> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://theegyptfiles.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Abu Simbel's sunbeam returns: the 22 October event at Ramesses II's temple - URL: https://theegyptfiles.com/abu-simbel-sun-ramesses-ii-22-october-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-23T13:49:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T13:49:24.000Z - Description: On 22 October 2026 the sun again lit the statues in the inner chamber of Ramesses II's Great Temple at Abu Simbel. Reports differ on how many came. - Author: J E Cowie - Tags: News At dawn on Thursday 22 October 2026, visitors gathered at the Great Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, 870 kilometres (540 miles) south of Cairo, for a twice-yearly alignment of sun and stone. Associated Press (AP) reported that some people slept outside the temple overnight to be there. ![Map showing where Abu Simbel is](https://theegyptfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/map_abu-simbel.jpg) Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, Egypt ## What the sun does AP describes the event this way: on 22 October and 22 February, the sun sends a beam of light into the temple's dark inner chamber and lights the statues of the pharaoh and two gods beside him. AP names the gods as Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty and says the illumination results from the temple's alignment with the sun. AP says the two dates are believed to mark Ramesses II's ascension to the throne and his birthday. Ahmed Massoud, director general of antiquities at Abu Simbel, spoke to the Middle East News Agency (MENA) on the day. As MENA reported it, the first ray of the morning passes through the temple's halls, which extend more than 60 metres, and reaches the sanctuary. It falls first on the statue of Ramesses II and then spreads to light the faces of other statues there. According to Massoud, the light never reaches the statue of Ptah, whom the ancient Egyptians regarded as a god of darkness. AP gives a similar distance for the beam, about 60 metres (200 feet), and attributes it to the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics. ## How long it lasted, and who came MENA reported that the alignment lasted 22 minutes, from 6:55 to 7:17 in the morning. AP put the illumination at about 20 minutes. Hundreds of tourists from around the world and locals gathered at dawn, according to AP. Massoud told MENA that about 6,000 Egyptians and foreign tourists saw the event in person. He added that millions more watched on television and other media, and that it was shown on large screens in the temple's forecourt. The Aswan governor said about 10 flights had landed at Abu Simbel airport since Wednesday, carrying about 3,000 tourists of various nationalities, according to MENA. AP gave a sense of the scene. Visitors stood in a single-file line with phone cameras and selfie sticks, and AP wrote that the crowds "looked tiny beside the giant statues lining the temple". Performers in colourful dress danced before the temple to chimes, tabla percussion and mizmars, which AP calls an ancient Egyptian trumpet. Inside, AP said, visitors huddled in near-total darkness in front of the statues. "Today is a very special day, as you can see. It's a celebration and a historic holiday," Hisham Khela, a local tour guide for Italian tourists, told AP. Janice Souudi, visiting from Atlanta, Georgia, said it was her first time in Egypt and would not be her last, AP reported. "I came here today for the huge temple statues and how well preserved they are. But I was most impressed with the colors of the carvings and hieroglyphics and imagery," she said. "Beautiful, stunning, worth it!" ## A temple that was moved ![the Aswan High Dam seen from above, with the reservoir behind it](https://theegyptfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/shot2_the-aswan-high-dam-seen-from-above-with-.jpg) The Aswan High Dam. AP reports that in the 1960s archaeologists carried out a massive project to dismantle the temple and relocate it out of the path of rising waters created by the Aswan High Dam. Engineers took care to preserve its alignment with the sun, AP says, so that more than 3,000 years after it was built, the light still finds its way inside. The reports give different ages. The headline on AP's report, as carried by Yahoo Travel, calls the temple 3,000 years old, and an AP photo caption describes the ceremony as 3,200 years old. Massoud told MENA the phenomenon has lasted nearly 33 centuries. ## Preparations and festivities Massoud told MENA that periodic maintenance and mechanical and chemical cleaning of both Abu Simbel temples, those of Ramesses II and Nefertari, had been completed ahead of the event. He said the work was meant to restore their appearance, bring out the carvings and colours, and remove bird droppings. Ticket windows opened early so visitors could get in to watch. MENA also reported that the General Authority for Cultural Palaces launched an Aswan festival of culture and arts timed to the occasion, with seven folk-art troupes. They performed at venues across Aswan governorate and closed with shows at Abu Simbel's tourist market theatre and, at dawn on Thursday, in front of the temple. Massoud said the phenomenon reflects the ancient Egyptians' belief in a link between Ramesses II and Ra, the sun god. He described it as showing how ancient Egyptian builders combined art, science, astronomy and engineering in one building. ## Sources Fahmy, H. and Salah, M. (2026) 'Twice a year, a golden sunbeam illuminates a 3,000-year-old Egyptian temple', Associated Press, via Yahoo Travel, updated 22 October 2026, available at: [https://travel.yahoo.com/guides/articles/twice-golden-sunbeam-illuminates-3-162627683.html](https://travel.yahoo.com/guides/articles/twice-golden-sunbeam-illuminates-3-162627683.html?ref=theegyptfiles.com) (Accessed: 23 October 2026). Middle East News Agency (MENA / أ ش أ) (2026) 'تعامد الشمس على وجه تمثال رمسيس الثاني بأبوسمبل لمدة 22 دقيقة', Sada El Balad (صدى البلد), 22 October 2026, available at: [https://www.elbalad.news/7151215](https://www.elbalad.news/7151215?ref=theegyptfiles.com) (Accessed: 23 October 2026). ## Picture credits - Top picture: Two of the colossal seated statues of Ramesses II on the facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, southern Egypt. Photo: Abumalek ahmed mohamed ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=theegyptfiles.com)), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The%5Ftwo%5Fstatues%5Fof%5FKing%5FRamesses%5FII%5Fon%5Fthe%5Fright-hand%5Fside%5Fby%5Fthe%5Ffacade.jpg?ref=theegyptfiles.com) - The Aswan High Dam. Image: NASA ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt%E2%80%99s%5FNile%5FRiver%5Fturns%5Finto%5FLake%5FNasser%5Fat%5Fthe%5FAswan%5FHigh%5FDam%5F%28iss074e0315952%29.jpg?ref=theegyptfiles.com)) - Map: drawn from [Natural Earth](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/?ref=theegyptfiles.com) (public domain) and [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134140?ref=theegyptfiles.com).