After UNESCO started the campaign for safeguarding the Nubian monuments in 1960, the campaign was divided into two stages:
The first step was to safeguard the different small temples. In the same year, Egypt moved the two temples of Tafa and Dabod, while between 1961 and 1963 Germany sponsored the moving of Kalabsha Temple 30 miles from its original location and the United States funded the safeguarding of three small temples; Beit el-Wali, Wadi El-Sebu’a and the tomb of Pennut.
Then, in 1963, the Egyptian Antiquities Department moved the tomb of Qertassi and in 1964 the French government sponsored moving the temple of ‘Amada. This was in addition to the collective work of safeguarding the temples of Dendur, El-Maharraka, Dakka, Gerf Hassein and Abu Oda, as well as El-Lessiya. All this work had to be achieved before the water started to rise behind the High Dam, in 1965.
The second step of the campaign was the real challenge: the safeguarding of the temples of Abu Simbel. Due to the expense of this operation, there was a debate at the UNESCO General Assembly about its technical and financial feasibility, while some countries did not meet their financial obligations for the projects.
At the beginning, there were two projects under discussion. The first one was a French proposal to leave the two temples as they were and to build a dam around them, which had a drawback of seepage of water through the dam, as well as the cost of the dam.
The second project was Italian. The idea was to cut the two temples and move them as one piece up the hill. It seems that the cost was prohibitive.
Then finally came the last solution, which was much less expensive. It involved cutting each temple into smaller blocks and moving them again up the hill. It would cost US$ 36 million, with Egypt contributing around US$12 million of this. The other main contributor was the United States (also about US$12 million), followed by France (US$2 million), with around 50 other countries providing token amounts.
The safeguarding of the temples at Abu Simbel was one of the world’s most ambitious-ever monument conservation projects. It required work of very special nature, first in cutting the two temples into blocks, then moving them up the hill and finally reassembling them with great precision.
At last, on September 27, 1968 the whole world celebrated the completion of work of safeguarding the two unique monuments of Abu Simbel.
One mission remained after that: safeguarding the temple of Philae. This last task started in 1971 and was finished on April 4, 1980. With this accomplishment, UNESCO and the whole world started a new era of recognizing world heritage monuments
