egypt rich and fascinating history dates back thousands of years, celebrating the pharaohs and the magnificent monuments they built. the pyramids were just one example of their legacy. the 19th century explorers were astonished to discover ancient temples in southern egypt. the power that the pharaohs wielded, extended all along the nile, even through the vastness of the sahara desert. here in nubia, they built enormous structures that defied the forces of man and nature for thousands of years. in the 19th sixty's, when the decision was taken to construct one of the largest dams in the world, the fate of the temples seemed to be sealed. they were to be submerged beneath the surface of a huge artificial lake. their rescue from the nile waters was possible due to international cooperation and the efforts of many thousands of people. it took over 2 decades of unprecedented efforts in order to save the monuments with unique technical solutions. some of the rescue temples can be admired at lake nasa, whilst others were transported thousands of kilometers to europe. all to us. the journey through southern egypt takes us to these wild cultural heritage treasures ah, the nile flows through egypt to the mediterranean. it is both a waterway and a source of irrigation. the ancient egyptians saw it as a gift from the gods. one of the most impressive and advanced civilizations of ancient times surfaced on its banks. ah, as one is located deep in the south of egypt and has long been a border between upper egypt and the interior of africa. part of ancient newby allies here buried in the sand. these days the region belongs partly to both egypt and sudan. informa times the borders were natural. the granite rock rapids of the cataracts of denial. mm. nubia was strategically interesting to the egyptians due to the gold ivory ebony and slave. the nubian kings were also known as the kings of the kingdom of kush. they were sometimes allies to the pharaohs, and sometimes mo, between 400 b, c, and 300 a de marrow. he with its pyramid complex, is the capital of course, at the end of the 4th century b. c. the pharaohs who established a vast kingdom that stretched from the nile delta in the north to the 1st nile cataract. in the south. the egyptians built a series of fortresses to control the remote area and border by the kings. wanted to expand even further. nubia was gradually conquered by egypt with its soldiers enslaved or forced to fight for the education army egyptian dominance was underlined by the fortresses and temple they built in the area. mm. in the 18th century european explorers travelled up the nile to saddam. it was a revelation here in the little known south of egypt, thousands of ancient sites were found that had been hidden from millennia. huge tang, curious tombs and temples carved into the rock buildings commissioned by the pharaohs as one as those of the greeks and romans fascinated with ass sized their colors and the mysteries that surrounded their history. this rich nubian heritage was threatened with destruction in the 1960s the water levels of the nile were rising. unprecedentedly mainly due to human interventions. egypt population was exploding and zation and modernization of the country with the political challenges of the time. the annual flooding of the nile was hindering these development adoptions no longer wanted to be dependent on the whims of the river. in 1954 egyptian president come out, abdul nasa decided to build a new damn and won the mammoth project. but not only be one of the largest river structures ever, but also one of the most expensive fools, clear soul, the harshly sheep, the fear pendalty don't talk to finance the dam construction. egypt asked western countries for help. the u. s. and england, off at the prospect of $70000000.00. with financing from the world banks le, misty, safe, i bought a crisis ensued, keys in the middle of the cold war. egypt insisted on the policy of neutrality. and it's right to buy weapons from czechoslovakia. he says, in your words, can you not? the united states withdrew its office, he said, with wealth bank financing was therefore no longer an optional gisele. he posts nasa up down the sail, opted to nationalize the british french suez canal company in 1956, all stating if they don't finance ow damn. we will pay for it. with the revenues from the suez canal, they leave new. you can this lead to the so as war between egypt, france, israel and england, he leads olive halls, elder, they all of them. with you and mediation, the crisis ended with the withdrawal of britain and france. egypt moved increasingly closer to the soviet union, which provided the resources and technicians to get the dam project off the ground . a monument to the south of aswan commemorates the treaty and the construction of the damn. from it, the entire dam can be seen. the result of 11 years of construction by around 36000 workers. ah, boy just miss said bill, i remember the ass one damn it is 111 meters high rideau hour from east to west, or it has a crest length of 3830 meters and is 980 meters wide at the base? dominique metric for its construction at 43000000 cubic meters of excavation, earth and rock had to be dumped into the old river bed metra milk. that's 17 times the amount of material used for the key ups pyramid robertson, the hallman of. ah, the dam has created a gigantic water reservoir upstream, like nasa over 500 kilometers long with an area of 5250 square kilometers. more than 100000 people had to be re settled in saddam and egypt. some of the people were accommodated in newly built villages. others moved elsewhere in egypt, especially cairo. all they went abroad. oh yeah. a huge expanse of water now covers ancient nubia. the landscape is grandiose and tragic. at the same time, the almost deserted shores are overlooked by rocky mountains. they once marked the edge of the hall, atlanta. these small islands, now surrounded by dangerous shoals, where mountain peaks 50 years ago. the kind of santa fe and i want to know my little legal, our elders tell us that before the dam you could navigate is it for a canal or river. it was easy to get from one place to another high because denial and nubia was not very wide. variety tend to be on. there were small waves, and at night they navigated by the stars and she will a few d, v as sort of ice. and at that time there were no maps or gps. and then you all the villages and stuff where they wanted to and then continued on to as one or why the, how far in sudan kind of become room was one with us in the 10101 for crossing like nasa means following the architectural foot of the pharaohs in the mid 19 fifties news of the construction of the damn set off an archaeological embrace. egyptologist from all over the world only had a limited amount of time to explore the nile valley of valley harbouring thousands of years of human history. but scientists only managed to excavate a 3rd of the archaeological sites before the rising water level made further excavations. impossible. mm. the dam project triggered a world wide debate about the fate of nubian treasures. how does one decide between cultural heritage and further development between food security and preserving remnants of the past or media reports were pessimistic about egypt chances of saving so many monuments. some force all future temple visits by diving only. the reality was even more dramatic. many of the monuments were hewn from easily fractured rock. they would be destroyed for ever a flood planned for the area full cost at the exact date. when the thoroughness masterpieces would disappear. french egyptologist, christianity harsh, nobly cor, decided to act. she was an experienced excavation director in egypt and was not afraid to speak out against the consequences of dam construction. i also, she's a v as mama the hall and paul ben take hom at that moment. i had a real problem all. thank katie, gyptian said we're going to sacrifice new, be as temples also he'll go. nubia was going to become this shoot reservoir of water, which would have destroyed everything. he knew. you know, i breather. maybe. that was completely unacceptable to me. so i said to them, i have to find another solution. ain't foy said harold shows, oh, do you talking about? that's how they are. the egyptians is met by a theme while get good. i said give me a few days to find competent people. miss cob sacrificed the area just because you think you needed a vehicle on every bus one saving the temples of nubia in such an explosive context, required having a neutral authority to oversee things. christiane de ocean of la core ensured that the problem became an international issue. see, it was a person very well known in egypt. she talked personally to mister nasa and she was also friends, director general of unesco through her connections. i think the whole story came together because she convinced everybody that this is a heritage which needs to be preserved for future generation. unesco had been founded a few years earlier and were encouraged to get involved. the decision to save the monuments of nubia was made at the unesco headquarters in paris or jewelry new day on march, the 8th, 1960 ruled the nations, despite some of them being involved in covert or overt conflicts. i have agreed for the 1st time to join forces public to save the cultural heritage of a vanished civilization that will convey the recalls of support and funding from around the world. the temples of the nile must be saved. the unusual campaign stoked the interest of many young people that n got involved. vic, owners that they poke, i was very young back then, maybe 11 or 12. the else is younger schools and what are you doing in school at that age? and even as you are learning about egypt, i was watching tv one night and i heard the reaction about minister of culture to the unesco appeal to the family. go like to buy was incredibly moved. the next day i asked my school if we could raise money to save the nearby and monuments that though my buffy, it was an extraordinary action and a groundbreaking campaign. one of the countries normally tended to only preserve their own heritage. they went interested in saving other countries, de la then unesco intervened and launched their famous appeal to all nations of the world. but we must help egypt save these monuments simone because they don't belong to egypt alone. they belong to the history of all mankind flat. the reminded date, ah, in egypt various leaders started moving to save the country's heritage. culture minister thought o kasha was aware of the west's fascination with ancient egypt. to promote the rescue campaign, he sent the treasures of to 10 common. the most famous barrow on a traveling exhibition as far away as the united states. ah, around the world, the public started taking notice. stamps with pictures of the threatened temples were issued in some countries. soon, money from all corners of the globe flowed into the rescue project. a unifying action despite the cold war. unesco is an agency which brings together people around a table because we are a technical agency. we don't deal with politics. we deal with actually actions on the ground to save, got the heritage, to preserve the environment, to ensure communication among the different countries and to ensure dialogue, diplomacy and support of a technical solutions can take many years and work on the dam was already intensifying. ah yeah, back in 1813 the swiss john louis bu cart discovered a boost and belle it notes described a huge temple between the desert and the nile with majestic statues emerging from the sand and guarding a temple entrance. in france, the young linguist, jean francois sean p, your studied the detailed drawings of the temple of inscriptions. he succeeded in deciphering the hieroglyphics and realized that abu simbel was a temple in honor of the pharaoh ramseys. the 2nd, are born in the 13th century, b. c. ramsey, the 2nd was one of the great kings of egypt, after the battle of kadesh, against the hittites, he had a monument built for himself, and several gods, and nubia. ah, the complex of abu simbel is carved out of the rock. the facade is 40 meters wide and about 30 meters high. for colossal statues of ramses the 2nd or 20 meters high. the 1st groom has colossal statues, representing ramseys the 2nd in the form of the god osiris. cliff, fixed and images of the pharaoh covered the walls. the ancient egyptians created a series of rooms in a straight line leading to the most sacred sanctuary, or twice a year. the sun rises in perfect line with the entrance to the monument. its rays penetrate the temple and illuminated all the way to the sacred chamber. only the statue of the create a god. tom remains in darkness. without the magnificent rescue operation involving thousands of people in the 19 sixty's. these imposing temples, which are still almost completely intact, but not be able to be visited to day at dash o vo has a special connection to abuse in bow. his grandfather was renee mo, director general of unesco and wish him well. so she aku some bell is part of my family history of failed veteran. his school in the 19 sixty's of the my grandfather worked on the rescue operation of one half ago. this is the 1st time i visited the site for it all, and it's very moving to finally see the temples of, you know, as i've heard about abuse and bell since i was a child. my grandmother always used to tell me about the project and i wanted to get a better idea of what the rescue operation actually means. it's an issue bringing so many nations together. oh that to apply such restoration techniques and the desert and when the race against time, which is it is a real feat. don't israel? i am very impressed. sure, because the narrative was typically the temples of abuse in bell. i'll rock temples, everything from the huge statues at the entrance through to the smaller ones within has been carved out of the stone. which means that dismount in preserving them without damaging them was a momentous task. with the economic growth in the 1960 s technological progress had made a number of large scale constructions possible, dams, highways, bridges. the engineers. nothing seemed impossible to save the temples of abuse in bel unesco issued an international call for proposals. several propositions were submitted this quote to attend your additional unesco is primarily a foreign for the exchange of knowledge of technology and know how soon are all going on to look at the longer the competitor noodle on in order to save the temples. there was extensive correspondence between el unesco newby, a department, and the international experts. you'll see the pope was shown the silver god is the stairs mrs. black. some of the solutions was very original, if not slightly pessimistic. if the monument com be saved from the water, why not visit them under water? a british architect proposed the future visitors travel by boat to a hollow, concrete support similar to offshore platforms. and then take an elevator 50 meters down to a water tie chamber. ah, the temples would be illuminated by satellites the construction could also serve as a base for diving expeditions. although other visitors could accompany the diving tourists in another proposal, the temples were to be enclosed in a huge glass dome filled with water. ah, it wasn't that isn't the the idea of letting the nile flood the temple had the advantage that it didn't need to be moved over. but in the long run from this would lead to the erosion of the sandstone temple on your own particular sandstone is brittle if with a composition of 50 percent sam gets from the sam, a team of italian engineers proposed counting the temples out of the rock and lifting them with a hydraulic system consisting of platforms and extremely slow and hazardous operation. but if you will, bill reserve a technical cutting out the temple and hydraulically raising its 60 meters seamed technically feasible in an engineering office in euro island. but we are in the desert here of features such a complex job would mean bringing a huge amount of equipment on that and also being perfectly coordinated because it so is not a break the temple while lifting it when you don't results from. as quint saw instead or just another solution, proposed using the rising water to lift the temple complex on a huge barge, the most realistic solution to save the abas him bel complex from the dam. waters was inspired by what was threatening them to build another dam to protect the temples. a dam 300 meters long and over 60 meters high. in 1963 more experts arrived in abu simbel, a solution had not been agreed upon, and time was pressing. the valley would soon be under water. the reality on the ground was quite different to what the western engineers had imagined. southern egypt was a remote region without an airport for proper roads. ah, the idea of a protective dam around the temple area was abandoned. it didn't look good for the future of the temple complex, but unesco refused to give up. the monuments had to be removed from the ever encroaching lake in any way possible. the radical solution was to count up the temples and reassembled them as close as possible to their original locations. a consortium of german french italian, swedish and egyptian companies was commissioned to do this. the s and based company hawk teeth was to be responsible. the conditions on site were a cause of concern for the engineers so she could come in, look, go to school. the problem was time your because the decision had been made to late for a and we were faced with rising water once the asked one damn was finished and the flooding started the school. so we had to protect our temples with so called coffer damsel and complete their dismantling before the water level flooded them. but the others were not an easy task. if you don't enjoy your new living conditions for the workers rescuing the temple when not ideal, if you don't it, it is. if the villages there were deserted, which i benefited roscoe, because when it got too crowded to sleep on the boat, i moved into a rickety old house in a neighbouring village. no one lived there any more. only large packs of dogs who bought about 40 or 50 animals, galloped sekoya up. love all with that to let it go where we are now. there was nothing back then. what kind of fear had the hog? not a household was not even a shrub. while a priest, i got all every, absolutely nothing, all yamato, we'll have him come on. we're what they were a lot of vipers and scorpions for shot. well no machine in those we would crush them or throw stones at them. a yard of a lip, a shot once a scorpion stung me in the foot on my on a water bottle. i howled in pain for 24 hours out of my actually sal, and i was little minnow. vertically teams came and went in abu simbel conditions gradually improved. housing was built for the workers and engineers. the ultimate luxury and the desert was a swimming pool. a small town grew with apartments warehouses, a hospital even, and asked trip it all became part of to day city of abuse and bow some of the workers back then still live here after the rescue operation, they worked as maintenance personnel. mm. in the 19 sixty's, many workers were nubians from the heights they observed, the water rising gradually flooding the valley, including the villages of that ancestors. in 1964 preparations were made to cut into the temples while 300 kilometers farther north. the 1st section of the asked swan hi dan was inaugurated the leash. was it dodge? russians built the dam without bothering about what was going on up stream lee. they had a schedule and to save time, they decided to fill the reservoir bit by bit easier. could you, in doing so called, or they took advantage of the nile flood without really caring what that meant for the temple salvation libido. to put their mind, you show the water encroached towards the temple area. a confidant needed to be constructed quickly as a barrier. the facade of the temple was covered with sand, to protect it from the vibrations of the construction machinery. an access tunnel was built within the monument. ah, well, it's a ye. yeah dorothy. we propped up the interior of the temple, the fossil to prevent it from collapsing. if boulders were moved above it, they looked up to seafloor, but it wasn't a vault skirt. it had a flat ceiling. root. you did the year. griffin, bluff. ah, walkways and scaffolding were constructed, the walkers were the last people to see the reliefs in their original location. the dissection of the temple started in march 1964, 3000 engineers and workers took on the giant of stone. starting at the top, the counting was done in stages on seeing the counting swords arrive, many of the egyptologist looked on anxiously. the gaps shouldn't be wider than 6 millimeters, especially developed hands. sauce had been created for the precision work, which could not be left to the machines. the most tedious work was cutting the ceilings inside. it was a race against time. floodlights were installed, work continued to round the clock. after 2 years on march 31st, 1966, the temple was completely dismantled just in time as water was already pouring into the site. the huge temple puzzled, then had to be transported several 100 meters up the mountain on trucks. hey, a road was specifically built for this purpose. the temples were reconstructed. 65 meters above the original site. extreme care was taken to catalogue and assemble the blocks. nevertheless, the egyptologist well concerned about the condition of the sculptures and the reliefs. any cutting marks should be as invisible as possible the assembly of the heads was particularly tricky answered the rock mass were also moved to the new location. but would the temple complex bad? the load? the engineers erected a massive reinforced concrete shell around the temples. building a 60 me to wide dome in the middle of the desert was an impressive technical achievement. in september 1968, the temples of abuse in bel, we're opened at their new location. the international public was enthusiastic, saved from the flooding. the tempos could now survive into the future. the ass one hi damn, was completed in 1970. the huge water reservoir was given the name lake nasa. in 1976, it reached its full capacity abuse and bel may have been saved, but other cultural treasures was still in danger. there was not enough time or money to save them, and many monuments fell victim to the dam construction. sanchez, the temple of gaff, who sang 90 calon it is south of asked one which was dedicated to the god for thought. ella, no like a bother they bothered lovely by the law. unfortunately, some temples could not be saved because they were built of fragile or inferior stone. so i've dr. hug the statue behind me as from gaff hussein and shows ramsey's . the 2nd redundant, he ordered the temple to be built ro, healthy. as gab. hussein is similar to the temple of op, was some bell garcia and was also carved into the rock. but in contrast to abu simbel about the clay sandstone here is very porous. well i can let this statue of ramsey's the 2nd was save little hug of buffalo. it stood with 5 other identical statues in a pillared hall, inside hula la. october was at them as if the machine to day the rest of the monument lies 50 meters deep in lake nasa. 200 kilometers up the nile is the temple of armada, one of the oldest monuments in nubia. the origins of this temple date back to the 12th dennis day, it was built in the 15th century, b. c by took most is the 3rd and dedicated to armand re due to its low location. it was considered particularly vulnerable and would be one of the 1st cultural sights to sink into lake nasa. an egyptian team of engineers, dismantled to pour to go to brands to magnificent and colorful reliefs inside was so delicate that it was feared they could break if caught or a french team of experts wanted to move the temple as a whole on rails. first, they planned to take underneath the tim to support the foundation with a concrete slab. a course it was stretched around the structure and hydraulic jacks . we used to move the 800 ton block centimeter by centimeter. the workers had to relate, attract every 150 meters to the rescue. operation dragged on for months and narrowly escaped disaster in 1900. 64. when the nile level rose dangerously. mm. by 965. the entire temple had moved almost 3 kilometers. its location is now 60 meters higher than before. the armada temple was saved and its unique colored relieved can still be admired to day mm. although only 8 kilometers away from they asked one down the temple complexes of finally had to wait to be rescued until the last moment they will located on an island in the middle of denial. ah, the last pharaohs had a whole series of monuments erected here. the best preserved to those from the end of the toner make dennis day, which queen cleopatra belong to the largest temple is that of the goddess isis. i finally was built by the roman emperor, as evidenced by the impressive tre, jan chaos temple. with the completion of the 1st as bon damn. in 1900 to the island was flooded. months of the year, the construction of the new dam, worse than the situation. the nile water had washed out the foundations of the temples. i. i'm a let me save the shrines. the site was enclosed with 17000 sheet metal chem. what i had is the, the, i'm at and was then back still to compact it old. and then it was possible to stop pumping out all the water. the mammoth undertaking started in 1972. the thick layer of mud that had accumulated over the decades didn't make it any easier. once the sheet piling of the coffee was in place, workers began to remove the after the main temples had been cut down into $37000.00 blocks weighing several tons each, they will hold away then the metal damn was removed. finally disappeared into the floods of denial the new site for the islands. treasures was just a few 100 meters away with us for more or less diplomacy to live on. you know, the idea was to move all the monuments from filing to the neighboring island of a joke, which was higher and thus saith from flooding community. but that in fall again, had the same top hunger c, violate them from all the monuments could be played identically as they had been doing. and in fact, the granite island in the middle of the lake was flattened by 30 meters in 1977. the landscape remodeling which started with the reconstruction of the temples. was one of the largest projects of this kind. on march the 10th 1980 many bowed sail towards a guild. here the treasures of finally were again opened to the public. due to the mostly cloudy waters of lake nasa, it is impossible to see the ancient sites on its bottom. one of the smallest monuments of nubia is the chapel carved into the rock cat l as the its recovery was undertaken by an italian egyptian team. and was one of the most dangerous operations undertaken. as the nile flood certain 1965 were unusually high . the plan was to cut the chapel into blocks and transport them away by barge. when the water level suddenly rose, everything had to be done quickly. the barge was used like a water elevator and the blocks was successfully loaded just in time. in recognition of this achievement and the work done and i boosted bell italy, received the remains of the chapel as a gift. ah, today the small rock temple of alysia is in the egyptian museum of turin. and is one of the world's oldest collections of egyptian antiquities. ah, it think of the elysia a thoughtful go 3 think don't allow me thought they're going to tracy will say, chapman of alysia was built in the middle of the 15th century b. c. mostly by order of pharaoh to moses the surgery dog. a cows are due to his many conquests in navia and the la vandal. he's also known as the napoleon of ancient t, jamie philip, at his incident vintage, and a gyptian chapel. a nubian tarrot chain was not only a tribute to the godaddy, it also served to control caravans springing, luxury goods from africa to egypt. baron with a laugh at a governess, legit the world only. but if it was in the nations involved in the rescue operation of newby as cultural treasures all hope to obtain a piece or 2 for their own collections of antiques. spain secured a particularly impressive monument. de baud was one of the largest temples to leave egypt. it had already been taken apart in 1961 and store temporarily on the so called elephant island, near the damn. in 1970, the stones were taken to madrid. isabella for goes through either a temple dates from the 2nd millennium b. c, a nor it's builder was king, a dick hollow, many of marrow e. if we're getting close to your law, he began the construction of the chapel, was that you meant this other rooms were added in the toll the mac era, and then by the roman emperor augustus and his successor type era, or the radio. ah, me the metropolitan museum of art in new york, bailout it is home to one of the best, a gyptian exhibitions in the world. the den to one of the nile temples has been on display here since 1978. the stones used to build the temple have come a long way the egypt trying to other countries with various veronique gifts. ah. the netherlands received the temple of to germany was given a gate to them unduly temple of collab shop, which can be seen to day in berlin. the nubian rescue campaign lasted a total of 30 years. the largest monument rescue project of old time was largely successful. thanks to international support initiative, technical solutions, and the work of thousands on site i lever quite a few cultural sites when not saved. with the complete flooding of lake nasa, they have been lost wherever and 100000 nubians lost their homes. nevertheless, the archaeological rescue operation made it possible to document the history of nubia and sheds new light on the history of southern egypt. in 1979, the rescue temples on lake nasa were declared a unesco world heritage find. they are not only fascinating testimonies to the thoroughness era, but also belong to one of the most spectacular rescues of cultural treasures ever. ah . e in z, i asked, how do we reduce the ecological footprint a foot way when a bad thing i seen, but my says so yeah that's, that's a win win for me. i know when this is driving fluid sustainable production, this is got it actually from the diet. look, i did dial that and then usually ends up in the last 30 minutes on d. w. there's is the story of many ukrainians before rushes invasion. marta and siri had trained as volunteers for emergencies since the beginning of the war, they have been in combat. even fighting directly at the front focus on europe. b 90 minutes on d. w. jan the has had 1111. not a single one. mission is the 1st female jasmine israel, his face the gender gap in space exploration. germany's 1st female astronaut has been waiting for years to get her turn of private initiative is pushing to make it happen. destined for space star or change on d w ah, ah, this is dw news lie from berlin, the toll of the fearsome battle waged for ukraine's don boss region where thousands have died. as the war nears, the one year mark, our correspondent hairs from an exhausted ukrainian soldier on just what drives brand. for example, guy for something for made night for you crazy. so now it's my duty to fight for you. you're great. and.