Tourists in Egypt glance sun rays fall perpendicularly on Ramses II
Egypt, Culture, 2/23/2000

Sun rays fell perpendicularly early yesterday around 06:15 (local time) on the face of the statue of Ramses II inside his temple in Abu Simbel. The unique phenomenon was witnessed by near 5,000 Egyptians and foreign tourists as the sun rays remained on Ramses face for approximately 20 minutes. Both Arab and foreign televisions filmed the event.

The sun falls on Egypt's renowned Pharaoh twice a year, on February 22, the date of his birth, and on October 22, and the date of his accession to the throne of Egypt.

Abu Simbel temple last night was a scene for the great festival held on this occasion during which folk troupes from Nubia took part to share people's happiness over the rescuing of the ancient temples, which were threatened to be inundated by the High Dam water.

Ramses II was born about 1303 B.C. (February 22 ) in the Eastern Nile Delta. Following the death of his grandfather Ramses I and father Seti 1, Ramses 111 assumed the throne in 1279 B.C. He erected colossal monuments to himself in every major Egyptian city of his time. He built a great city called Pi - Ramses (House of Ramses), built temples in Abydos and Simbel, added to the temples at Karnak and Luxor.

On February 22, we celebrate a significant occasion, as the sun rays fall perpendicularly on the Temple of RamsesII.

Over 3,000 years after his death, the miracle still occurs regularly. The rays of the rising sun reach 61 meters into the sacred inner sanctuary of the temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel on February 22 and October 22 each year - as they have illuminated the shrine for millennia. For twenty minutes the sun shines on the holy statues of Ramses II, Amon Ra (the sun god), and Ra-Harakhty, god of the rising sun. Ptah, god of the under world and darkness, seated at the far left of the row of gods, remains dark on these occasions. Some things never change.

Originally built into the face of a cliff, the Temple was moved to safety 200 meters inland from its original site. The project completed by an international team of 3,000 specialists, cut the temple into 2,000 pieces, carved the entire temple out of the cliff and reconstructed both cliff and temple nearby . It took five years and $40 million to complete, one of the most ambitious relocation projects in history.

One of the five years of reconstruction work was spent just figuring out how to place the temple, so that the rising sun would continue to illuminate the inner sanctuary on those two days.

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