Abu Simbel Temple dazzles the world with a phenomenon that recurs twice a year!

The Sun Festival in Abu Simbel A phenomenon that has been going on for tens of centuries ... the sun crosses the face of the statue of Ramses II twice a year: the first on October 22 and the second on February 22



The Abu Simbel Temple in Aswan Governorate is one of the most famous ancient temples in Egypt, as the great Abu Simbel Temple is due to its association with the phenomenon of the sun crossing the face of the statue of Pharaoh Ramses II twice a year, the first corresponding to October 22 and the second February 22 of each year.

BOOK A TRIP TO ABU SIMBEL FROM ASWAN

ABU SIMBEL SUN FESTIVAL

And this temple was built by King Ramses II (about 1303 BC - 1213 BC), the most famous king of Egypt from the era of the New Kingdom, and it is believed that he sat on the throne in his late teenage years and ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for a period of 67 years.

The temple is distinguished by a unique architectural design, as its façade is pocked in the rock and decorated with four huge statues of King Ramses II, each of which reaches a length of about 20 meters, and the facade is followed by a corridor leading to the inside of the temple that pecked into the rock at a depth of 48 meters, and its walls are decorated with scenes recording the king's victories and conquests. Including the Battle of Kadesh, in which he defeated the Hittites, in addition to the religious scenes that depict the king in his relations with the ancient Egyptian deities.

This temple includes two of the most important rock temples in the far south of Egypt, namely Abu Simbel the Great, who was dedicated to the worship of "Ra Hor Akhatti" and "Amun Ra" and "Ptah" and the king himself, and he mentioned that the temple is completely carved into the rock, and represents one of the miracles of engineering Architecture in the ancient world, as it took 20 years to sculpt the temple, and the axis of the temple was executed in such a way that it allowed sunlight to penetrate into the Holy of Holies twice a year on October 22 and February 22.


And the small temple of Abu Simbel, which is located 100 meters from the first temple, was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Queen Nefertari, the main wife of the king. She has the queen with her husband.

The temple extends into the plateau to a depth of 24 meters, and its interior walls are adorned with a group of wonderful scenes, which depicted the queen worshiping different deities, either with the king or alone.

Abu Simbel excursion from Aswan

Abu Simbel Temple


The architectural creativity of this temple appears with the continuous perpendicularity of the sun's rays at the farthest place inside the temple, which is what we call the "Holy of Holies" where King Ramses II sits, and next to him are statues of the deities "Amun Ra", "Ra Hor my sister" and "Ptah", the idol of the other world, The sun shines on these statues, except for the statue of "Ptah", for being the idol of the other world, which must be characterized by darkness.

In 1960 it was necessary to move the temples to avoid being submerged during the construction of Lake Nasser and to build the water reservoir after the construction of the High Dam in the Aswan Governorate on the Nile River.

And the name "Abu Simbel" was given to the archaeological site by the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, known as Ibrahim Burckhardt, who discovered the site in 1813, when a child called "Abu Simbel" took him to this area.

The cost of the project to save the temple was about 40 million dollars, which means 14 million Egyptian pounds at that time, which were collected to save the temple, and the manpower was entirely from Egyptian workers, and the agreement was that the thickness of the pieces should not exceed 6 mm, and the Egyptian workers succeeded in Achieving less than this, as the thickness of the pieces reached only 4 mm, and the total number of pieces reached about 1142 pieces, equivalent to 250 thousand tons, and the temple was moved 210 meters west of its original place and raised about 65 meters from the surface of the earth, and about 2000 Egyptian workers participated in the implementation this project.


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