Sarah Belzoni in temples. Her husband would leave her alone for period of weeks or months and she would be left to speak with the local women around her in whatever language they spoke. She spent this time documenting the lives of the local women, eventually publishing "Mrs. Belzoni's trifling account of the women of Egypt, Nubia, and Syria" as part of her husband's 1820 work "Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries … in Egypt and Nubia". Her work was the first of its kind on the topic. In 1816, Sarah visited the chief's women at the Abu Simbel temples near
Abu Simbel temples ancient human civilization were under threat from the rising waters of the Nile that were about to result from the construction of the Aswan High Dam. One scheme to save the temples was based on an idea by William MacQuitty to build a clear fresh water dam around the temples, with the water inside kept at the same height as the Nile. There were to be underwater viewing chambers. In 1962 the idea was made into a proposal by architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry and civil engineer Ove Arup. They considered that raising the temples ignored the effect of