Abu Simbel
A fabulous site for so many reasons. Geographically, the Temples are incredible simply because they lie so far from the rest of the world, imposing in the middle of nowhere, overlooking Lake Nasser. From the perspective of craftsmanship they are interesting twice over for the audacity of hewing the temples directly into the rock so many years ago, and for the extraordinary salvage works which saw them dismantled piece by piece and reconstructed on higher ground in the 1960s to prevent them being lost to the creation of Lake Nasser. And, of course, in their own right they are beautiful – a Temple built by Ramses II out of the love he felt for his wife Nefertari in the 13th century BC.
