INTERIOR. OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABOO-SIMBEL, 
NUBIA. 
The access to this magnificent Temple was accomplished under the superintendence, 
and chiefly by the active personal exertions, of the four travellers whose names will 
always be associated with Ahoo-Simbel, amidst difficulties, threats, privations, and 
excessive labour; “ and continued,” says Belzoni, “ during twenty-two days, besides 
eight days in 1816, often working eight hours a-day, with the thermometer in the 
shade at an average of 114° Fahrenheit.” 
As soon as the sand had been cleared away three feet from the top of the door 
these determined men entered, and enjoyed the reward of their labour in bringing 
again to human sight the finest and most extensive of the excavated Temples of Nubia, 
after its concealment for probably 3000 years. 
“From what we could perceive at the first view,” says Belzoni, “it was evidently 
a large place, hut our astonishment increased when we found it to be one of the 
most magnificent of temples, enriched with beautiful intaglios, paintings, colossal figures, 
&c. We entered at first into a large pronaos, fifty-seven feet long and fifty-two 
wide, supported by two rows of square pillars in a line from the front door to the 
door of the sekos. Each pillar has a figure not unlike those of Medinet-Aboo, finely 
executed and very little injured by time; the tops of their turbans reach the ceiling, 
which is about thirty feet high, the pillars are five feet and a half square. Both 
these and the walls are covered with beautiful hieroglyphics, the style of which is 
somewhat superior, or, at least, bolder than that of any others in Egypt, not only 
in the workmanship, but also in the subject. They exhibit battles, storming of castles, 
triumphs over the Ethiopians, sacrifices, &c. Some of the colours are much injured 
by the close and heated atmosphere, the temperature of which was so hot that the 
thermometer must have risen to above 130°.” Beyond the pronaos are two other 
chambers before reaching the adytum, or sanctuary. Out of each of the central 
chambers of the Temple doors lead into lateral chambers; altogether eight rooms open 
on the grand hall. The entire length excavated, from the entrance to the adytum, 
Wilkinson estimates at two hundred feet; Irby and Mangles make it about a hundred 
and sixty, besides the colossi and the slope of the facade. 
Mr. Roberts says, “ On descending into the splendid hall, over the sand which 
again almost reaches to the top of the door, a double row is seen of colossal figures, 
representing Remeses the Great, attached to square pillars, which appear to support 
the roof; the placid expression of these statues is still finer than that of the colossi 
without. There are four on each side, their arms crossed on their breasts, and 
bearing in their hands the crook and the scourge—emblems of government or power; 
those on one side wear the high conical cap, and on the other what is called the 
