Aswanm, Eqypt

The site of Abu Simbel is one of the most recognizable ancient sites in Egypt. For 3,000 years, it sat on the west bank of the Nile River, between the first and second cataracts of the Nile. Built in 1244 B.C., Abu Simbel contains two temples, carved into a mountainside, one of which contains four colossal statues of a seated pharaoh Ramesses II at its entrance. As remarkable as these temples are, I was astonished to also discover that this is a remarkable feat of engineering: today’s entire temple complex had been dismantled and rebuilt on a higher hill to make way for the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.