Spectrum; 97; Abu Simbel

I need tea, spectrum 97, Abu Simmel 28-36-812-1969 For many centuries, the rock-cut temples of Abu Zimbabwe abandoned at the edge of the Nubian Desert. The great temple, long buried beneath the sand, was not discovered again

until the year 1813 by the Swiss Oriev list Johann Ludwigborkheim. The temples are located on the bank of the Nile not far from the Sudanese frontier. The smaller one is dedicated to the goddess Hathar and its facade is adorned with figures over 30 feet high, portraying the pharaoh Ramesses II and his wife Nefertari. The temples were carved out of the rock in about 1260 before Christ by this famous king of the 19th Dynasty in the latter period of Egypt's long golden age. Ramesses is also portrayed four times in front of the great temple. Each of these colossal figures is over 70 feet high. The members of the Royal family are dwarfed by the giant image of Pharaoh. The reliefs on the outside walls show

us something of the life of man 3,000 years ago. Two deities of the Nile unite the lily and the papyrus to symbolize the union of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Apart from the figures of Ramesses' wife Nefertari and his favorite children, the temple facade has symbolic statues which represent the monarch's greatness and the respect he commanded amongst his enemies. The inscriptions relate the exploits of his reign. Long rows of tethered nubians on both sides of the entrance portal reveal the success of military campaign. The great temple of Abu Zimbo was designed to produce a strange phenomenon

of sunlight, a supreme example of the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians and of the skill of their architects. Twice a year, in February and October, the sun's rays shining through the narrow entrance way of the temple through the giant pillar hall 60 feet deep penetrate to the inner sanctuary which at other times is in darkness. The images of three gods, Amon Raharakti and Pharaoh himself, are illuminated. Only the fourth deity, Tom, got of the underworld, remains in the shadows. The figures in the pillar hall, each of them 25 feet high, also portray Pharaoh, but with the attribute to

the God Osiris. In the year 1285 BC, Ramesses II showed himself a great warrior by conquering in Syria the Hittites who had invaded his realm. These representations of the power and glory of the great Pharaoh bear witness to the incomparable artistic skill of that age. Please join us go see Israel. After conquering his enemies, Ramesses II is seen on other reliefs as a wise ruler, receiving

the thanks of his subjects, issuing decrees, and paying due tribute in the form of sacrifices and acts of narration to the gods to whom he dedicated the temple. Today, more than 3,000 years hence, the descendants of Pharaoh are confronted with problems which he would have had difficulty understanding. The area in which this rapidly growing people can lill and grow its food is limited to

the narrow strip of fertile land on either bank of the Nile. Each of its famous greenery has now become too small. The construction of the Saad El Ali Dam meets a vital need of the people of the United Arab Republic, and enormous reservoir of the waters of the Nile will extend far south into the Sudan. It will be possible to irrigate much more land and greatly increase agricultural production. The vast new supply of electric power will help new industries to establish themselves. Of course, the building of the dam has had its drawbacks. Hundreds of thousands of people had to be resettled. Irreplaceable monuments of the Golden Age of Nubia would have been destroyed if something had not been done at the last moment to salvage them. The threat to the monuments of Nubia alarmed the civilized world. The United Arab Republic appealed to UNESCO for help. UNESCO launched an international campaign to save this heritage of the past, and more

than 50 countries agreed to share the financial burden. Erase against time and the rising waters began. Any ways of rescuing the Abu Zimbal temples were suggested. The plan ultimately agreed upon is this, construction of a copper dam to protect the temples from flooding while building work is in progress. The facade to be banked up with sand to protect the statues of Ramesses. The ring of the interior of the temple was steel scaffolding. Removal of the rocks surrounding the temple until a wall thickness of 80 cm is reached. Dismantling the temples in blocks of 20-30 tons and removal to a safe storage area.

Reassembly of the temples on a site 200 feet above the original location. Restoration of the landscape. In November 1963, the joint venture Abu Zimbal, an international group of building contractors from five countries, received the contract for the removal of the temples. The Abu Zimbal project has been a difficult assignment, but the climate and especially the remoteness of the site have greatly increased the difficulty. As one, the nearest town is 175 miles downstream. There are no roads along which building materials, machines and food supplies can be transported. Women from Europe take five months to arrive, from Cairo, one must count on a month or two. Yet there must not be any delay.

There is no time to lose. Even before living quarters can be set up for the crews, work must start on the construction of the coffee town. First of all, a steel piling wall is erected. The crest of the coffee town must be 80 feet above the riverbed. The beginning of November 1964, a critical stage was reached in the race against time and water. As a result of heavy rain in Ethiopia, the river rose to a level about six and a half feet below the crest of the dam. Work is already in full swing on either side of the coffee deck. Before the dismantling of the rock figures can begin, the statues as well as the entire facade must be covered with fine sand as a protection against falling stone. At the more sensitive spots, it is applied by hand.

Excavation work with special machines starts from the top, on the rock plateau that has been prepared there. A guard over the facade prevents large rock fragments from striking the layer of sand. The rock material removed from above the temples is used for the construction of the dam. At the end of February 1965, the bulkhead is completed. A hand the facade of the temple is once again concealed beneath the sand as it was before its discovery. The inside can now be reached only through a steel pipe. The reinforcement of the interior is now almost complete.

240 tons of steel sections were needed for the shoring work. To not damage the ornamentation on the walls and ceilings, the steel supports are padded with felt mats and plastic foil. All steel supports are numbered for reassembly of the temples in the same sequence. The really critical work starts with the removal of the rock above the temples. At first, the rock is attacked with stone-sawing strands and giant blocks are cut out.

Red-saws are brought into use. As long as they are cutting only the wall of rock around the temple, fine precision is not yet required and they can work with broader cuts. At the sides, the rock is broken off piece by piece. Newmatic drills can be used only on the outer sections. The vibrations they cause are constantly measured inside the temple.

More and more of the rock material over the temples is removed. Two derricks are already waiting to take away the sawn-out blocks. Two cavities in the massive rock face show where the temples are located. Now comes the most difficult part of the work. The finest cuts on the surfaces can be made only by hand. The rock is so brittle that contact with water would make it crumbled. Each individual block must be carefully marked so that it can easily be assigned its right position when the monument is re-irrected. There are 1,047 temple blocks and 7,700 blocks of other rock with an average weight of between 20 and 30 tons each. For the safe transport of the heavy blocks, special trust rods had to be made. The drill holes, which accommodate the anchor trusses, are filled with synthetic resin to withstand

any possible strain during transport. The largest and the heaviest blocks were produced from the heads of Pharaoh statues. Here the engineers wanted to make as few cuts as possible. For the sawing starts, the cutting surfaces are protected with plastic foil. When the faces of the figures were cut, work had to proceed continuously. Day and night.

If there had been any interruption in the sawing, with soft rock interspersed with hard scenes, might have crumbled due to changes in tension. And this is the moment that journalists and pest photographers have waited for all night. Some promises loses his face. One last majestic look at the bare facade before the special low load transport vehicle

carries into the storage place. The two storage sites are located on a plateau near the spot where the temples are to be re-directed. The position and number of each block is registered, just as if it were a book in a library. From his temporary resting place, the great Pharaoh can look out on the round roofs of the houses built in the meantime for a thousand workers. And he may even cast a longing gaze over the swimming pool, whose waters must seem like

a mirage in the desert. The Nile has now risen above the base of the original site, but the copper dam has stood the test. The monuments are being saved in time. As the days pass, the hands sowing of the blocks and their removal to the storage site become routine. Each block is transported without jolting, maintained in its original position. This ensures against breakage as a result of a sudden change in strength. The work advances farther and farther into the interior of the temple. Every day, new artistic masterpieces are brought into broad daylight for the first time. The divine Pharaoh seems somewhat fearful as he looks out on this new technological age,

an age which saves him from crumbling with the help of injections of synthetic rest. The supporting pillars are dismantled by means of very fine cuts. Their work is done with extreme care. These surfaces, which have been exposed to the elements, are particularly brittle. Now even if the water were to overflow the copper dam ahead of schedule, the most it could do would be to cover the leg stumps of Pharaoh. The last of the wall release is ready for transport.

By coincidence, it bears the motto under which the salvage project is being carried out. The union of the upper and lower Nile has the symbol of wealth and fertility. While the dismantling work proceeds, preparations for the re-irrection are made on the plateau. After completion of large-scale leveling operations, and when the axis has been precisely calculated to produce the same bi-annual miracle of sunlight, the reconstruction of the temple and terrier commences. The same steel-shoring sections which served for dismantling are used. The reassembly of the first facade sections reveals the precision with which the temple had been dismantled. The powerful blocks are easily reassembled.

The final phase of reconstructing the 22 meter high statues begins. Here we are. The day row is given back his face an exciting mode. Now comes the proof of the work success whether the statues will look the same as before.

The great engineering achievement of relocating the stone temple is not the end of the work, however. The unique rocky landscape around the temple must also be reconstructed according to the original. A 12,000 square meter area must be re-landscaped. Concrete domes are first constructed above the temple locations for placing the stones. The dome above the large temple has a spread of over 60 meters. The individual concrete segments are 1.8 meters thick at the apex and 2.3 meters at the base. Some 10,000 cubic meters of concrete are involved in this gigantic construction. The height of the cover above the apex is more than 10 meters and will have to support

more than 20 tons of stone per square meter. The entire stone covering of the surface is estimated to be 350,000 cubic meters. The dome above the small temple has a spread of 25 meters, requiring more than 3,000 cubic meters of concrete. The last of the blocks comprising the facade of the smaller temple are set in place. More than 7,700 stone blocks of treatment A and B must be rearranged between the temples. Now comes the finishing work.

The foundation on the large temple is necessary. The facade is made crack and weather proof. It must withstand many more centuries. Once the seams have been closed, it will no longer be evident that the temple was once sawed into individual blocks. Thus before long, the temples of Abu Zimbo will again greet the rising sun. They will bear witness both to the supreme genius of an ancient civilization and the miraculous skill of modern technology. They will also bear witness to the determination of the world as a whole to preserve the best of the past while building the future and to apply international cooperation for the

achievement of these great purposes. Thank you.