Structure relocation was unable to rebuild the monastery. Hearst eventually gave the stones to the city of San Francisco, where they sat for decades in Golden Gate Park. Eventually some of the stones were acquired by the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California, where they are currently being reconstructed; others are now being used as decorative accents in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples completed in 1244 BCE, on the western bank of the Nile in southern Egypt. Construction of the Aswan High Dam would have submerged the temples beneath the
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