The Abu Simbel temples were carved into the mountains in the 13th century BC under the orders of Ramses II. They serve as a lasting monument to the King and his Queen Nefertari, and commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968, under the supervision of a Polish archaeologist Kazimierz Michałowski, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.
Historian Bettany Hughes took a closer look at the construction during the filming of her Channel 5 show “Egypt’s Greatest Treasures” and was gobsmacked by the authenticity.
She said in August: “You’d be forgiven for thinking these giant statues had stood here for thousands of years, but you’d be wrong.
“Today, Abu Simbel stands beside one of the largest man-made lakes in the world – Lake Nasser.
“In the Sixties, the government launched a plan to build a giant dam to create the enormous lake, but there was a problem.
Bettany Hughes uncovered the secret door (Image: CHANNEL 5/GETTY)
he Abu Simbel temples were carved into the mountains in the 13th century (Image: CHANNEL 5)
You’d be forgiven for thinking these giant statue’s had stood here for thousands of years
“The thousands of square miles of land to be flooded included the site of these temples.
“If Ramses’ temples were to survive, they would have to be moved.”
Dr Hughes went on to describe how the move was made possible.
She added: “So a team of archaeologists and engineers worked against the clock to dismantle the temples and transport them 200 metres to safety on higher ground.
“There, they painstakingly reassembled them, block by block over four years.
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The mountains were moved in the Sixties (Image: GETTY)
“But there was another challenge, in their original site, the temples were built into the side of a mountain, so they didn’t just move the temples, they had to build a new mountain.
“Today, a nondescript door on the side of the hill is the only outward clue to this amazing achievement.
“As a historian, I’m used to investigating hidden doorways, but I’m promised something particularly special in here.”
Dr Hughes then described her amazement over the contents of the temples.
She continued: “Thanks to Abdel Moneim Saeed, the regional director of antiquities, I’m getting rare access to this extraordinary place, deep inside the temple mountain.
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It took four years to move the mountains (Image: GETTY)
The inside of the mountains are hollow (Image: CHANNEL 5)
“Amazing, that’s extraordinary, can we go further up? I love it.
“What looks from the outside like a desert mountain, turns out, on the inside, to be completely hollow.
“In fact, it is so big, you could stack five double-decker buses underneath it.
“When you are outside, you have absolutely no idea.”
During the same show, Dr Hughes also got the chance to enter KV17 – the final resting place of Pharaoh Seti I of the 19th Dynasty.
It was first discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on October 16, 1817, but has been closed since the early Sixties due to significant damage to the structure.
The sites of ancient Egypt (Image: DX/GETTY)
Archaeologist Bahar Kebir explained to Dr Hughes how the ancient Pharaoh made this tomb his own paradise.
He detailed: “It’s really long, 138 metres.
“Even the column, you will see the beautiful decorations representing the king with different gods and goddesses.
“There’s Horus, the son of Osiris and look at the relation between the king and the god himself, he dreamed one day that he would be alive again with Osiris.
“When they decided to build a tomb, they cut the tomb out of the rock to live forever.
“So he dreamed that his second life would be here, all these inscriptions, all these beautiful details say ‘I will live here in my paradise.’”