Abu Simbel

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"Abu Simbel. Come for the temples. Stay for the aliens and explosions."

Abu Simbel is a historic site and settlement located in Upper Egypt. It is well known for its ancient temples and its history. Despite only being mentioned in one game and appearing in a expansion pack for Serious Sam 3: BFE, it does play a major role in the Serious Sam series, as well as its official backstory.^[1]

Overview[]

Abu Simbel is a small village that was likely home to thousands of people before the Mental War. It also has a military base, owned by the Earth Defense Force, which indicates a military presence in the area.^[2]

History[]

Like other places on Earth, Abu Simbel was one of the many locations visited by the Sirians sometime after they sent a scouting party out to investigate the planet.^[3] The Sirians greeted the local Egyptian people, who viewed them as gods, and built various constructions underground and in many temples and complexes all throughout Egypt, especially in Abu Simbel.^[3] Inside the Great Temple, the Sirians placed a key, the seal of Set, inside the Great Temple of Ramesses the Great, which was used for unlocking another Sirian door elsewhere, deep within the Tomb of Sethirkopshef.^[2]

At around this time, an advanced extraterrestrial civilization (most likely the Sirians) constructed a series of strange underground caves beneath the Abu Simbel complex. These findings were discovered in the year 2053, by workers for the NWOC oil corporation.^[4] Inside, they found a system of artficial caves beneath the former site of Abu Simbel, which were alleged to contain ancient machinery and several unidentified objects that differed radically from any previously discovered Egyptian artifacts.^[4]

Shortly after the caves were discovered, this caught the attention of various archaeologists, including the well-known Egyptologist, professor Linda Bennett.^[5] Professor Bennett took an excavation team with her to invesitgate this caves and document this major discovery. She noted that the caves were likely not the only structures of this kind left on Earth. However, she mentioned that there was much work to do at Abu Simbel, particularly with regards to the alien inscriptions.^[5]

Many decades later, during the the Mental War, many of Earth's cities, towns and other settlements came under siege by Mental's forces. Abu Simbel suffered the same fate, as abandoned vehicles, garbage and debris laid everywhere. The village was lifeless, which indicated that most, if not all the inhabitants had been wiped out prior to Sam's arrival. Evidence of this were the propaganda posters, which tempted people to join Mental's army, as well as the abandoned military base located north of the village.^[2]

Appearances[]

Serious Sam 3: BFE[]

Jewel of the Nile[]

Abu Simbel is the second location that Sam visits to find the Time-Lock control room, as it turns out the control room wasn't on the island of Philae as the EDF had previously thought.^[6] In the Great Temple, Sam enters a hallway, but comes to a dead end with a statue in it. Calling Quinn, he finds out from her that the statue represents Ramesses the Great, and that there is a missing statue that is meant to go next to it. She explains further that archaeologists have never been able to find it, and that putting the two statues together will open the door// Sam proceeds to the other temple, and solves the four puzzles which leads him to Nefertari's statue. As he has the Arrow bracelet in his possession, which is needed for revealing the hidden switches, he is successful in solving the riddle that had baffled the world's best archaeologists for the past 200 years.^[2]

Sam unlocks the door using the Sirian Seal he obtained in Philae, but is disappointed to find that the inside is the room is yet another key. Quinn believes that this key bears the symbol of Set, and may be the key for gaining access to the control room elsewhere. Sam leaves Abu Simbel and proceeds to the temple of Sethirkopshef.^[2]

Abu Simbel, along with every other settlement on Earth, was destroyed after Mental sends the Moon hurtling towards it. It does, however, still exist in the new timeline after Sam sent himself back in time to the Egyptian era.^[7]

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem[]

Abu Simbel is mentioned in a letter that can be found in the campaign about the Sirians, as well as some long-lost alien mechanisms that were discovered in a series of caves.^[5]

Serious Sam: The First Encounter[]

Abu Simbel does not appear in The First Encounter, but it is mentioned by NETRICSA after she manages to translate the pictograms inside the Shrine of Amon within Thebes.^[3]

Notable locations[]

The Great Temple[]

Abu Simbel temples — The Great Temple of Abu Simbel.

The first temple is the Great Temple of Ramesses II. Inside the temple is a small statue of Ramesses and a sealed door, which contains the seal of Set, a key that is needed to access another tomb to activate the Time-Lock mechanism. According to legend, placing the statue of Nefertari next to the statue of Ramesses will "open the door to eternity". The statue of Nefertari has never been found, thus archaeologists have never able to find it.^[2]

The Small Temple[]

The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, was built about one hundred meters northeast of the temple of pharaoh Ramesses II, and is dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II's chief consort, Nefertari.^[2]

Inside the temple, there were four puzzles that needed to be solved to reveal a hidden switch. It didn't matter what order the puzzles were solved in. When all four switches were activated, it would reveal a secret passageway leading to the hidden chamber in the temple, where the statue of Nefertari laid within.

Military base[]

South of the temples is an abandoned military base, which indicates the Earth Defense Force's presence in the village.

There are two ASU-7 sentry units located at the front of the entrance to prevent intruders or any of Mental's hordes from gaining access to the base. These turrets are both connected to switches that can be deactivated from inside.

Trivia[]

In-game, all four large statues of Ramesses II are present, but in real life, the second one was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part of the statue still intact. It seems that prior to the events of Serious Sam 3, the statue was restored to its pristine condition, as it is set in the 22nd century.