Backside of the hillock holding the temple of Abu Simbel in south Egypt

The current structure of the temple at Abu Simbel is a mix of old and new. The temple was originally built during the time of the Great Pharaoh Ramesses II, and served as a reminder to the people in the area and visitors from Nubia making their way on the Nile to Egypt about the greatness of the pharaoh for having constructed such a huge structure. However, the plans for the construction of the High Dam at Aswan envisaged the creation of a huge fresh water reservoir which would contain the dammed up water of the River Nile, leading to the creation of Lake Nasser. The high waters of the lake were going to submerge the temple, and hence it was moved to a higher level but with exactly the same configuration (including the light effect where twice a year light from the sun would reach inside the inner sanctum of the temple and light up some of the gods but not the god of the underworld).

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Small hillocks in the distance while traveling from Aswan to Abu Simbel in Egypt

The distance from Aswan to Abu Simbel is of approximately 260 km by road, and a fairly non-crowded road it is. There are 3 main ways that tourists get from Aswan to Abu Simbel, these being through road, through a flight to the small airport at Abu Simbel, and through cruise ship on Lake Nasser from Aswan to Abu Simbel. The road from Aswan to Abu Simbel is a straight road without many disturbances (with very little traffic on the road); due to security constraints, vehicles are only allowed from Aswan twice a day in convoys (which can contain a large number of vehicles) with police protection. On the way, there are hillocks that can be visible in the distance, such as these hillocks in the photo. I liked this photo, where there is a combination of hillocks in the distance, clouds covering the sky and an overall feeling of emptiness.

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Hillock housing the statues of Abu Simbel along with greenery in a cloudy sky in Egypt

Photo depicting the hillock and the surroundings of the Abu Simbel temple in South Egypt. Out of the many monuments in Egypt dating to the time of the pharaohs, the more famous ones are the Pyramids and the Sphinx, but Abu Simbel is also one of the much visited ones. It is located in an isolated area, on the shores of the River Nile, at a distance of 260km from the nearest major civilization center, the city of Aswan (and would take around 3 hours to get there by road (in regulated convoys twice a day)). The hillock shown in the photo is an artificial hillock, constructed to move the temple when it was saved in an incredible engineering feat, moved from a lower level where it would have been submerged by the rising water levels of Lake Nasser.

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Hillock and view of Lake Nasser at the Abu Simbel temple in south Egypt

The temple of Abu Simbel in South Egypt is a very famous temple, famous because of the location and grandeur of the temple as well as the effort needed for the conservation of the temple. Due to the construction of the High Dam at Aswan with the creation of the large reservoir, the temple was going to be submerged under the rising waters of the River Nile. It took an incredible engineering effort in the 1960's to take the temple apart from its original location, block by block, and then place it at a new location inside artificial hillocks. The photo shows a view of the artificial hillock along with a view of the water of Lake Nasser and with some great cloud cover overhead.

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