The second miricle of Abu Simbel

Magnificent Abu Simbel
Lake Nasser
In the first post on Abu Simbel I described my visit to this amazing site. All this could have been lost if it were not for the real miracle of Abu Simbel! Egypt gets its electricity from hydro-electric power plants along the Nile rive. The first dam (or low dam) in the Nile was built from 1898 to 1902 and was opened on 10 Dec 1902. It was apparent that this was not sufficient electricity for all of Egypt and it was decided to build the second "high" dam at Aswan. Construction of this high dam started at Aswan between 1960 and 1970. The dam wall and the lake it created would flood vast areas.  The lake created by the dam is 479 km long and at its widest point, 16 km across.  Around 150 000 to 200 000 people had to be re-located to newly constructed villages as a result of the building of the dam. It was absolutely essential that the dam be built, but many of the amazing historical sites along the Nile would be flooded and lost for all time. This was a serious  Catch 22. Egypt desperately needed to build the dam, but if it did, some of the most important archeological sites (at least those which were known at the time) would be lost. Among the most important historical sites which would be flooded by the new dam was the amazing site at Abu Simbel.The moving of this magnificent temple caught the imagination of the world and received much publication, but this was by no means the only ancient site which was moved.

There were a total of 22 sites which were at risk of being submerged under 50 meters of water.  All but three of these were cut up and moved to higher ground.

Breaking it down
Making a mountain
Removing the original
By far the biggest of these operations was the moving of the massive temple at Abu Simbel. In 1959, the Egyptian and Sudanese governments contacted UNESCO to seek assistance to save Abu Simbel. The delicate task of removing this massive monument, which had been carved out of solid rock and moving to higher ground began in 1964. The plan was to cut the temple up into 20 ton blocks and reassemble it again. Extreme precision was needed with a tiny tolerance of no more than 5 millimeters!  (on a 20 ton slab of rock!).

Moving the head
The reconstructed temple was aligned to the sun so that on specific days, the sunlight would flood into the temple, just like it did in the original temple.

The moving of Abu Simbel was completed in 1968. As the original temple was carved out of rock, an artificial "mountain" also needed to be created to house the moved temple. A mammoth engineering task and the major miracle of Abu Simbel.

A total of 22 other monuments were moved and the final work was not completed until 1980. One such site was the temple complex on the island of Philae, which I also visited on this trip and will be covered in another blog.
Inside Abu Simbel temple

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