ABU SIMBEL

The temple was oriented so that twice every year, on 22 February 22 October, the first rays of the morning sunshine 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.

With the construction of the Asawn High Dam in the 1960´s the temples were threatened with submersion under the rising waters of the reservoir.

Very technological equipment was used to disassembled and reconstructed the temples on top of the cliff, 200 feet above the original site, but humans were not able to reproduce the light phenomenon.

Nowdays the cave iluminates one day after the equinox.