Position 97 - Interior Of The Rock-hewn Temple Of Abu Simbel, Showing The Holy Of Holies, With The Statues Of The Gods In The Rear

As you know from the plan (No. 19), we are standing in the entrance door looking westward directly down the main axis of the temple. The river and the rising sun are directly behind us, on the right is the whole length of the valley up which we have come, and the second cataract is forty miles away on the left. On our extreme right and left, and almost close enough to touch them, are the door-posts of the great entrance door, carved with the name of Ramses II, as you see most clearly on the left. Beyond the door the great vestibule hall expands before us.

If the building were one of masonry, this would be a court surrounded by pillars of Osiris. You will recollect that such a court precedes the hypostyle in the Ramesseum at Thebes, built by this same king. But a masonry court was here an impossibility, and the architect has converted it into a vestibule hall. It is 54 feet by 58 feet, and the eight massive Osiris-pillars which support the roof are 30 feet high. They represent Ramses II in the form of Osiris, and you will recognize the features of the king especially in the next to the last on the right. They have suffered sadly from the ravages of time, but they still show clearly the skilful execution of the sculptor.

The walls of this hall are decorated with relief scenes depicting the king's warlike achievements, especially the great battle at Kadesh, which we found first at Luxor and then at the Ramesseum. The north wall behind these pillars on the right is occupied for a large portion of its length by the scenes from this battle. The original colors are still fresh and bright. In the two further corners are two doors leading to eight chambers for the temple implements and supplies; of these chambers three are on the left, and five on the right, as you will see by reference to the plan (No. 19).

Looking through the door opposite us we see the hypostyle hall, the four pillars of which are out of range, two on either side of the door. It is 36 feet wide by 25 feet deep, and you observe in the middle one of the hawks, such as we saw outside on the base of the fallen colossus. The door behind the hawk leads to a transverse ante-chamber (Chamber III on Plan 19) of little depth, beyond which is the door of the Holy of Holies.

Through that last door, then, we look into the holy place itself and discern in the dim light the distant figures of two of the four gods who occupy it. These are Amon-Re, the state god (on the left) and Ramses II himself (on the right). The two others seated there are Ptah of Memphis on the left, and Re-Harmachis of Heliopolis on the right; but they are cut off from our view by the door-posts on either side.

Thus the gods of the three great religious centres of Egypt: Thebes, Heliopolis and Memphis, are here sacred in this temple in Nubia, and with them is associated the Pharaoh himself, the lord of Nubia. He whom we have seen in those colossal forms outside the temple front, was therefore one of the great gods who were worshiped within it. In front of these divine figures and behind the hawk which partially conceals it, you discern a small altar, for the temple service. You will find its position marked upon the plan in the “Sanctuary.” The wall behind the statues of the gods is the rearmost wall of the temple.

We can therefore measure with the eye the entire depth of these successive halls; from the threshold on which we stand to that distant rear wall it is 180 feet. And even this vast sanctuary, hewn out of the solid rock, was not enough to satisfy the zeal of the great builder. For but a few hundred paces to the north of us there is another temple to the goddess Hathor, similarly hewn out of the cliff; but it is much smaller than this, and is not so skilfully designed, so that we shall not take the time to visit it, but shall pass on to the second cataract.

Find the lines numbered 98 on Map 3, a short distance south of Abu Simbel. There we shall be looking northeast.