During the salvage operation which began in 1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before.

Here they were reassembled in the exact same relationship to each other and to the sun and covered with an artificial mountain.

Most of the stone joints have been filled by antiquity experts, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks were cut. Theman made dome houses an exhibition with photographs showing the different stages of the massive rescue project.

Abu Simbel was first discovered by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over a mountain preparing to leave the area via the Nile,  and suddenly saw the facade of a 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 Victorians visiting Egypt, even though it required a journey up the Nile, and there was not much to see of the temples as they were covered with sand and in the same condition as Burckhardt found them.