaeological Evidence Challenges the Identification of Kalkriese Hill as the place of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Kalkriese Hill, located in northwestern Germany, has been identified for decades as a potential site of the historic Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, a decisive confrontation between…
The Newly Formed Earth Was a Dry and Hot Place: A Theory Explains How Water Arrived Here and on Other Planets of the Solar System
A group of scientists from the Paris Observatory has proposed a new theory about how water arrived on Earth, a key question for understanding the emergence of life on our…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
_-_Egypt-10C-024.jpg){kind=link}