Abu Simbel is one of the most important archeological sites with a unique temple in its design.
They were carved into the mountain during the reign of King Ramses II.
Abu Simbel facts
It is located on the west bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan.
It consists of two major temples carved into the rock.
in 1250 BC, Was built by King Ramses II, the third pharaoh of the nineteenth Egyptian family.
These two temples were completed around 1206 BC and were among the greatest temples of ancient Egypt.
The Great Temple
The temple consists of four huge statues of Ramses, 20 meters high, and a door of piles of 180-foot-long walls.
The Small Temple
Located about 150 M north of the Great Temple.
The Entrance decorated with six statues, four of them for Ramses II and the other for his wife, the great Queen Nefertari.
The project of saving the temples of Abu Simbel
After the rise of the water level of the river after the construction of the High Dam, and the establishment of Lake Nasser.
He began saving the Abu Simbel temple in 1964, with a global media campaign from UNESCO to save the temple.
In 1965, the Egyptian government, in collaboration with UNESCO, moved the temple to a nearby high-level location not reached by Lake Nasser.
It cost $ 40 million, completed on September 22, 1968.
ِِAbu Simbel sun festival
The sun perpends twice a year on 22 February and 22 October in a unique cosmic phenomenon that the ancient Egyptians embodied for thousands of years, as the sun passes through the front corridor of the entrance of Ramses II temple, 200 meters long, The sun rises to the statue of King Ramses II sitting.
It takes only 20-25 minutes for the sun to rise on that day :
February 22: the birth of king Ramses
In the early morning of the 22nd of February, the rays penetrate the entrance of the Abu Simbel temple and walk within sixty meters to reach the room called “Holy of Holies.” Three statues, namely the Statue of Ra-Hor and the statue of King Ramesses II, The fourth statue in the dark.
October 22: The day of his coronation on the throne.
At 5:25 pm on October 21, the sun’s rays descend on the face of King Ramses in his room in the Holy of Holies, and the sun’s rays rapidly multiply to light the faces of the four statues inside the Holy of Holies.
Book Now: Daily trip to Abu Simbel Temples from Aswan, by private Tour.