Moving Abu Simbel

In the early 1970s, I had an acquaintance who was a tour bus driver for San Francisco’s Grey Line Tours. He liked to embellish the script with some of his own ‘information, telling his riders that Angel Island was once one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, and was towed to its current location in the 1930s. A few people openly marveled at this amazing feat of engineering.

Without a doubt, towing Angel Island anywhere would be a trick. But the world has seen real engineering and artistic tricks of a magnitude that have made generations of viewers gasp, quake, point, and weep openly. My wife and I were among such visitors during our recent trip to Egypt, where we were amazed by the two Temples of Abu Simbel.

The temples at Abu Simbel, located about 180 miles south of Aswan, in southern Egypt, were carved out of a mountain during the reign of Ramesees II about 3300 years ago. Those in the know believe construction began in about 1240 BCE and took about 20 years to complete. One temple pays homage to Ramesses, and the other celebrates his wife, Nefertari.

As the empire of Ancient Egypt declined, Abu Simbel and other temples were lost to the sands of the desert, and nearly completely covered by the time of the founding of Islam. In the early 19th century, Europeans ‘rediscovered’ the monument and began the restoration.

The sheer monumental size of the exterior carving is enough to make the most jaded traveler gape, open mouthed in astonishment. There are four 60 foot relief carvings that adorn the face of the monument, each embellished with smaller, intricate work. But, wait: there’s more. The inner temple extends some 200 feet into the mountain. Its hall is lined with more statues, each more than 20 feet high. The walls are carved with depictions of Ramesses victories over the Nubians who lived in this part of the world. All of this massive carving was done with stone and copper tools. The carved artwork was then painted with gorgeously vibrant colors.  Because this has all been preserved underground, the colors appear as if they were applied yesterday.

At the terminus of the hall lies the sanctuary where four figures are carved into the wall: Ramesses and the three main gods of the time, including Ptah, the god of the underworld. The temple was constructed in such a way that twice a year, on the solstices, the sun would illuminate three of the figures. Only Ptah was left in the dark.

But this is only half the story.

When the Aswan High Dam was built in the early 1960s, the water began to back up to form a lake that’s about 2000 square miles in surface area.  The lake inundated a large part of what was once the kingdom of Nubia. The temples at Abu Simbel were destined to be lost to the rising waters.

With the help of several European nations and the U.S., a relocation project was undertaken to save the monument. Under the administration of UNESCO, the salvage operation was begun in 1964 and completed in 1968 at a cost of $40 million (in 1968 $$). Here’s what they did: they cut up and moved the whole mountain 200 feet higher and 600 feet back from the anticipated level of the lake.  That’s right. They meticulously cut the whole mountain into blocks of some 20 tons, and reassembled it farther down the road, away from the water.  The whole mountain. Outside parts and inside parts. Statues, carvings, blemishes and all, preserving it in its then-present condition.

Worried about the fragility of the temple, the blocks were cut largely by hand.  Workers using two-person hand saws with special blades, carefully removed the immense statues from the face of the mountain. Each huge block of stone was exquisitely crated, numbered, stored, and painstakingly put back together. The whole mountain.

During our trip, we had traveled by small boat (32 passengers) from Luxor up river to Aswan. Aswan was the main quarry for Ancient Egypt’s granite, and the remains of multiple quarries are evident all over. There’s even a quarry “attraction” on the south end of the city, in which you can see a nearly complete 75 foot obelisk. The obelisk cracked, so was never finished.

We stayed at the Hotel Basma Aswan, which was quite nice, had a picturesque view of the Nile. However, a “sculpture workshop park” was placed next door, so the area was gritty with granite dust, and the constant noise of hammering and grinding was another unfortunate distraction  The hotel was also just a few blocks from the Nubian Museum — a terrific regional showcase for the history and art of the region.

The temples at Abu Simbel were the highlight of our Egypt trip. Although a three-hour schlep by motor coach one-way from Aswan, the place and its amazing story made me think again about my Grey Line friend, and how his Angel Island tale might not be so off-the-wall.

David Begun lives in Veneta, Oregon with his trophy wife, Bea Mandel. (Editor’s note: Yes, said trophy wife would be my mom.)