Abu Simbel Temples
How did the builders of the 13th century BCE carve a temple 60 metres into a solid sandstone cliff and align it so that the rising sun would reach the innermost sanctuary on two days each year — and then, three thousand years later, how did modern engineers cut the whole mountain-temple into pieces, lift it 65 metres up a cliff, and reassemble it so faithfully that the sunbeam still arrives?
c. 1264 BCE (19th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II) · Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, EgyptAdded July 2026