Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great's Colossal Statue at Abu Simbel
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses the Great's building projects — Per-Ramesses, the Ramesseum, the additions at Karnak and Luxor. But I think the most visually overwhelming thing he ever built — and maybe any pharaoh ever built — is the Great Temple at Abu Simbel. Luna: Abu Simbel — that's the one with the four huge statues of Ramses sitting on thrones, right? Lucas: Exactly. Four colossal seated statues of Ramses, each about 20 meters — 66 feet — tall. They're carved directly into the sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile, in Nubia, near the border of modern Sudan. And they're not just monumental for the sake of it. They're a statement — a political and religious declaration carved in stone. Lucas: You have to understand the context. Ramses is coming off the Battle of Kadesh — which, as we discussed, he portrayed as a great victory. He's securing his northern border with the Hittite treaty. But the south — Nubia — is the source of Egypt's gold. And Nubia is restless. So by building a temple that is essentially a giant billboard of his power, he's telling the Nubian chiefs: this is who rules you. Luna: It's like a permanent intimidation tactic. But four statues of himself — even by Egyptian standards, that's a lot of ego. Lucas: It is, but it's calculated. The four statues are all identical — Ramses wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, the nemes headcloth, the false beard. At his feet are smaller figures of his family: his wife Nefertari, his mother Tuya, and several of his children. They're tiny in comparison — barely reaching his shins. The message is clear: Ramses is godlike, and everyone else is subordinate. Lucas: Now, the logistics of building this thing are staggering. The temple was carved into the cliff face — they didn't build it up, they dug in. Quarrymen, sculptors, and laborers worked for about 20 years, from around 1264 to 1244 BCE. The sandstone had to be cut and shaped on site, and the precision is incredible. The facade alone is 33 meters wide and 30 meters high. Luna: How did they even plan something like that without modern tools? Lucas: They used copper chisels, stone hammers, and wooden wedges soaked in water to split rock. The planning was done by royal architects and scribes — we actually know the name of the overseer of works for Abu Simbel: a man named Ashahebsed. He was a vizier under Ramses. He would have coordinated the workforce, the supply chains, and the alignment of the temple with the sun. Luna: The sun alignment — that's the famous thing where twice a year the sun lights up the inner sanctuary, right? Lucas: Yes. The temple is oriented so that on February 22 and October 22 — exactly 60 days before and after the winter solstice — the rising sun penetrates the entire length of the temple, about 55 meters, and illuminates the statues of three gods in the innermost sanctuary: Ptah, Amun-Ra, and Ramses himself. The fourth statue, of the god Ptah, remains in shadow because Ptah is a god of darkness and creation. It's an incredible feat of astronomy and engineering. Lucas: And it's not just the Great Temple. About 100 meters north, Ramses built a smaller temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor and his chief wife, Nefertari. The facade has six standing statues — four of Ramses and two of Nefertari — all about 10 meters tall. It's the first time in Egyptian history that a queen is shown the same size as the pharaoh on a temple facade. Luna: Wait, really? That's huge. Nefertari gets equal billing? Lucas: Exactly. It's a remarkable statement. Inside that temple, Nefertari is depicted making offerings to the gods — a role usually reserved for the king. Ramses clearly wanted to elevate her status. Inscriptions there call her 'the one for whom the sun shines.' It's a love letter carved in stone, but also a political move — Nefertari was from a powerful family, and her influence helped stabilize Ramses's early reign. Luna: I love that. So the temples are both propaganda and personal. But what happened to them over time? They're still standing, but in a different place, right? Lucas: Yes — and that's one of the most incredible engineering stories of the 20th century. In the 1960s, the Egyptian government built the Aswan High Dam, which created Lake Nasser. Abu Simbel would have been completely submerged. So UNESCO launched an international campaign to save the temples. Between 1964 and 1968, the entire complex was cut into large blocks — some weighing up to 30 tons — and moved 200 meters inland, 65 meters higher than its original location. Lucas: The operation cost about $40 million at the time, equivalent to over $300 million today. They reassembled the blocks with millimeter precision, and even recreated the artificial mountain that encases the temple. The sun alignment was preserved, though it shifted by one day — now it occurs on February 22 and October 22 instead of the original dates. Luna: So the sun still hits Ramses's statue on those days. That's incredible that they managed to save it. Lucas: It is. Abu Simbel is a testament to Ramses's ambition and to modern determination to preserve history. But it's worth remembering why Ramses built it in the first place — not just as a temple, but as a statement of eternal dominance. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote about it centuries later, and it inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias' — though Shelley wrongly thought it was a statue in the desert. Luna: What's the line — 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair'? But there's nothing left but the statue. Lucas: Right. In the poem, the statue is crumbling and the kingdom is gone. But Abu Simbel is still here — relocated, yes, but still standing. Ramses's 'works' did endure, though not in the way he imagined. His temple is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, visited by tourists from around the world. And every year, on February 22, people gather to watch the sun illuminate his face. That's a kind of immortality. Luna: It's almost like he planned for that. He wanted to be remembered forever, and in a way, he succeeded. Lucas: He absolutely did. And that's what makes Ramses the Great so fascinating — his vision was on a scale that still overwhelms us 3,200 years later. Next time, we can talk about his other massive temple project, the Ramesseum, and how it compares. But for now, I think Abu Simbel gives us a perfect window into the mind of a pharaoh who thought in terms of eternity.