Egypt: temples that were cut up and rebuilt on higher ground

The decision to build the Aswan High Dam was made in 1954; its reservoir would cover the Nile valley from Aswan into Sudan, Nubia’s temples included. At Abu Simbel, 280 km south of Aswan, stand two rock-cut temples of Ramesses II: the Great Temple, whose façade has four seated colossi, and a smaller one for Hathor and Queen Nefertari. UNESCO’s account says workers began cutting them with wire saws in November 1963. More than a thousand blocks of about 30 tons each were numbered, stored and reassembled inside a purpose-built artificial cliff on higher ground inland, and the temples were inaugurated at the new site on 22 September 1968.[2][3][4][5]

UNESCO writes that, with three exceptions, the threatened monuments were dismantled, carved up and moved. The Ptolemaic sanctuary of Isis on Philae went to Agilkia island, near the former Aswan dam, between 1972 and 1979. Kalabsha, Beit el Wali and the Kiosk of Qertassi were rebuilt near the High Dam; Amada and Derr near Amada’s old site; Dakka, Maharraqa and Wadi es Sebua together near the former Wadi es Sebua site. Egypt also gave four temples to countries that helped the campaign especially: Debod to Spain, Taffa to the Netherlands, Dendur to the United States and Ellesyia to Italy. UNESCO dates the end of the campaign to 10 March 1980.[3][4][2][1]

Not everything in the World Heritage property was moved. UNESCO says five of its ten parts cover the antiquities of the Aswan area: the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs at Qubbet el Hawa, the ruins of Elephantine, the monastery of St Simeon, an Islamic cemetery, and the stone quarries with an unfinished obelisk. According to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the obelisk is believed to have been ordered by Hatshepsut for the temple of Amun at Karnak and abandoned because of flaws and fissures in the stone. UNESCO adds that the quarries, with the obelisk left behind, are the basis of what is known about ancient Egyptian quarrying technology.[1][6]