AN exhibition about Upper Egypt's Abu Simbel temples rescue project, which opened in Cairo recently, brought to mind the great memory of the project that unified the world. The exhibition entitled “Abu Simbel: The salvaging of the Temples, Man and Technology” features rare pictures showing the salvage process at the temples 50 years ago. The exhibition, organised in Co-operation with the Scientific Office of the Embassy of Italy, highlights the event as one of the great scientific and technological breakthroughs of the last century, when companies and scientific researchers from around the world competed to achieve what seemed to be “mission impossible” at that time. The building of the huge Aswan High Dam in 1960, although of huge economic importance, threatened to destroy some of the most extraordinary testimonies of the ancient Pharaonic civilisation. Among these were the rock temples of Abu Simbel, a human patrimony, under the Protection of UNESCO which could have been wiped out completely with the building of the enormous artificial lake. UNESCO at that time launched a huge salvage operation involving no less than 113 countries, all ready to help Egypt with money and technology to save the ancient relics. The project foresaw the dismantling of the temples by cutting them into blocks before reerecting them above the level of the finished dam, some 65 metres higher and 180 metres inland. The work took five years to complete, with more than 2,000 men and a technological effort the likes of which had never been witnessed before in the history of engineering. "The salvaging of the temples at Abu Simble is still one of the most significant achievments of UNESCO and one of the first examples of the notion of the international co-operation," said Tareq Shawqi director of the Bureau for UNESCO in Arab States. For Franco Porcelli, the Scientific Attaché in the Italian Embassy in Cairo, the salvaging process has a scientific and technological value, "so we were keen on including it within the activities of the Italian Egyptian Year for Science and Technology," he said. In a seminar held on the opening day some of the people who took part in the project were there recounting their stories and experiences. Touring the exhibition gives an idea not only about the scale of the rescue and machines used, but also about some of the finer details about the temples. Abu Simble was first discovered by a western archeologist in 1813 when J.L. Burckhardt came over the mountain and saw the facade of the great temple. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte, and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must see for visitors to Egypt not only because of their historical value and beauty, but also to remember the story of their removal and reconstruction, which became an historic event in itself.
