Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair

For the site of his grandest temple, prodigious builder Ramesses II chose not Thebes, not Memphis, but a bend in the Nile at the southernmost point of the empire where his colossi, at that time right on the water’s edge, would remind traders and potential invaders, particularly the Nubians, to not mess with Misr. Abu Simbel is a wonder twice over: the original
carved from a single gargantuan block of sandstone, and the relocated de-and-reconstruction in the 1960’s that rescued it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. It is quintessential pharaonic chest-pounding, yes, but it is also a monumental expression of deep love from a husband to his wife. The second-longest ruling Egyptian had fifty-odd wives, but he dedicated a temple to only one: Nefertari “for whose sake the very sun does shine,” who never saw it and died the year following the dedication. That sun reaches into the innermost sanctuary twice yearly, illuminating three figures, but not Ptah, the god of darkness. On the facade of Nefertari’s temple, she and Ramesses seem to step out of solid rock into sunlit eternity.Read more