To save Abu Simbel, an international consortium of conservationists launched an unprecedented rescue mission before the dam’s completion in 1970. The plan was to cut the entire complex out of the mountain by meticulously deconstructing each stately chin, cheek, and crown—more than a thousand pieces in total—and then transporting and reassembling them on higher ground. In order to succeed, it would require unheard-of orchestration between the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and thousands of archaeologists, architects, and Egyptologists from dozens of countries. But with a cost equivalent to $400 million today, the entire undertaking seemed far too expensive to pull off—until an unlikely diplomat intervened with a bold vision to support a project that ultimately transformed UNESCO and reshaped how future leaders in her role would go on to effect change.