Yasser.mahmoud · File:Abu Simbel Temple 2022.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abu_Simbel_Temple_2022.jpg
Attraction · Aswan
Abu Simbel
Four seated colossi twenty metres high in front of a temple cut straight into a cliff — and the whole thing was sawn into a thousand blocks and moved up the hill in the 1960s.
Time needed2 hours on site
Best timeFirst light
From Aswan280 km · road or short flight
Builtc. 1264 BC, Ramesses II
Relocated1964 – 1968
Sun alignment22 February · 22 October
About
Abu Simbel
Ramesses II cut two temples into a sandstone cliff above the Nile near the southern frontier, about as far from his capital as Egyptian authority reached, and put four seated figures of himself twenty metres high across the front of the larger one. The second, smaller temple next to it is for his queen Nefertari, and it is one of very few Egyptian temples where the queen is shown at the same scale as the king. Then Lake Nasser began to rise behind the High Dam and both would have gone under. Between 1964 and 1968 the cliff face was sawn into more than a thousand blocks, lifted, and rebuilt more than sixty metres higher and some way back from the water, inside an artificial hill built to look like the original one. The join lines are almost impossible to find. It is a four-hour round trip from Aswan and nobody who has done it argues about whether it was worth it.
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What to See
What to see at Abu Simbel
Two temples, an artificial hill and a lake. Two hours is right and most schedules allow less.
The Great Temple
- The four seated colossi across the façade, each about twenty metres high, one of them collapsed in antiquity and deliberately left as it fell during the relocation.
- The hypostyle hall inside, with eight Osiride pillars of the king, and the battle of Kadesh carved across the northern wall — the earliest detailed battle narrative anywhere.
- The sanctuary at the far end, sixty metres into the rock, with four seated figures cut from the living stone.
The Temple of Nefertari
- The smaller temple a hundred metres north, with six standing figures across its front — four of the king and two of the queen, all at the same height, which is close to unique.
- The Hathor-headed columns inside and the reliefs of Nefertari making offerings in her own right.
- The comparative quiet. Most groups spend twenty minutes at the great temple and five here, which is the wrong ratio.
The move
- The dome inside the artificial hill behind the great temple, which is the concrete structure holding it up. It is visitable and almost nobody goes in.
- The faint seams between blocks on the façade, which a guide can point out and which are otherwise invisible.
- Lake Nasser itself, immediately below, which is the reason for all of it.
Getting There
Getting there
Two hundred and eighty kilometres south of Aswan, near the Sudanese border. There are two ways and they make very different days.
By road
- About three to three and a half hours each way across open desert, traditionally departing in the small hours to arrive for the cool of the morning.
- It is a full day and it is done in one — there is nothing to stop for on the way in either direction.
- It is the cheaper option and the more tiring one, and it is the standard arrangement on a three-night Aswan stay.
By air
- Under an hour each way from Aswan, with a fixed ground window at the temples of roughly two hours.
- It gives most of the day back, which for a two-night stay is usually the better trade.
- Schedules are limited and seasonal, so it is booked as part of the itinerary rather than arranged on arrival.
At the site
- The car park is behind the hill; you walk round it and the temples appear all at once facing the lake, which is entirely deliberate.
- The walk is a few hundred metres on a level paved path.
- There is a visitor centre with shade and water at the entrance and nothing at the temples themselves.
Best Time
When to visit
The façade faces east. That single fact settles the hour, and there are two dates in the year worth knowing about.
Time of day
- First light, when the sun is full on the colossi and the site is at its emptiest and coolest.
- By mid-morning the light is overhead, the façade has gone flat and the coaches from the road convoy have arrived.
- Anyone staying overnight nearby gets the site almost to themselves at opening, which is the only real argument for doing so.
The solar alignment
- On about 22 February and 22 October the rising sun reaches sixty metres down the axis to light three of the four figures in the sanctuary.
- The dates shifted by roughly a day when the temple was moved, which is itself a striking detail about the precision of the original.
- Both dates are extremely busy and need booking a long way ahead. The temple is worth seeing on any other morning of the year.
Time of year
- October to April is the comfortable window, and the pre-dawn road departure in December and January is genuinely cold.
- May to September is severe — this is further south and hotter than Aswan, which is already the hottest city on the itinerary.
- Sandstorms can close the road; the flight is less affected but not immune.
Visitor Intelligence
Visitor intelligence
A long way to go for two hours, so the two hours are worth planning.
Making the day work
- Whether you fly or drive, this consumes a day. Do not schedule anything demanding on either side of it.
- Take breakfast with you on the road option; departures are before any hotel kitchen opens and the drive is long.
- Spend a proper twenty minutes at the Nefertari temple. It is the part almost everybody rushes and it is remarkable.
Photography
- The colossi from the front at first light is the frame, and it needs to be taken before the groups arrive rather than after.
- Photography inside the temples has been restricted, permitted and separately ticketed at different times. Confirm on the day.
- The lake behind you is the other picture and hardly anybody turns round for it.
Comfort and access
- The path from the car park round the hill is level and paved, which makes the approach unusually accessible.
- Inside, the floors are level but the halls are dim and can be crowded in a narrow space.
- There is no shade at the temples themselves. The visitor centre at the entrance is the only place to sit.
Families
- The scale does the work; children take to this site more readily than to any tomb.
- The road option is hard on young children — a departure in the small hours and seven hours in a vehicle.
- The flight makes it a manageable family morning, which is a large part of what the extra cost buys.
Nearby
Nearby
Abu Simbel is an excursion from Aswan rather than a base. Everything below is back north.
Aswan
Two hundred and eighty kilometres north — the town this is always visited from.
Philae
The other great Aswan temple, and the other one that was moved when the water rose.
The Unfinished Obelisk
In the Aswan quarries — how the granite for monuments like this was cut.
Lake Nasser
The reservoir immediately below the temples, and the reason they are where they are. No page of its own.
Good to Know
Frequently asked
Yes, and this is one of the few cases where that is not a matter of taste. It is a temple cut sixty metres into a cliff behind four seated figures of Ramesses II about twenty metres high, in a landscape with nothing else in it, and the entire complex was cut into more than a thousand blocks in the 1960s and rebuilt higher up to escape the rising lake — with the joins almost impossible to find. It costs a day either way. Nobody who has done it regrets the day.
By air if you have two nights in Aswan, by road if you have three. The flight is under an hour each way with a ground window of about two hours and gives most of the day back. The road is three to three and a half hours each way across open desert with a departure in the small hours, and it consumes the whole day — but it costs considerably less and it is the standard arrangement. With young children, the flight is worth what it costs.
On about 22 February and 22 October the rising sun runs sixty metres down the temple axis and lights three of the four seated figures in the sanctuary. The dates moved by roughly a day when the temple was relocated, which says something about how precisely the original was set out. Both dates draw very large crowds and need booking far ahead. The temple is extraordinary on every other morning of the year, so plan around it only if the alignment is specifically what you want.
Two hours is right and the flight’s fixed ground window is usually about that. Most groups give the great temple twenty minutes, the Nefertari temple five and the rest to photographs, which is the wrong distribution — the smaller temple is one of very few in Egypt where the queen is shown at the king’s scale, and it is nearly empty. The dome inside the artificial hill, where the concrete structure holding the temple up is visible, takes ten minutes and almost nobody goes in.
There is a small settlement with limited accommodation, and the reason to consider it is one thing only: being at the temples when they open, before the road convoy and the first flight arrive, with the low sun full on the colossi and nobody else there. For most itineraries it is not worth breaking the Aswan stay for. For photographers it can be.
Unusually so for Egypt. The path from the car park round the artificial hill to the temples is level and paved, the approach is a few hundred metres, and the temple floors inside are level. The constraints are the journey rather than the site — a long drive or a light-aircraft flight — plus dim, sometimes crowded interiors and no shade at all once you are past the visitor centre.
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