Tourists walking around the edge of the hillock at the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt

When you get to the Abu Simbel temple, there is a bit of distance (around a 10 minute walk) to the actual spot of the temple. You get from the parking along a straight path, until you get to the hillock that hosts the actual temple and then you have to walk around the edge of the hillock (as can be seen in this photo) till you actually get to the temple. The water of the lake is right next to the hillock, and makes for a nice contrast between the brown of the harsh land and the blue of the river.

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Tourists around the entry door to the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt

The Abu Simbel temple consists of actually 2 temples, one larger and one smaller. This is a view of the larger structure, built inside a small hillock. The current structure of the temple is somewhat interesting, since it consists of statues built into the rock face (and these are pretty large statues) with the entrance to the temple through a small opening between the statues (and no photography allowed inside the temple).

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Tourist admiring some of the statues at the foot of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt

A view of a tourist at the base of the smaller statues and sculptures at the Abu Simbel temple in lower Egypt. The temple of Abu Simbel was built fairly distant from Aswan, around 280 km, along the river Nile. The temple was built by the pharaoh Ramesses II as a measure of the magnificence of his rule, and also meant to be a grand warning to visitors from Sudan to the south, so that they realize the grandeur of his rule.
In the 1960's, there was a huge effort to move the temple from its original location to the current location, in order that the rise in waters due to the construction of the dam on the Nile at Aswan does not drown the temple.

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View of the statues at Abu Simbel along with tourists at their base

The statues at Abu Simbel are so huge, specially when you can see the tourists at the base of the statues. There are 2 incredible feats involved; one where the pharaoh Ramesses II got this massive temple constructed 280 km from Aswan, and the second major engineering feat was the removal of this temple to its current spot to avoid the swirling waters from the construction of the dam at Aswan in the 1960's.

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