Egypt: Day Eleven, Part Two

But why is Abu Simbel out here in the middle of what was - and still is - nowhere?  Ahmed explains to us as we stand outside, marveling at the size and beauty of the monument.  Why?  Because this monument was built in the land of the enemies of Ramses and not in Egypt proper.  Ramses represented himself as a god and his subjects wouldn’t let him do that farther north.  Besides, given the frescoes inside the temple, it’s a word of warning to all the Nubian enemies who would see them.
       My knowledge of Abu Simbel proved totally insufficient, faced with the actual edifice. First of all, there’s not one temple but two, side by side.  The larger one, the one I’d always known of, is the Temple of Ramses II and commemorates his victory over the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh.  The smaller temple next to the first was built for his favorite wife, Nefertari, and is dedicated to the worhip of the goddess Hathor.
       Outside the large temple - 115 feet wide and 100 feet high - are huge 66-foot-tall statues of Ramses, seated two on each side of the entrance.  In the middle, over the door, is Ra, the sun god with a falcon’s head, and above it all runs a frieze of 22 baboons worshiping the rising sun.  At the pharaoh's feet are smaller statues of his wife, children and mother.  The hieroglyphs spell out all the different honorific titles of Ramses.

As much as I’d looked at the facade of Abu Simbel in picture after picture, I’d never given any thought to what was inside.  In fact, I didn’t even know there was an inside.  The idea didn’t even cross my mind after seeing all those other temples.  And yet... when I walk inside the monument - no photos allowed - I’m blown away by what I see.  Every square inch of the walls and ceiling is covered with carvings and colors!
       To the right and left of the central axis are the enemies of Ramses:  the Nubians on one side and the “Asians “ on the other.  On both walls are scenes of battle and many showing prisoners with their hands tied behind their backs.  One huge part of that “Asian” wall depicts the Battle of Kadesh where Ramses defeated the Hittites.  In one image Ramses is shown aiming his bow and arrow, but the bow and arrow are depicted twice, shifted a slight few inches of each other, as if Ramses is in the process of raising his arm, to show motion, because it’s too definitive an effect to be a mere carving mistake.
       There are eight side rooms, four to a side.  Each is just as ornate in its decoration as the central hallway.  They show many symbols of the unification of the two Egypts, with each region’s plants and gods represented.  In one of the “Asian” side chambers there is still ancient blue paint on the beard, neckband, armbands, belt and bracelets of the people depicted, as well as on the ceiling and the heiroglyphs.

       As this temple was built to the glory of Ramses but also that of the sun god, there’s a special feature on the back wall:  four statues of different gods.   These statues stand in the shadows... except twice a year.  The temple was aligned, set up - and relocated - to celebrate the Miracle of the Sun.  Like Stonehenge and other ancient monuments, sun worship was important.  So twice a year - on February 22 and October 22 - the sun’s rays penetrate 213 feet inside the temple at daybreak and reach this back wall.  Sunlight touches only the right shoulder of the god on the left, because he is Ptah, the Lord of Darkness (and of workers).  But the other three statues - all linked with sun-god Ra - receive the sun’s full rays:   Amon-Ra, Ramses II himself as sun-god, and Ra-Horakhty, a combination of Ra and Horus.

The Small Temple "next door" is only the second temple ever built to a queen, the other being to Akhenaten’s queen, Nefertiti.  Outside, the statues are “only” 35 feet high.  On each side of the entrance stands Nefertari, with husband Ramses on either side, and all of these statues hold offerings in their hands.  There’s something infinitely interesting about these statues, and it shows Ramses’s immense love for Nefertari.  These six standing statues are all of the same height.  It was the first and only time a queen was ever memorialized as being as tall, and therefore as powerful, as the pharaoh.
       The temple was once painted red.  The decoration inside is almost as splendid as that in the larger temple.  There is a scene of a bull in a boat sailing through the bullrushes that is quite striking.  Another that caught my eye was one of offering cups with heads on the base and handle.

I leave Abu Simbel with even greater admiration for the workers who built it, and filled with amazement at the ego of the pharaoh behind it all.

N.B.  As I said above, no photos are allowed inside the tomb.  Otherwise I'd still be in there!  You'll just have to find some on the internet.  Sorry.