In his most famous poem, published in 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley comments on the fleeting nature of power. There, a traveler visiting an “ancient country” encounters “two gigantic stone legs without a trunk.” Half-buried in the sand, this “enormous wreck” is the only thing left of the once arrogant king's accomplishments.
The ruler who is the subject of this sonnet is called Ozymandias. This is the Greek name for Rameses II or Rameses the Great, the most famous pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Just last month, my traveling companion Michael Budd and I had the great pleasure of following in the footsteps of the great Ramesses along almost the entire length of the Nile Valley.
Scholars agree that the huge red granite statue that inspired Shelley's poem once adorned the entrance to the king's mortuary on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor. It may have been the largest of the pharaoh's numerous stone portraits. In fact, during his long reign, estimated to last more than 66 years, Ramesses II undertook the most extensive construction project since the construction of the pyramids some 1,500 years earlier. He renovated temples and palaces and built new ones throughout Egypt.
Like many of Rameses the Great's other projects, the temple in question, the Rameseum, was dedicated to his worship, as Ramesses considered himself an earthly god. The colossal statue mentioned in Shelley's poem has since been toppled by an earthquake and now lies in pieces, with only its feet remaining on its original pedestal, but there are many other independent representations of the king. there is. There are also relief carvings on the surrounding walls honoring his 15 military victories over the Hittites in present-day Syria and the Nubians in present-day Sudan. In these battle scenes, he is best depicted riding a chariot and shooting arrows at the enemy.
The Rameseum may be impressive, but when I planned a vacation trip to Egypt, one of the top destinations on my list was the warrior pharaoh's most famous architectural project, Lake Nasser, south of Aswan. It was the temple of Abu Simbel on the west bank. .
Getting there was an adventure in itself. Our van had Bud and I, two drivers, and our guide Mahmoud. There is no full explanation as to why two drivers are required, but reaching Abu Simbel requires a three-hour drive through the desert towards the Sudanese border, and this My guess is this, as the country is currently torn apart by internal power struggles. His three-person crew means increased safety. The number of military checkpoints encountered on the way south lends some support to that theory.
The trip was worth the time and effort as Abu Simbel is definitely one of the wonders of the ancient world. Originally cut into the side of a hill, the entire complex was relocated in 1968 to prevent it from being submerged by Lake Nasser after the construction of Aswan's High Dam. Instead of one, he actually consisted of two buildings, a temple dedicated to Rameses with four 66-foot-tall statues of the god-king on either side of the entrance; , this one was dedicated to his beloved Nefertari, his chief wife. Rameses had an estimated 200 wives and concubines, but Nefertari was his favorite, as she bore him the eldest of his 52 sons.
Although not as grand as the temple dedicated to Nefertari's husband, Nefertari's small building stands out for one special reason. Her statue is the same size as her husband's. There is no such situation anywhere else in ancient Egypt. Relatively rarely, the ruler's wife is sometimes depicted in stone, but her height is usually no higher than her husband's knees.
Today, Abu Simbel has been relocated to its own built-up hill and is in a beautiful location offering visitors sweeping views of Lake Nasser and the desert beyond. Rameses built it to impress the conquered Nubians that Egypt was now their master. As we stood before his grand vision in 2023, we could not help but rejoice at its place as an oasis of sorts amidst regional turmoil, civil wars in Sudan in the south and Gaza in the east. .
Next week's column takes readers to the Valley of the Kings and Queens. There we visited the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun and the tomb of Nefertari, which has particularly impressive wall paintings.
