Henry Roderick Newman (1843-1917)

The twin temples at Abu Simbel in southern Egypt were carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharoah Ramesses II in the 13th Century BC, as a memorial to himself and his queen Nefertari. The present watercolour was painted before the entire complex was relocated in the 1960s to an artificial hill above the Aswan dam reservoir. The present watercolour shows the facade of the Greater Temple on the site, guarded by four colossal statues of the Pharoah sculpted directly out of the rock face.