The Temple They Moved Block by Block

Travel Onion · 1:51

In southern Egypt there's a temple cut into a cliff that was sawn into a thousand blocks in the 1960s and rebuilt on higher ground — and the sun still reaches the back of it on the same two mornings a year. Ramses II had Abu Simbel carved out of the rock more than three thousand years ago: four statues of him at the entrance, each about twenty metres high. Sand later buried it almost to the statues' heads, until a Swiss traveller noticed them in 1813. Inside, a hall runs about sixty metres into the rock to a room with four seated gods; twice a year, in February and October, the rising sun shines the whole length of it and lights three of them. The fourth, Ptah, stays in shadow. When the Aswan High Dam was about to drown it, engineers from around the world cut both temples into more than a thousand blocks, lifted them sixty-five metres up the cliff and rebuilt them inside an artificial hill. The same lake covered the homeland of tens of thousands of Nubians, who had to leave. Save this one for the trip you actually take. Follow for more places worth the trip. 📍 PLAN YOUR VISIT — ABU SIMBEL ✈️ Getting there: a short flight or about a three-hour drive south from Aswan; most people come as a day trip 📅 Best time: October to April — the desert summer is fierce. The sun alignment falls around 22 February and 22 October 🎯 Don't miss: the Great Temple at sunrise · the hall and sanctuary · the smaller temple of Queen Nefertari next door · the lake from the forecourt