Abu Simbel temples The temple was forgotten until 1813, when Swiss orientalist Jean-Louis Burckhardt found the top frieze of the main temple. Burckhardt talked about his discovery with Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, who travelled to the site, but was unable to dig out an entry to the temple. Belzoni returned in 1817, this time succeeding in his attempt to enter the complex. A detailed early description of the temples, together with contemporaneous line drawings, can be found in Edward William Lane's "Description of Egypt" (1825–1828). In 1959, an international donations campaign to save the monuments of Nubia began: the southernmost relics of this
Great and Small Temples of Abu Simbel Abu Simbel Great Temple, Ra-Horakhty is depicted striding forward out of the sandstone mound. This statue represents the king’s name “User-Ma’at-Re” because the Ra-Horakhty is shown carrying a user staff and a feather of Ma’at and with sun disk of Re on his head. As you go through the entrance, you enter a corridor decorated with Ramesses II presenting offerings to the god Re-Horakhty and the goddess Weret-Hekau. At the end of the corridor is the Great Pillared Hall. This hall contains eight pillars holding up the ceiling. Statues depicting the Ramesses II as Osiris are carved into the columns