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Abu Simbel
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===Rediscovery=== {{Multiple image | align = right | total_width = 450 | image1 = Exterior View of the Temple of Ybsambul illustration from the kings tombs in Thebes by Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823) from Plates illustrative of the researches and operations in Egypt and Nubia (1820).jpg | caption1 = Exterior view of the temples of Abu Simbel and their surroundings in 1820 from ''Plates illustrative of the researches and operations in Egypt and Nubia'' by Italian explorer [[Giovanni Belzoni]], showing sand partially covering the Great Temple | image2 = Excavated temples of Aboosimble--Nubia-David Roberts.jpg | caption2 = 1840s sketch from ''[[The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia]]''. Note this was approximately two decades after Belzoni had removed some of the sand to create an entrance to the Great Temple. |}} With the passage of time, the temples fell into disuse and the Great Temple eventually became mostly covered by a sand [[dune]]. By the 6th century BC, the sand already covered the statues of the main temple up to their knees.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} The temple was forgotten by Europeans until March 1813, when the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] researcher [[Johann Ludwig Burckhardt]] found the small temple and top [[frieze]] of the main temple. <blockquote>When we reached the top of the mountain, I left my guide, with the camels, and descended an almost perpendicular cleft, choaked with sand, to view the temple of Ebsambal, of which I had heard many magnificent descriptions. There is no road at present to this temple... It stands about twenty feet above the surface of the water, entirely cut out of the almost perpendicular rocky side of the mountain, and in complete preservation. In front of the entrance are six erect colossal figures, representing juvenile persons, three on each side, placed in narrow recesses, and looking towards the river; they are all of the same size, stand with one foot before the other, and are accompanied by smaller figures... Having, as I supposed, seen all the antiquities of Ebsambal, I was about to ascend the sandy side of the mountain by the same way I had descended; when having luckily turned more to the southward, I fell in with what is yet visible of four immense colossal statues cut out of the rock, at a distance of about two hundred yards from the temple; they stand in a deep recess, excavated in the mountain; but it is greatly to be regretted, that they are now almost entirely buried beneath the sands, which are blown down here in torrents. The entire head, and part of the breast and arms of one of the statues are yet above the surface; of the one next to it scarcely any part is visible, the head being broken off, and the body covered with sand to above the shoulders; of the other two, the bonnets only appear. It is difficult to determine, whether these statues are in a sitting or standing posture; their backs adhere to a portion of rock, which projects from the main body, and which may represent a part of a chair, or may be merely a column for support.<ref name="Burckhardt">{{cite book | last=Burckhardt | first=J.L. | author2=John Murray | title=Travels in Nubia | publisher=J. Murray | year=1819 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vE4GAAAAQAAJ | access-date=2023-01-31 | pages=88β90}}</ref></blockquote> Burckhardt talked about his discovery with the [[Italy|Italian]] explorer [[Giovanni Battista Belzoni|Giovanni Belzoni]], who travelled to the site, but was unable to dig out an entry to the temple. Belzoni returned in 1817, this time succeeding in his attempt to enter the complex. A detailed early description of the temples, together with contemporaneous line drawings, can be found in [[Edward William Lane]]'s ''Description of Egypt'' (1825β1828).<ref>Lane E, "Descriptions of Egypt," American University in Cairo Press. pp.493-502.</ref>
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