The Sun Festivalمهرجان الشمس

A Feat of Ancient Engineering

The Great Temple at Abu Simbel was oriented with such precision that, on two mornings each year, sunlight travels the full length of the temple's corridor and illuminates statues of the gods seated in the innermost sanctuary — among them a statue of Ramesses II himself, placed beside the gods he claimed kinship with.

When It Happens

The alignment occurs around February 22nd and October 22nd each year — dates many believe mark Ramesses II's coronation and birthday, though the exact significance is still debated by Egyptologists. For a few minutes at sunrise, light reaches three of the four seated statues; the fourth, Ptah, god associated with darkness, remains unlit.

• Dates: around February 22 and October 22 each year.
• Time: shortly after sunrise, for roughly 20 minutes.
• Note: after the 1968 relocation, the temple's orientation was recalculated to preserve the same alignment within a single day of the original dates.