☼ October 22nd, is the memory of the pharaoh's birthday, this year more than 5000 tourists came in more than 60 charter flights, 100 tourist busses and about 200 limousines to Abu Simbel. The celebrations of this year included elaborate folkloric shows from local and regional groups, and tourists were welcomed by the governor o Aswan, and an official delegation, and a big number of joyful local entertainers and groups. In 1257 BCE, Pharaoh Ramses II (1279-13 BCE) had two temples carved out of solid rock at a site on the west bank of the Nile south of Aswan in the land of Nubia and known today as Abu Simbel. Long before Ramses II, the site had been sacred to Hathor of Absek. The temple built by Ramses, however, was dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte. Because of their remote location near the Sudanese border in southern Egypt, the temples were unknown until their rediscovery in 1813. They were first explored in 1817 by the Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni.
The most remarkable feature of the site is that the temple is precisely oriented so that twice every year, on 22 February (believed to be coronation date) and 22 October (birth date), the first rays of the morning sun shine down the entire length of the temple-cave to illuminate the back wall of the innermost shrine and the statues of the four gods seated there.
This year the illumination on the face of the statue of Ramsses II lasted 19 minutes in the shrine from 05.55 to 06.14.
