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Colossi of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt
| Three thousand years ago the Great Temple of Ramses II was carved into a mountain beside the Nile. It was being inundated by the rising waters of the Aswan Dam after its completion in the 1960s when UNESCO mounted a rescue operation. The mountain, including the temple, was cut into thousands of blocks and reassembled nearby on its present site. A sense of scale is supplied by the people at the foot of the statues. |