Architectural Engineering Department

Done by: Abdallah Mohd Haitham Mouselly

University ID: U15101138
 Religion was an essential part of the Egyptian community, and temples
formed an important part of ancient Egyptians daily life. Temples were
considered as the home of the god or goddess whom it was dedicated, and the
god/goddess was worshipped there by temple priests and the pharaoh only
(was not open to the public).
Abu Simbel is a temple complex, originally cut into a solid rock cliff, in
southern Egypt and located at the second cataract of the Nile River. The two
temples which comprise the site (The Great Temple and The Small Temple)
were created during the rule of Ramesses II (c. 1279 - c. 1213 BCE) either
between 1264 - 1244 BCE or 1244-1224 BCE. The discrepancy in the dates is
due to differing understandings of the life of Ramesses II by modern day
scholars.
It is certain, based upon the extensive art work throughout the interior of the
Great Temple, that the structures were created, at least in part, to celebrate
Ramesses' victory over the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE. To
some scholars, this indicates a probable date of 1264 BCE for the initial
construction as the victory would have been fresh in the memory of the
people. However, the decision to build the grand monument at that precise
location, on the border with the conquered lands of Nubia, suggests to other
scholars the later date of 1244 BCE in that it would have had to have been
begun after the Nubian Campaigns Ramesses II undertook with his sons and
was built as a symbol of Egypt's power.
Whichever date construction began, it is agreed that it took twenty years to
create the complex and that the temples are dedicated to the gods: Ra-Horakty,
Ptah, and the deified Ramesses II (The Great Temple) and the goddess Hathor
and Queen Nefertari, Ramesses' favourite wife (The Small Temple).1

1
http://www.ancient.eu/Abu_Simbel/ (By: JOSHUA J. MARK)

1
Architectural Characteristics
of Temples in General

The building of a temple started with the

sanctuary, which contained the blessed
chamber and the tomb of the god, with
secondary rooms for the priests and for
various rites and functions. These rooms
were low, dark, mysterious, accessible only Figure 1: Temple of Edfou
to the priests and Pharaoh. They were given
a certain dignity by being raised upon a sort
of platform above the general level, and
reached by a few steps. They were
luxuriously ornamented internally with ceremonial
pictures in relief. The hall was sometimes more
important, but established on a somewhat lower level;
its massive columns(pillars) carried a roof of stone
lintels, and illumination was coming inside either
through clearstory windows under the roof of a central
portion higher than the sides, as at Karnak, or over a
low screen-wall built between the columns of the front
row, as at Edfou and Denderah.
A single or double colonnade usually surrounded
the court; however, this colonnade only bordered the
sides or fronted the hall, or again was wholly wanting.
Figure 2: Temple At Karnak

The pylons were twin buttress like masses flanking

the entrance gate of the court. They were shaped like
rectangle shortened pyramids, crowned by flaring
cornices, and were decorated on the outer face with
masts carrying banners, with obelisks, or with seated
colossal figures of the royal builder.2

2
A. D. F. Hamlin, A.M. – History of Architecture – Seventh Edition – 1906 – Longmans, Green, And CO. -New York –
Pages: ( 17, 18 and 19 )

2
 An avenue of sphinxes formed the approach to the entrance, and a wall
surrounds the whole temple area, usually made of crude brick, pierced by one
or more gates with or without pylons. The piety of successive monarchs was
displayed in the addition of new hypostyle halls, courts, pylons, or obelisks, by
which the temple was successively extended in length, and sometimes also in
width, by the increased dimensions of the new courts. The great Temple of
Karnak most strikingly illustrates this growth. Begun by Osourtesen (12th
dynasty) more than 2000 years B.C, it was not completed in its present form
until the time of the Ptolemies, when the last of the pylons and external gates
were erected2

(Sanctuary)

3
Architectural Characteristics
of The Great Temple of Abu Simbel

The Great Temple of Abu-Simbel, is one of the most

amazing and distinctive creations of Egyptian
Architecture, outside it you will see a big terrace Figure 4: Section
decorated with a series of upright statues of Horus and
Ramesses II. The façade is decorated with four
colossal statues that represents Ramesses II seated and looking eastward.
Around the king`s legs there are smaller statues of his family members (his
mother and the queen Nefertari and some of his sons and daughters). Above
the entrance there is a hole that contains a statue of hawk with god Ra-Horakhty
head.3
The entrance between the two central statues leads through a short way to a
large hall (18m long by 16.5m wide), a row of four Figure 5: Plan
square pillars on each side supports the roof, and
each pillar has a statue that shows Ramesses as
Osiris figures and their faces are towards the central
walk. Beyond this there is a small hypostyle hall with
four square pillars and still further a narrow
transverse room in the back wall of which is the
central sanctuary with a small room on the both
sides of it. Six other long and narrow apartments,
four on the north side and two on the south, extend laterally from passages or
doorways communicating with the large hall, and appear to correspond in
purpose with the various store rooms found in other
Figure6
temples.
The reliefs on the walls of the large hall are of much
interest, especially those which illustrate the Hittite
campaign, which forms the subject of some of the
designs at the “Ramesseum4”. And the length of the
excavation from front to back is 55m.5

3
El-Enany Khaled - Discovering Our Heritage: The Temples of Abu Simbel- 2010 - Lumina-Abbas Khalil — Arab Republic
of Egypt – Page: ( 7 )
4
“It is the e orial te ple of Pharaoh Ra esses II i the The a e ropolis i Upper Egypt “Wikipedia
5
Bell, Edward – The Architecture of Ancient Egypt – 1915 - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. –
London - Pages: ( 149,150 )

4
Position
The location of the site was sacred to Hathor long before the temples were
built there and, it is assumed that Ramesses II Chose this location wisely, and
temple is also aligned with the east so that twice a year, on 21 February and
21 October, the sun shines directly into the sanctuary of The Great Temple to
illuminate the statues of Ramesses II and Amun. The dates are assumed to
correspond to Ramesses' birthday and coronation. The alignment of sacred
structure with the rising or setting sun, or with the position of the sun at the
solstices, was common throughout the ancient world but in the sanctuary of
The Great Temple statue of the god Ptah, who stands among the others, is
perfectly positioned so that it is never illuminated at any time. As Ptah was
associated with the Egyptian underworld, his image was kept in perpetual
darkness.1

Comparison
The principal remains of ancient Egyptian architecture are the Pyramids, or
royal tombs of the kings, and the temples, a contrast in this respect with
Assyria, where the palaces of the kings are the chief remains. The Egyptian
wall-paintings, sculptures, jewelry, bronze implements, and utensils, which
have been unearthed from their temples or tombs, show that the race had
attained to a high degree in art.
The purposes for which temples were used and their component parts are
important. There were sanctuaries where only the king and temple priests
entered, and in which mysteries and processions formed a great part of the
religious services. They differ from the Greek temple, the Christian church,
and the Islamic mosque. For them they were not places for the meeting of the
faithful or the recital of common prayers, and no public ritual was celebrated
within them. Temple priests and king or Pharaoh only were admitted beyond
the hypostyle hall, and the temple, therefore, was a kind of royal oratory
reared by the king in token of his own piety and to purchase the favour of the
gods.6

1
http://www.ancient.eu/Abu_Simbel/ (By: JOSHUA J. MARK)
6
Prof. Fletcher, Banister – A History of Architecture on The Comparative Method – Fifth Edition - BRADBURY, AGNEW,
& CO. LD, PRINTERS - LONDON AND TONBRIDGE – Pages: ( 15,20 and22 )

5
Construction methods, systems, and materials during the
Ancient Egyptian period in general

The most common building materials that were used in ancient Egyptian
architecture were sunbaked mud bricks and stones. Limestone was the primary
form of stone used in architecture, although sandstone and granite were also
regularly used. Eventually, stone became more common to be used almost
exclusively for temples and tombs while residential and even palaces were
made of bricks. One of the most important features of ancient Egyptian
architecture is that wood was not used in construction.7
Building materials were transported to the construction site by boat, each
transport charge brought five to seven large stones (about 15-20 tons, or over
2000 pounds in total) from the quarry to the temple. Once the quarried stone
arrives to the construction site, it will be given an initial dressing on any side that
would later meet other stones (usually the base and one of the short sides). the
stones of one course would be then placed together in a row and each
individually cut along their sides, sometimes with unusual or slanted angles, and
fitted together. Scholars believe that these irregular joints were made to save
the amount of stone used, although it must have cost stonecutters a good deal
of time to cut and match so many different blocks. The stones were next moved
to the wall that was under construction and placed by the stonemasons. The
cutters then returned, reaching the top of the wall via mud brick ramps to dress
the upper face of the blocks. As the wall grew vertically, workers enlarged the
height of the access ramps around it.
The interior sides of the blocks would therefore have been left undressed,
while the outer faces were dressed and then smoothed once the entire wall was
complete. To create a uniform wall surface, this last dressing was done using
chisels and pounders, with a final smoothing by grinding stones.8

7
http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/ancient-egypt/ancient-egyptian-architecture/
8
Sullivan, Elaine - 2008 - Construction Methods. On Digital Karnak - Los Angeles -
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak - Pages: ( 6,7 and 8 )

6
 In general, the Egyptians tried to conserve the amount of high quality stone
needed for a project by using these blocks strictly as the outer casing of larger
walls and pylons. The core of the wall itself was often composed of local, poorer
quality materials, or reused blocks of destroyed structures.7

Construction methods, systems, and materials of The

Great Temple of Abu Simbel

The Great Temple Abu Simbel is carved inside a cliff of sandstone 50m
deep, and statues were also made of sandstone from the same site, even
though the temples were carved into the sandstone mounds rather than built,
they are similar in design to all Egyptian temples. For example, the façade of
the Great temple is carved to represent pylons the monumental trapezoidal
gates representative of the Egyptian hieroglyph for horizon characteristic of all
Egyptian temples. the natural face of the rock slopes at an angle of about sixty
degrees, and in cutting it away from the floor-level upwards, this front which is
36m wide and over 30.5m high is finished in the form of a pylon, the Great
Temple also features a spectacular façade, which replaces the traditional
pylon of a free-standing temple due to the construction methods, however is
still trapezoidal in shape the multiple halls and rooms required for storing
temple gifts are also carved deep into the sandstone mound.4 & 9

9
Verner, Miroslav – Temples of the World: Sanctuaries, Cults, and Mysteries of Ancient Egypt – 2012 – American
University in Cairo Press – Cairo/New York
4
Bell, Edward – The Architecture of Ancient Egypt – 1915 - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. –
London - Pages: ( 149, 150 )

7
 To conclude, The Great Temple of Abu Simbel is considered as one of the
unique temples in its time because it was build(carved) inside a large cliff, it is
somehow like Mortuary temples of Hatshepsut and Amenhotep, yet they
constructed on a larger area. There are many reasons that makes The Great
Temple of Abu Simbel distinct, for example, it does not have a courtyard and
the way that storage rooms are arranged is different than regular temples, and
it is one of the temples that uses illumination of the sun to emphasize religious
symbols like the god of the sun Ra.
Furthermore, constructing Abu Simbel Great temple didn’t require
transporting a lot of materials from a quarry and they only needed to carve in
the stone instead of bringing different types of materials to make the roof,
walls, and foundation, while other temples in ancient Egypt required
transporting materials from a quarry to be able to construct it.
If you compare an ancient Egyptian temple to other temples from other
civilizations, you will notice that in ancient Egyptian temples that only the
king(pharaoh) and temple priests can enter the temple, However, temples
from other civilization are usually open to the public.
In my opinion, I think Ramesses II constructed this great temple and the
Small Abu Simbel temple in this way because he wanted to erect a different
style for temples, maybe to break the regular design and to eternize himself in
the stone.

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1. http://www.ancient.eu/Abu_Simbel/ (By: JOSHUA J. MARK)

2. A. D. F. Hamlin, A.M. – History of Architecture – Seventh Edition – 1906 –

Longmans, Green, And CO. -New York – Pages: ( 17, 18 and 19 )

3. El-Enany Khaled - Discovering Our Heritage: The Temples of Abu Simbel-

2010 - Lumina-Abbas Khalil — Arab Republic of Egypt – Page: ( 7 )

4. Bell, Edward – The Architecture of Ancient Egypt – 1915 - CHISWICK

PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. – London - Pages: ( 149,150 )

5. Prof. Fletcher, Banister – A History of Architecture on The Comparative

Method – Fifth Edition - BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD, PRINTERS -
LONDON AND TONBRIDGE – Pages: ( 15, 20 and 22 )

6. http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/ancient-
egypt/ancient-egyptian-architecture/

7. Sullivan, Elaine - 2008 - Construction Methods. On Digital Karnak - Los

Angeles - http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak - Pages: ( 6, 7 and 8 )

8. Verner, Miroslav – Temples of the World: Sanctuaries, Cults, and Mysteries of

Ancient Egypt – 2012 – American University in Cairo Press – Cairo/New York

9
 Figures’ Sources:
- Figure 1 and 2: A. D. F. Hamlin, A.M. – History of Architecture –
Seventh Edition – 1906 – Longmans, Green, And CO. -New York –
Pages: ( 17, 18 and 19 )

- Figure 3: https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/egyptian-art-and-
architecture-middle-and-new-kingdoms/deck/9818216

- Figure 4 and 5: Francis D.K. Ching and others - A Global History of

Architecture - second Edition - 2011 - John Wiley & Sons, Inc -
Hoboken- New Jersey - Page: ( 71 )

- Figure 6: Lea croft, Helen – Buildings of Ancient Egypt – 1963 -

WILLIAM R. SCOTT INC. (PUBLISHER) – New York – Page: ( 15 )

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Introduction 1

Architectural Characteristics 2

Architectural Characteristics of Temples in General 2

Architectural Characteristics of The Great Temple of Abu Simbel 4

Construction methods and Materials 6

Construction methods, systems, and materials during the Ancient Egyptian period in general 6

Construction methods, systems, and materials of The Great Temple of Abu Simbel 7

Conclusion 8

Resources 9

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