Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is located on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Their huge external rock relief figures of Ramesses II have become iconic. His wife, Nefertari, and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Sculptures inside the Great Temple commemorate Ramesses II's heroic leadership at the Battle of Kadesh.
The Great Temple of Ramesses II (left) and the Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari (right).
1840s sketch from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia showing how the sand had partially covered the great temple. Note this was approximately two decades after Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni had removed some of the sand in order to create an entrance to the Great Temple
The statue of Ramses the Great at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel is reassembled after having been moved in 1967 to save it from flooding.
Genevese architect Jean Jacquet, a UNESCO expert, makes an architectural survey of the Great Temple of Rameses II (1290–1223 BC)
Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combined with quarrying the rock for use elsewhere. In India and China, the terms cave and cavern are often applied to this form of man-made architecture, but caves and caverns that began in natural form are not considered to be rock-cut architecture even if extensively modified. Although rock-cut structures differ from traditionally built structures in many ways, many rock-cut structures are made to replicate the facade or interior of traditional architectural forms. Interiors were usually carved out by starting at the roof of the planned space and then working downward. This technique prevents stones falling on workers below. The three main uses of rock-cut architecture were temples, tombs, and cave dwellings.
The Great Temple of Abu Simbel (ca. 1280 BCE), one of the earliest known examples of rock-cut architecture.
The Kailasa temple, part of the Ellora Caves
The 57-foot (17 m) tall monolithic Gommateshwara statue, built in 981 CE
The Midas Monument, a Phrygian rock-cut tomb dedicated to Midas (700 BCE).