West Germany: Above, Below & Everywhere

On the banks of the River Nile, at a spot not far from the Sudan, crews of lean German engineers last week unloaded their heavy earth-moving equipment, unfurled their geological maps, and began plotting the most daring construction job undertaken in Egypt since the Pharaohs built the Pyramids. Carved in the sandstone cliff above the Germans' camp are the 3,300-year-old monuments of Abu Simbel — two cavernous temples and ten mammoth statues built by Ramses II. The job: to cut these relics out of the cliff side and lift them, piece by piece, to be assembled on a...

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