Abu Simbel is a site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel in Egypt. The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The colossal statues of Ramses the Great at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel were reassembled after having been moved in 1967 to save it from being flooded.
The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 under the supervision of a Polish archaeologist, Kazimierz Michałowski, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation was necessary to prevent submersion during the creation of Lake Nasser, formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile. The project was carried out as part of the UNESCO Nubian Salvage Campaign. The Great Temple at Abu Simbel took about twenty years to build and was completed during the reign of Ramesses the Great. It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Ramesses himself.