Joseph Bonomi the Younger into debt and was eventually happy to accept a modestly paid commission to accompany Robert Hay on an expedition, via Malta, to Egypt in 1824. This began a lifelong interest in Egyptology. From 1824 to 1826, he was a member of Hay's expedition where he sketched many antiquities. At Abu Simbel in 1825, Bonomi – responding to Hay's demands for great accuracy – devised a drawing frame (a viewfinder-type device equipped with a sight and a string or wire grid) to help them draw the temples' interior decorations. The expedition then moved on to Kalabsha, where Bonomi laboured to produce
Great and Small Temples of Abu Simbel his chief wife, Nefertari, in very high esteem, and she probably wielded quite a lot of power. Around their legs, smaller statues of their children are shown. Unlike the colossi at the Great Temple, each statue is recessed in its own niche, making it look as if Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari are coming out of the rock. Unlike the Great Temple, the Small Temple has one pillared hall called the square hall that contains six columns supporting the ceiling. Each column is topped with a depiction of Hathor. The dedication of the temple to Queen Nefertari by Ramesses II