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 the people of Nubia. The most famous temples are the rock-cut temples in Meha, now called Abu Simbel, at the Second Nile Cataract, the border between Lower Nubia and Upper Nubia. There are two temples, the Great Temple – dedicated to Ramesses II himself – and the smaller but no less impressive Small Temple – dedicated to his beloved chief wife Queen Nefertari. The Great Temple at Abu Simbel was dedicated to three gods: Amun, Re-Horakhty and Ptah. The Great Temple was also dedicated to Ramesses II as a deified king. The Great Temple is meant to be Ramesses II’s