Temple of Ramses The Second, Kalabsha Island, Egypt
These rock-cut temples are located in the ancient Wawat in Nubia, near the borders of Sudan, about 300 kilometers from Aswan. Earlier temples in Nubia had been located within forts, but here the confidence of Ramses II, whose reign may have lasted as many as 67 years, is illustrated; these temples, probably once brightly colored, were cut into the natural rock and lapped by the Nile. After eleven centuries of oblivion, these temples were rediscovered in 1813 when Johann Ludwig Burckhardt saw by accident the upper parts of the colossal figures. In 1817 Giovanni Battista Belzoni found the entrance, partially freed from the sand. In the following years these temples were often partially covered by shifting sands.
Today visitors see the reconstructed temples now relocated on higher ground 60 meters directly above their earlier position after the heroic international rescue efforts to save these treasures from Lake Nasser.
Epic Egypt Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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