CAIRO - Egypt is staging an elaborate festival to revive the glory of the 3000-year old Abu Simbel temples that were worn away by centuries of sandstorms and Nile water, an official said on Saturday. Ahmed Saleh, head of the Abu Simbel Antiquities Sector, said that a show would also be staged to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of a giant project that moved the temples to higher ground in a 1964-1968 UNESCO-sponsored 40-million-dollar operation. The project, carried out by more than 3,000 Egyptian workers, aimed at saving the temples from the rising waters of Lake Nasser, which was created by the Aswan Dam, Saleh said. Abu Simbel is home to the temples of Ramses II and Queen Nefertari, the only such monument built by a pharaoh for his wife. The two temples had been cut into rock on a hill overlooking the Nile on the orders of Ramses II, who ruled over Egypt from 1298 to 1235 B.C. The celebration, Saleh continued, was expected to boost tourism in Abu Simbel, about 1225 kilometres (around 740 miles) south of Cairo. Each year, thousands of tourists and Egyptians re-live the 3000-year-old phenomenon, when the sun falls perpendicularly on the face of the Pharaoh Ramses II statue in Abu Simbel Temple. Some Egyptologyists say the astronomical and engineering event marks Ramses' Coronation Day or birthday each year. On this day, the rays of the rising sun penetrate 61 metres into the sacred inner sanctuary of the temple of Abu Simbel. For twenty minutes, the sun shines on the colossal statues of Ramses II, Amon Ra (the sun god), and Ra-Horakhte, god of the rising sun. Ptah, god of the under-world and darkness, seated at the far left of the row of gods, remains dark. Pharaoh Ramses II had the temple carved out of solid rock on the west bank of the Nile south of Aswan in the land of Nubia, known today as Abu Simbel. Long before Ramses II, the site had been consecrated to Hathor of Absek. The temple built by Ramses, however, was dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Ra and Ra-Horakhte.
