Abu Simbelalso spelled Abū Sunbulsite of two temples built by
the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 BC BCE), now
located in Aswān muḥāfaẓah (governorate), southern Egypt. In
ancient times the area was at the southern frontier of pharaonic
Egypt, facing Nubia. The four colossal statues of Ramses in
front of the main temple are spectacular examples of ancient
Egyptian art. By means of a complex engineering feat in the
1960s, the temples were salvaged from the rising waters of the
Nile River caused by erection of the Aswan High Dam.  Carved out
of a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile, south of
Korosko (modern Kuruskū), the temples were unknown to the
outside world until their rediscovery in 1813 by the Swiss
researcher Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. They were first explored in
1817 by the early Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni.  The
66-foot (20-metre) seated figures of Ramses are set against the
recessed face of the cliff, two on either side of the entrance
to the main temple. Carved around the