5- Read the following passage then answer the questions ( 5
marks )
Great engineering
Egypt has many amazing works of engineering, both ancient and modern.
South of
Aswan, for example, Abu Simbel is the site of two temples which were carved into a...
More
5- Read the following passage then answer the questions ( 5
marks )
Great engineering
Egypt has many amazing works of engineering, both ancient and modern.
South of
Aswan, for example, Abu Simbel is the site of two temples which were carved into a
cliff in about 1250 BCE.
The larger temple was positioned so that at certain times of
the year, the rays of the rising sun would illuminate the statues of Ptah, Amun-Re,
Ramses II and Ry-Horakhty.
In 1954, the government decided to build Aswan High Dam.
This meant that the Nile
Valley would be flooded and that Abu Simbel itself would be under water.
It was
unthinkable that Egypt should lose one of its most important monuments, so plans
were made to rescue it.
The massive statues were into pieces which weighed over 30 tonnes each.
These were
raised over 60 metres up the cliff, where they were attached to a concrete base.
The
work took thousands of workers more than three years to complete.
Today, the
temples, w
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