Ramses and the Nubian Temples Beyond Abu Simbel

Ramses the Great's building program in Nubia extended far beyond the famous temples at Abu Simbel. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the pharaoh's lesser-known Nubian monuments: the rock-cut temple at Beit el-Wali, the fortress-temple at Gerf Hussein, and the spectacular sanctuary of Wadi es-Sebua, built over an earlier shrine of Amenhotep III. They discuss how these temples served both as religious centers and as instruments of Egyptian control over the gold-rich lands of Kush. The episode also examines the controversial relocation of these temples in the 1960s to save them from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam – a massive UNESCO-led salvage effort that moved entire mountains of carved stone. Along the way, Lucas and Luna consider how Ramses's Nubian building policy differed from his predecessors', and what the epithet 'He Who Makes Nubia Prostrate' reveals about Egyptian imperial ideology. #RamsesII #Nubia #Kush #BeitElWali #GerfHussein #WadiEsSebua #AswanHighDam #UNESCO #LakeNasser #EgyptianTemples #RockCutTemple #NewKingdom #19thDynasty #AncientEgypt #SalvageArchaeology #Kemet #Imperialism #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo