It resembled a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle for experts. The number of blocks into which the Abu Simbel temple complex in Egypt was dismantled totalled 1,030, each weighing 20 tonnes!

Completed in 1968, the massive undertaking by 2,000 workers under the guidance of engineers, architects and historians saved the temples of Pharaoh Ramses II from the rising waters of Lake Nasser caused by the construction of the Assuan Dam.

With the help of 113 countries, including the essential contribution by Italy’s famed marble workers under the coordination of Impregilo (today Webuild) technicians, the temples were dismantled piece by piece and reassembled at a spot 65 metres higher and 280 metres further back from the waters of the lake.

Explosives were prohibited, so it took 40 million working hours and the use of pneumatic hammers and hand saws to bring the temples to their new resting place with extreme precision. Once reassembled, the alignment of the temples with the stars was it was at their original spot for more than 3,000 years. This meant that the sun, during the spring and fall equinox, could keep shining into the complex and bathe with its light the divinity lying within the biggest temple.