Thousands of tourists watch the sun's alignment at Abu Simbel Temple

About 2,000 foreign tourists watched the sun's alignment at Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, a unique astronomical phenomenon that the ancient Egyptians embodied thousands of years ago at the Great Temple of Ramses and is only repeated twice a year, October 22 and February 22.

Thousands of tourists lined up to enter the temple to watch the unique phenomenon in which the sun is perpendicular to the Holy of Holies at Abu Simbel, which lasts for only 20 minutes, after the tourists arrived at the southern tourist city via flights, land buses and river trips, in addition to the presence of a number of Egyptian visitors.

On the morning of this day, the sun rose as usual from the embrace of Lake Nasser's waters to penetrate its rays through the facade of Abu Simbel Temple, until it touched the face of King Ramses who sits in the Holy of Holies of the temple, recording a unique astronomical phenomenon and an engineering miracle that is only repeated twice a year.

The phenomenon began with the sun's rays falling on the facade of the temple, which is 33 meters high and 30 meters wide, and the height of each of the four statues on the facade is 20 meters. Then the sun's rays crept inside the temple, reaching the Holy of Holies, which is about sixty meters away from the entrance. It consists of a platform that includes a statue of King Ramses II sitting next to a statue of the god Ra-Hor, his sister, the god Amun, and a fourth statue of the god Ptah. It is noteworthy that the sun is not perpendicular to the face of the statue of "Ptah", whom the ancients considered the god of darkness.