Abu Simbel - Part 2

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With the lingering thoughts of the ages past, when I entered the temple, I was greeted by eight huge pillars depicting the Ramses in Osirid position which is basically a typical posture of god Osiris (the god of the Underworld) with hands crossed over the chest and the entire body wrapped like a mummy. Now again here Ramses went out of the way and constructed the temple in a very different way temples used to be built in Egypt. Normally till then the Egyptian temples always followed a structure of pylon, hypostyle hall and a courtyard. These basic 3 elements are repeated n number of times before the inner sanctum wherein the deity resides. At Abu Simbel, we do not have the above pattern. It is a very small temple, with just two chambers before the inner sanctum- no pylon or hypostyle hall. Ramses does seem to be in a defying mode; perhaps just to prove that he was different and greater than any of the kings before him.

Now the walls of the entrance chamber displayed larger than life depictions glorifying Ramses, the most important being scenes from the Battle of Kadesh. This battle was one of the fiercest battles waged in ancient times in which it is believed that Ramses was victorious over the Hittites. Of course this is deduced mostly from the inscriptions that Ramses had got carved on various temple walls like in Abu Simbel, Karnak temple (in Luxor) and many more. However there are some evidences which indicate that a compromise was sought between Ramses and Hittites which resulted in a peace treaty.
These paintings cannot be comprehended if they are seen from very close distance. They can be best viewed from the opposite end of the chamber although it does become cumbersome to get a complete view with hoards of tourist around you. But with patience one can manage to get a good clear complete head to toe view of the paintings and only then can you appreciate the beauty of those paintings. The violence and the cruelty of the war is well depicted as well as the greatness of Ramses highlighted.

As we moved further we came to the inner sanctum. It is a pretty small chamber where there are 4 sitting statues of Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah and Ramses himself. It seems to be an ordinary room, until you know its secret. When the temple was built, the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that on October 21 and February 21 (61 days before and 61 days after the Winter Solstice), the rays of the rising sun would directly illuminate the inner sanctum and illuminate the status. Not all the status, only 3 except the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.
Today, this phenomenon occurs on October 22 and February 22. Why this delay in one day? Well will let you know in my next post.

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Photos

Abu Simbel 2
Abu Simbel 2

Comments

[shaila phadke]

sona
tu khup chhan lihites sona. keep it up.

[swatitari]

Thank you mumma