[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Billy Carson II [@4biddnKnowledge](/creator/twitter/4biddnKnowledge) on x 122.1K followers Created: 2025-07-12 16:24:01 UTC This extraordinary photograph, taken around 1890–1900, captures early Western tourists posing directly on the colossal statues of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt. The two seated figures part of the great rock-cut temple complex were carved during the reign of Ramses II in the 13th century BCE. These giants, each over XX meters tall, were not just monumental in size but symbolic in purpose. They were meant to project the pharaoh’s divine power to all who entered Egypt from the south. But by the 19th century, the temple had been buried in sand for centuries. European explorers and colonial travelers, swept up in the era’s obsession with “rediscovery,” treated these ancient wonders more as curiosities than sacred relics. They climbed, leaned, and posed where once only gods and kings were meant to tread. This image freezes that strange in-between moment: when the ancient world had been unearthed, but not yet truly understood.  XXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [reign](/topic/reign) [temple](/topic/temple) [egypt](/topic/egypt) [Post Link](https://x.com/4biddnKnowledge/status/1944070252624523407)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
Billy Carson II @4biddnKnowledge on x 122.1K followers
Created: 2025-07-12 16:24:01 UTC
This extraordinary photograph, taken around 1890–1900, captures early Western tourists posing directly on the colossal statues of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt. The two seated figures part of the great rock-cut temple complex were carved during the reign of Ramses II in the 13th century BCE. These giants, each over XX meters tall, were not just monumental in size but symbolic in purpose. They were meant to project the pharaoh’s divine power to all who entered Egypt from the south. But by the 19th century, the temple had been buried in sand for centuries. European explorers and colonial travelers, swept up in the era’s obsession with “rediscovery,” treated these ancient wonders more as curiosities than sacred relics. They climbed, leaned, and posed where once only gods and kings were meant to tread. This image freezes that strange in-between moment: when the ancient world had been unearthed, but not yet truly understood.
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