Abu Simbel temples (Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae)

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The rock-cut temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari, carved in the 13th century BCE into a cliff above the Nile in Lower Nubia. When the Aswan High Dam, decided in 1954, was set to drown them beneath Lake Nasser, the temples were cut into blocks and reassembled on higher ground between 1964 and 1968, work at Abu Simbel ending on 22 September 1968. The rescue is the founding demonstration of the idea this journey is about: dozens of States paid to save monuments that stood on Egyptian territory and belonged, legally, to Egypt. Abu Simbel is today inscribed as part of the serial property 'Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae'.