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Secondary sourcePhotograph1875

Facade Detail of Abu Simbel Showing Ramesses II and Ra

Pascal Sébah · 1875

An 1875 photograph of a detail from the Abu Simbel facade, showing a statue of Ramesses II beside the sun god Ra.

Depicts Ramesses II placed beside the sun god Ra on his Abu Simbel facade, showing his claim to divine favor.

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Sepia photograph of the Abu Simbel temple facade in Egypt. A colossal seated stone statue of a pharaoh with a striped headdress dominates the right. Beside it stands a statue of a falcon-headed god wearing a sun disk. Relief carvings and hieroglyphs cover the wall, and a small seated man at the bottom gives scale. Caption reads Abou Simbel, Gd Temple, Le dieu Soleil Ra et Rhamses II, P. Sébah.
Pascal Sébah, facade detail of Abu Simbel showing Ramesses II and Ra, c. 1875. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This photograph, taken around 1875 by Pascal Sébah, shows a close-up section of the Abu Simbel temple facade. It includes a colossal seated statue of a pharaoh and a statue of the falcon-headed sun god Ra wearing a sun disk. The original caption identifies the figures as Ramesses II and Ra. The photograph is held by the Wellcome Collection.

Why it matters

Abu Simbel linked Ramesses II directly with the gods, especially the sun god, reinforcing his claim to divine authority. Photographs like this one, from the growing tourism and documentation of Egypt in the 1800s, helped introduce ancient Egyptian religious imagery to wider audiences.

Look closer

  • Why might Ramesses II have wanted his statue placed next to a god?
  • What details in the carving suggest which figure is the god and which is the pharaoh?
  • What might this image leave out about how the temple was used in ancient times?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Two clay cuneiform tablets on a clear acrylic stand against a red background. The larger tablet is broken into several fragments, covered in dense wedge-shaped writing. A smaller tablet fragment sits at lower right, also inscribed.Document

Primary source

Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty

c. 1258 BCE

Sepia photograph of the facade of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt, with four seated colossal statues of Ramesses II carved into the rock. A small standing man at lower left shows scale. A doorway lies between the middle statues, and hieroglyphs are carved across the upper wall.Photograph

Secondary source

Abu Simbel Temple Colossi

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel carved into a sandstone cliff under a clear blue sky. Four seated colossal statues of a pharaoh flank the central doorway, with a sand-covered walkway leading up to the entrance.Artifact

Primary source

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II · c. 1273 BCE

Sepia photograph of the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four fallen-headed colossal seated statues stand before a sandstone gateway with carved hieroglyphs on its lintel. A broken statue lies in the foreground, and a small figure sits near the base of the statues. Desert and a column are visible on the left.Photograph

Secondary source

Ramesseum Colossi in Ruins

Pascal Sébah · c. 1875

Black-and-white drawing in profile of an elderly Egyptian man wearing a tall, patterned royal headdress with a cobra emblem and a pleated collar necklace with a scarab pendant. Signed WLM 1917 at lower right.Painting

Secondary source

Figure of Ancient Egyptian, Ramesses II

1917

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