5 Pounds Temple of Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel's two rock-cut temples, commissioned by Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, were submerged under Lake Nasser's rising waters following the construction of the Aswan High Dam — until UNESCO coordinated one of the most ambitious archaeological salvage operations ever undertaken, cutting the entire complex into over a thousand numbered blocks and reassembling it on higher ground between 1964 and 1968. Egypt issued commemorative silver throughout the 1990s drawing heavily on that campaign's international goodwill.