Abu Simbel temples one of the greatest challenges of archaeological engineering in history. Some structures were even saved from under the waters of Lake Nasser. Today, a few hundred tourists visit the temples daily. Guarded convoys of buses and cars depart twice a day from Aswan, the nearest city. Many visitors also arrive by plane at an airfield that was specially constructed for the temple complex. The complex consists of two temples. The larger one is dedicated to Ra-Harakhty, Ptah and Amun, Egypt's three state deities of the time, and features four large statues of Ramesses II in the facade. The smaller temple
Abu Simbel Abu Simbel Abu Simbel (also Abu Simbal, Ebsambul or Isambul; or ) is a village in the Egyptian part of Nubia, about 240 kilometers southwest of Aswan and near the border with Sudan. As of 2012, it has about 2600 inhabitants. It is best known as the site of the Abu Simbel temples. The name Abu Simbel is European, a cacography of the Arabic "Abu Sunbul", due in part to assimilation. "Abu Sunbul" is itself a derivative of the ancient place name "Ipsambul". In the New Kingdom period, the region in which the temple was built may have been called