The sheer size of the hill housing the temple of Abu Simbel in south Egypt

The large size of the hill housing the temple of Abu Simbel in south Egypt. There are actually twin hills, housing two temples (one honoring the pharaoh and the other honoring the chief consort of the pharaoh). These hills are all man made and are not the original location of the temple (as constructed by the pharaoh). The original temple was made around 45 centuries back, and was located much lower down, closer to the river. However, after so many centuries, the creation of a dam was planned on the river Nile at Aswan, a dam which would be very massive and meant to provide a large amount of electricity as well as control the annual flooding of the Nile (which was useful in earlier times since that provided fertile soil, but was now very disruptive). The dam caused water levels to rise, and to save the temple from being flooded, the entire temple was cut into small blocks and moved to a much higher level (the current location).

The Mysteries of Abu Simbel: Ramesses II	View Larger Map