Gerf Hussein, Archaeological temple site near Aswan, Egypt

Gerf Hussein is an ancient Egyptian temple in Nubia, south of Aswan, built partly into the rock and partly as a free-standing structure. The free-standing section opens with a colonnaded courtyard featuring large pillar statues of the pharaoh, while the rock-cut section extends deeper into the sandstone cliff behind it.

The temple was built during the reign of Ramesses II by Setau, his Viceroy of Nubia, as part of a series of temples the pharaoh commissioned along the Nile. When the Aswan High Dam was completed in the 1960s, the rising waters of Lake Nasser flooded most of the complex.

The temple was dedicated to Ptah, Ptah-Tatenen, Hathor and the deified Ramesses II, whose cult statue stood with theirs in the rock-cut barque chamber. Its ancient name was Per Ptah, 'House of Ptah'. The four statues were carved directly from the rock at the rear wall.

The rock-cut part of the temple lies under Lake Nasser and cannot be visited; only the dismantled free-standing sections are on view at New Kalabsha, reached by boat across the bay from the Aswan High Dam landing. A colossal statue of Ramesses II from Gerf Hussein is displayed in the Nubian Museum in Aswan.

Unlike most of the rescued Nubian temples, Gerf Hussein was only partially saved: a few of its carvings and elements were moved to the New Kalabsha open-air museum, but the bulk of the complex remains permanently under the waters of Lake Nasser. This means that what visitors see today is only a fragment of what the original site once was.