Events In Abu Simble

Abu Simbel Sun Festival

The exact location of the temple was brilliantly determined by the ancient Egyptian engineers in a unique way in which only two times a year, on the 21st of October “birthday of the king” and the 21st of February “the day he became the ruler of Egypt”, the rays of the sun enter inside the great temple to light 3 out of 4 statues inside the inner sanctuary, and skip the statue of the god Ptah.

Now many people and even tour guides would say that the reason is that Ptah is the god of darkness. But in fact, this is not true.

In fact, when the UNESCO launched an international safeguarding campaign to save monuments in Nubia from being flooded by the waters of Lake Nasser they had to move the 2 temples to the location where the temples do exist now. But that current location actually is 21 meters higher than the original one.

This difference in elevation caused a 1 delay for the sun rays to enter the temple.

So now, this phenomenon takes place every year on 22 of Oct & 22 of Feb. And one more calculation mistake shifted the temple few centimetres to the south which made the sunlight to skip the statue of Ptah. 

These two days have become important festivals where tourists from all over the world gather to view this marvellous phenomenon and there are usually some folklore shows and dances to celebrate this magnificent event.