Most temples of antiquity are eventually physically altered, defiled or destroyed. This was not the fate of Abu Simbel because encroaching sands soon buried its lower half. It lay forgotten for millennia. Abu Simbel wasn’t rediscovered and exposed until about 200 years ago.
Before little more of two years BBC carried out research between TV spectators for the 50 places which every must see while is alive. Abu Simbel was one of this places. It is set of two temples near the border of Egypt with Sudan. The larger one is Ra and Amun. The smaller temple is dedicated to the goddess Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty and also to his favorite wife – Nefertary. The facade of greater temple is 33 meters high and 38 meters broad. There is a guarded by four statues, each of which is 20 meters high. They were sculpted directly from the rock. It was constructed for the pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th century BC. Abu Simbel is the most magnificent monuments in the world. During the salvage operation in 1964-1968 the two temples were dismantled and raised around 6o meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more 3,000 years before.
The actual interior of the temple is inside the cliff in the form of man-made cave cut out of the living rock. From the room a doorway leads to the vestibule and beyond that is located the innermost shrine with seater statues of the gods – Ra, Ramsess, Ptah.