This
festival Abu Simbel is celebrated the two days of the year on which the light
of the rising sun can reach the 180-foot deep innermost chambers of Abu Simbel,
the great temple of Ramses II, in Egypt. The temple was designed so that only
on these two days once on the anniversary of his ascension to the throne (in February, around the 22nd), and another on his birthday (in October, around the 22nd). - does the sun shine on the four gods
in the sanctuary: Ptah, Amen-Re, Ramses, and Re- Horakhty. This temple, the
most colossal in Egypt, was built by Ramses II between 1300 and 1233 B.C., and
is famous for its four 65-foot statues of the seated Ramses. It was unknown to
the European world until Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt found it in 1812. The
Italian Giovanni Belzoni excavated the entrance and explored the temple in
1816. In 1964, when the new Aswan Dam was to be built, creating a lake that
would have drowned the temple, it was cut into 2,000 pieces and reassembled at
a site about 180 feet higher. It is not as perfect as it was at the foot of the
cliff— but it was saved.
Abu Simbel Sun Festival |
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