22 February & 22 October · Inside the Great Temple before sunrise
Twice a year, the sunrise does something Ramses II's engineers planned three thousand three hundred years ago. On 22 February and 22 October, the first light of day enters the Great Temple, travels sixty metres down the axis through the hypostyle hall, and reaches the sanctuary carved into the deepest part of the rock. Four statues sit there. Three of them light up — Ramses II, Amun, and Ra-Horakhty the sun god. The fourth is Ptah, god of darkness, and he stays in shadow. He was always meant to. The whole thing lasts about twenty minutes.
You need to be inside before the sun is, and so does everyone else. The temple opens in the dark on these two mornings and the crowd builds long before dawn. This trip is built around that. We leave Aswan at one in the morning, your entry tickets are arranged weeks in advance rather than bought at the window on the busiest morning of the year, and your Egyptologist stays with you through it so you know what you are watching while it happens. Outside, once the sun has moved on, the site turns into a festival — Nubian drums, dancing, craft stalls, and the lake below in the early light. Most visitors leave the moment the alignment ends. We stay a while.
We collect you from your hotel or Nile cruise in Aswan at around one in the morning. It is a strange hour to start a day and that is the whole point: the road south is empty, and it puts you at the gate while the temple is still dark. About three hours' drive, and you can sleep most of it.
Abu Simbel opens in the dark on festival mornings and the queue forms long before it does. Your tickets are arranged ahead of the date, so you are not standing in a line at four in the morning hoping the window still has stock. You go through and into the Great Temple early. Position matters here: the sanctuary holds only a few people at a time, and the hall fills well before the first light appears.
The light appears at the entrance, moves down the axis, and reaches the sanctuary about twenty minutes later. Ramses II, Amun and Ra-Horakhty come out of the dark one after the other. Ptah does not. Your Egyptologist will have told you what to watch for before it starts — there is no time to explain it while it is happening.
Outside, the site turns into a celebration. Nubian music and drums, dancing, craft stalls, and Lake Nasser below in the first proper light of the day. Most of the crowd leaves as soon as the alignment ends and the road north fills up. We stay, and you see the place at its best.
Before we leave you see the smaller temple Ramses built for Nefertari — quiet by now — and the back of the artificial hill where the whole complex was rebuilt in the 1960s. Then the drive north, arriving back in Aswan in the afternoon.
Children under 3 years: Free of charge Children from 3 to 5 years: 25% of the selected adult price Children from 6 to 11 years: 50% of the selected adult price Children aged 12 years and above: Adult price
Pay on the day of your tour. Cash and credit card accepted. No advance payment required — reserve now and pay on your tour date.
All prices are shown in USD. Prices may vary during peak travel periods including Christmas, New Year and Easter Holidays.
Everything you need to know before booking Abu Simbel Sun Festival Access.
The light starts entering shortly after sunrise, around 6:00 to 6:30 in the morning, and the whole event lasts about twenty minutes. Sunrise time shifts a little each year, so we confirm your pickup time once the date is close. You need to be inside the temple before it starts, not arriving as it does.
Three reasons. We leave Aswan at one in the morning instead of half past four, which means a night shift for your driver and guide. Your entry tickets are arranged ahead of the date rather than bought at the window on the busiest morning of the year — on 22 February and 22 October that is the difference between being inside and being outside. And the day runs about twelve hours instead of ten, because we stay for the festival after the alignment rather than turning straight round.
They are traditionally linked to Ramses II's coronation and his birthday. The alignment originally fell on the 21st of each month; when the temples were cut apart and moved up the cliff in the 1960s to escape the rising lake, the dates shifted by about a day.
Three of the four. Ramses II, Amun and Ra-Horakhty catch the light in turn. Ptah, god of darkness and the underworld, sits at the left end of the sanctuary and stays in shadow — which is almost certainly deliberate.
The sanctuary is small and holds only a few people at a time, so there is a queue for the closest position even among those who arrive early. Getting through the gate before dawn with a ticket already in hand is what makes the difference between seeing it and hearing about it.
It is a different trip. The temples in daylight are one thing; the sanctuary lighting up at dawn with the hall full of people waiting for it is another. If your dates happen to fall on one of these two mornings, take it — the next one is six months away.
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel
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