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The master was Ramses II, one of
Egypt's greatest pharaohs.
Ramses II built two magnificient temples with the grandest and
most complete example of ancient Egyptian architecture.
The larger temple celebrates the
Pharaoh himself, while the smaller one honours his wife Queen
Nefertari. the temples, built originally to impress the
Nubians with the power and glory of the New Kingdom, continue
to cast their spell on
visitors to this day.
 When
the Aswan High Dams project threatened to
submerge the temples, an
international salvage action
under the auspices of UNESCO
conceived the almost audacious plan moving to a higher level.
As a result, the buildings themselves as well as part of the
surrounding rocks were hewn into blocks of thirty tons each
and built up again in and around a concrete skeleton
framework, sixty-four meters higher up and one hundred and
eighty meters further inland.
The Great Temple was dedicated
to the god Re-Harakhti, the god of the Rising Sun. The second
temple, smaller than the first rises few meters away from it.
It was built by Ramses
for his beautiful wife Nefertari,
to be worshipped there with another goddess, Hator.
The two temples attracted the
attention of the world when they were threatened by
the waters of the High Dam.
Responding to Egypt's appeal,
UNESCO organised a donation campaign in 1959, to recover part
of the oldest civilization in the world.
Among the nubian temples:
1) TEMPLE OF BEIT EL-WALI
One of the five temples built by Ranses II in Nubia. During
the Christian era, some parts of the temples were coverted
into a church. Its reliefs are of great historic and artistic
value.
2) THE TEMPLE OF KALABSHA
It was moved, in 1964, from its original site to another near
the High Dam site. It was erected in the days of the Roman
Emperor, Octavious August (30 B.C.)
3) DAKKA TEMPLE It
was constructed by the Nubian King Argamon in 250 B.C. This
temple has a special historic importance, because there the
Roman army fough against Nubian forces under the leadership of
a woman called Kandaki in 23 B.C. This woman became so famous
that her name became thetitle of all Nubian queens.
To know more about the fascinating world
of ancient Egypt, come and visit the land of pharaohs
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