Abu Simbel, Egypt · Watercolour Postcard

Stand before the four giant Ramesses and think of what waits in the dark behind them. Twice a year the rising sun reaches sixty metres into the rock and lights three of the four gods in the sanctuary, leaving only Ptah, lord of darkness, in shadow, exactly as the builders intended. The alignment was so precise that when the temple was cut apart and lifted above Lake Nasser in the 1960s, the sunlit mornings shifted by a day. This A6 art postcard marks Abu Simbel, Egypt.

Part of the Postcards Home series: a growing collection of original illustrated postcards, each rooted in a real place, ready to write and send.