About 140 kilometers (85 miles) south of the High Aswan Damin ancient Nubia on the west bank of the Nile two temples were built during the New Kingdom's 18th and 19th Dynasties. When, in the 1960s, the High Dam was being constructed, one of these temples that was built by Ramses II, and is now usually referred to as the Temple of Wadi al-Sabua (Wadi el-Sebua) but originally known as the "House-of-Amun", was salvaged (in 1964) and moved to a new, elevated site several kilometers to the northwest, while the earlier temple of Amenhotep III was, regrettably, left to be buried beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. However, five stela from this temple are in the Aswan Museum. Both of these temples were part free standing and part speos, meaning that a section of the temples were hewn from the surrounding rock.

The temple built by Amenhotep III was dedicated principally to the Nubian form of the God Horus, and later, apparently during the time of Ramesses II, to Amun . It was damaged during the Amarna Period , but later restored by Ramesses II.

The temple that was actually built on the orders of RamsesII, utilizing at least some Libyan captives sometime around his 44th year asking, was dedicated to Amun –Re and Re-Horakhty . It was the third speos style temple that Ramesses II built in Nubia, the most famous of which is of course at Abu Simbel. The temple sphinx-lined approach in the two forecourts leading to the initial stairway provides the name of this area, which is known as the Valley of the Lions (Arabic Wadi al Sabua). The entire complex that proceeds the rock hewn chambers was enclosed within a huge brick wall over a meter thick on a rectangular plan measuring 35 by 80 meters, with buttresses on the north and south external sides.