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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 temples-from Philae in the north to Abu Simbel in the south-are 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 world's great regions of archaeological splendor.
List of contents
1. Understanding Abu Simbel
2. From Discovery to the Grand Tour
3. The Great and Small Temples
4. The Gods of Abu Simbel
5. Rameses at Home
6. Rameses at War
7. Saving Abu Simbel
8. The Nubian Temples
Further Reading
Report
A well-illustrated accessible book which fills the gap in popular Egyptological literature left by MacQuitty's out-of-print Abu Simbel ... A readable book with some interesting comments on the attitude of modern Egyptians towards their ancient heritage. Ancient Egypt
