Abu Simbel and the Nubian Temples: A New Traveler's Companion

Nigel Fletcher-Jones

Abu Simbel and the Nubian temples are some of the greatest, most renowned, and most visited archaeological sites in the world and yet remain some of the least understood.

Accessible to the lay reader, this book is the first authoritative introduction to one of the worlds great regions of archaeological splendor.

Fletcher-Jones describes the rock-cut temples 3,000 year old significance and their remarkable rescue from the rising waters caused by the building of the Aswan Dam in the 1970s.

Beautifully illustrated with over 80 new full color photographs, diagrams, and maps, and packed with fascinating insights and practical advice for visitors.

The three-thousand-year-old rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel and the story of their rescue from the rising waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s are almost as familiar worldwide as the tale of the gold funerary mask and brief life of the boy king Tutankhamun. Yet although they remain among the most celebrated, visited, and photographed archaeological sites in the world, the lower Nubian templesfrom Philae in the north to Abu Simbel in the southare some of the least understood by the visitor.

In this lucidly written, beautifully illustrated book, Nigel Fletcher-Jones places the temples in their historical context, telling the story of the discovery of the Abu Simbel temples, and why and how they were moved, explaining what the Nubian temples teach us about ancient Egypt, which gods and goddesses were worshiped there, and the place of Rameses II in the long line of ancient Egyptian kings and queens.

With over 80 new photographs, diagrams, and maps, and packed with fascinating insights, Abu Simbel and the Nubian Temples is an ideal introduction to one of the worlds great regions of archaeological splendor.