Howstuffworks "Abu Simbel"

Egypt's greatest egotist and builder, Ramses II erected more temples and statues -- of himself, naturally -- than any other pharaoh. His self-glorification campaign worked well, because more than 3,200 years after his death, we still remember him as Ramses the Great.

©Corbis
Four figures of the great Ramses II weigh 2.4 million pounds apiece. In 27 B.C.E.
one statue lost its top half in an earthquake.

His most impressive works are the two rock temples at Abu Simbel. Carved into a mountain on the west bank of the Nile, the Great Temple of Ramses II is guarded by four commanding statues of the pharaoh. Ramses wanted to impress the rebellious Nubians with his mighty power, so the statues tower 65 feet tall -- and that's sitting down. Each figure weighs some 1,200 tons. The statues surely induced awe in friend and foe alike.

Within the temple is a hypostyle hall, whose roof rests on eight columns fronted with figures of, not surprisingly, Ramses. Deeper inside, the sacred sanctuary is adorned with statues of four gods: Re-Horakhty, Amun, Ptah, and Ramses' deified self.

The pharaoh's engineers oriented the temple so perfectly that each year on February 22 and October 22 (not coincidentally Ramses' birthday and the anniversary of his coronation), the light of the rising sun streams through the temple entrance, travels 200 feet, and, like heavenly fire, sets the figure of Ramses aglow.

In the 1960s, Abu Simbel's temples were imperiled by the building of Aswan High Dam and the rising waters of Lake Nasser that resulted from it. In an incredible feat of modern engineering, the temples were cut from the rock cliff, carved up into hundreds of massive blocks (estimates range from 950 to 2,000), some weighing as much as 33 tons, and moved to a higher location nearby. Ramses' temple was carefully positioned on the new site so the rising sun still penetrates the sanctuary twice a year.

The pink sandstone Temple of Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of love, was built to honor Ramses' favorite wife, Queen Nefertari. Her temple is, of course, smaller than Ramses', and many of the huge statues adorning it represent the mighty, towering pharaoh. Ramses the Great made sure that his legacy would be larger than life.

Here are links to dozens of other world-famous landmarks:

Abu Simbel, Egypt	Eiffel Tower, France	The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy	Roman and Georgian Bath, England
The Alhambra, Spain	Ellora Caves, India	Machu Picchu, Peru	St. Mark’s Basilica, Italy
Angkor Wat, Cambodia	The Forbidden City, China	Mont-St.-Michel, France	St. Paul’s Cathedral, England
Arc de Triomphe, France	The Golden Pavilion, Japan	Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany	St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, Italy
Borobudur, Indonesia	The Great Buddha, Japan	Palace of Versailles, France	Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar
Chartres Cathedral, France	The Great Wall of China, China	The Pantheon, Italy	Stonehenge, England
Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil	Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain	The Parthenon and the Acropolis, Greece	Sydney Opera House, Australia
CN Tower, Canada	Hagia Sophia, Turkey	Petra, Jordan	The Taj Mahal, India
The Colosseum, Italy	Houses of Parliament, England	Pompeii, Italy	The Temple at Karnak, Egypt
The Dome of the Rock, Israel	The Kaaba and Al-Haram Mosque, Saudi Arabia	Potala Palace, China	The Terra-cotta Army, China
Easter Island Statues, Chile	Krak des Chevaliers, Syria	The Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, Egypt
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland	The Kremlin and Red Square, Russia	Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacán, Mexico

To learn more about other landmarks and vacation destinations, see:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr., has worked with the National Geographic Society for more than 20 years, starting as a staff editor, writer, and columnist at Traveler magazine, then writing travel guides. His latest work is National Geographic Traveler: San Francisco. Dunn’s Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Rocky Mountain States has sold more than 100,000 copies. His travel pieces appear in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe. Jerry Dunn's stories have won three Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers -- the highest honor in the field. He also wrote and hosted a pilot episode for a travel show produced by WGBH, Boston's public television station.