Abu Simbel temples rooms decreasing in size from the entrance to the sanctuary. The temple is complex in structure and quite unusual because of its many side chambers. The hypostyle hall (sometimes also called a pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16.7 meters wide and is supported by eight huge Osirid pillars depicting the deified Ramses linked to the god Osiris, the god of the Underworld, to indicate the everlasting nature of the pharaoh. The colossal statues along the left-hand wall bear the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower
Great and Small Temples of Abu Simbel from soldiers on campaigns that span from the Greco-Roman period to the British suppression of uprisings in Sudan present an interesting picture of the people who passed that way. Next to Ramesses II’s legs are eleven other, much smaller figures of family members, including his wife, Nefertari; his mother, Queen Tuya; and some of his children. Since scale in Egyptian art was meant to show relative importance, it is clear that Ramesses II is the main focus of the temple. In Egyptian temples, gods were typically depicted as exiting from their shrines. Above the entrance to the Great Temple at