For 1st Time, Sun Illuminates King Ramses II’s Face in GEM

The sun has successfully illuminated king Ramses II's face in the Grand Egyptian Museum, in the first attempt of its kind to simulate the phenomenon of sun alignment that occurs twice a year in the "Holy of Holies" in Abu Simbel Temple south of Aswan, marking key dates in the pharaoh’s life.

The Sun illuminates the king's face in Abu Simbel on February 22 marking his coronation and on October 22 marking his birthday.

Engineer Adel Saad from the Grand Egyptian Museum, explained how the idea was implemented saying that work began by studying the initial research carried out by the owner of the idea, Engineer Ahmed Awad, where "we determined the height of Ramses II statue, then we identified the angle to be opened and identified what could obstruct sunlight from reaching its face,".

"We then modified the design in a small area to allow the entry of sunlight and we did more than one experiment to ensure that the rays would illuminate the face of the statue on the specified date each year," he added.

"Last February we began the first experiment through three different points and the best one of them was chosen to achieve the phenomenon according to the climatic conditions." he continued.

Saad concluded his explanation saying: "Our work was crowned by the sun alignment on the face of the statue today, and we will complete the work by cladding the facade with some special kind of glass that allows light to penetrate and completes the aesthetic form of the facade."

[caption id="attachment_161926" align="aligncenter" width="628"] Ramses II[/caption]

For a whole year, the museum’s architects have been studying and implementing the proposal made by Eng. Ahmed Awad, a researcher at the College of Engineering, to take advantage of the phenomenon of sun alignment on King Ramses II’s face in Abu Simbel temple, and simulating it at the main entrance hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum.