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Astronomical interpretation for SUN PERPENDICULARITY IN ABU SIMBEL

TEMPLE PHENOMENON

Research · May 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1337.7448

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 Astronomical interpretation for SUN PERPENDICULARITY IN
ABU SIMBEL TEMPLE PHENOMENON

Prof. Dr. Mosalam Shaltout

Chairman of Space Research Center, Desert Environment Research Institute,

Minufiya University, El- Sadat City, Egypt.

E-mail : mosalam_shaltout@yahoo.com

http : www.m-shaltout.com

Abu Simbel Temple is the biggest one cut in the rock in all over the world. It can be
considered as a sign in the old architecture and geometry. It is difficult to say how the large
building like it is found in the far areas of the country. There are two reasons for this: either
Abu Simbel hill has a special holiness or the Pharaoh might wanted to dazzle his neighbors in
an area near the second fall by showing them his force and wealth.

There are many evidences state that the origin of the idea of building Abu Simbel temple was
of “King Seti I”. Also, it was found that a large internal part was cut before “King Ramses II”
rising on the throne in 1301 B.C. But nobody can say how much “King Seti I” was responsible
of the temple finishing and specially its front. As we know, “King Ramses II” was not referring
the favor to any one before him.

The war prisoners built Abu Simbel temple. They finished their work before 1259 B.C. This
temple has been dedicated for the worship of “Ra Harmakhis” like many other ones in Nubia.
This god has been combined with the sun. It is represented as a human body with a hawk
head wearing the solar disc. So, the purpose of foundation of this temple in this place is the
sun worship.

The most important points of resemblance of this temple are the four colossal seated statues
of “King Ramses II” cut in the hill rocks. Each two of those statues are seated on each side of
the temple entrance. They are more than 65 ft representing the “King Ramses II” wearing
the double Egyptian crown (Pschent). Also, we can find some relatively small statues of
“Queen Nefertari” (the most beautiful woman of all the beautiful ones) and some royal
children. All of these four groups stand on a high base of a cartridge of “King Ramses II” and
a group of Asian and Negroes captives painted on. The thrones, which are boxes shaped,
have been painted by the traditional groups that represent the unification of the two lands
(Delta and Upper Egypt). The front, which represents the background of the four colossal
statues, has been painted on the shape of a frame has a row of 22 seated baboon monkeys
have their arms up for sun worship. It is known that baboon monkeys usually shout at
sunrise. Also, on the entrance, we find a statue of the god of the sun “Ra Harmakhis” has a
hawk head.

The entrance of the temple leads to big hall (pronaos) has two rows each has four pillars. A
big standing statue of the “King Ramses II”, wearing the double crown (Pschent) and holding
the scepter and the flail, reclines on each one of these pillars. The pillars and the walls of the
hall which is 30 ft height have been covered by religious scenes, texts and the military glory
of “King Ramses II”. The most interesting and famous one is of the northern wall, where we
can follow the various phases of the battle of “Kadesh”, including the pharaoh’s military
campaign against the Hittites in the 5th year of his reign. The long epic poem, written by the
court poet “Pentaur”, is engraved in hieroglyphics both here and on the walls of the other
temples, such as “Luxor” and “Karnak”.

The phenomenon that made this temple different from the other ancient Egyptian ones is the
entrance of the sunlight twice a year in the early morning to the sacrarium to reach the four
statues illuminating this dark deep place in the rock that is 65 meters far from the principal
entrance of the temple.

In 1874, the explorer Miss “Emilda Edwards” and her team observed this phenomenon and
recorded it in her book published in 1899 (Thousand Mile on the River Nile) as follows:

“At sunrise, the sacrarium statues become of an incredible effect and are covered by a
beautiful corona of fear and veneration. If any one did not observe the falling of the sunlight
on the statues, he would doubt about its big effect accurately calculated according to the
astronomy and arithmatic of ancient Egyptians. This is because the direction of the temple
was accurately calculated for a certain angle to receive these radiation on the four statues
faces”.

In 6:25 A.M. in 21st of February or 5:55 A.M. in 21st of October in every year, the sunlight
enters smoothly on the King Ramses’s face hugging and kissing him. A flux of light irradiates
the King’s face in his chamber located inside the feared temple heart. A feeling of fear and a
small pulse vibrate your heart as if the light catch you perturb your depth by a magic obscure
force. What a magic?! and what an obscurity perturb your existence as you are living a
miracle moments.

Then, the sunlight is spread soon to be a bundle of light illuminating the four statues faces
inside the sacrarium.
It is known that as a result of the motion of the earth around the sun in a semi-circular orbit,
there is an apparent motion of the sun through what is called the celestial zodiac circle that is
a circle declines by 23.5° on what is called the celestial equator. So, the position of the
sunrise varies daily on the horizon in an interval lies between –23.5° and 23.5° from the real
east which the sun rises from only on 21st of March and 23rd of September of the year (they
are called the equinoxes or the beginning of the spring and Autumn seasons respectively). In
the Spring and the Autumn seasons, the sun rises from a position declines from the east by
some degrees north. This declination reaches its maximum on 21st of June (the beginning of
the Summer season) and will be 23.5° north. On the other hand, in the Autumn and Winter
seasons, the sun rises from a position declines from the east by some degrees south. This
declination reaches its maximum on 21st of December (the beginning of the Winter season)
and will be 23.5° south. Accordingly, if we have a long path directed to the east or declined
to it by an angle 27.5° north or south as a maximum and closed from the west, the sunlight
will illuminate the closed wall twice a year.

So, it is normal to find the sunlight enters Abu Simbel temple and hit the four statues in the
sacrarium perpendicularly twice a year because its axis declines on the real east by an angle
of 10.5° south.

But the miracle appears here if the two days of illumination are selected and determined
before the sculpture process. This is because it needs a complete knowledge of the
astronomy basis and many calculations to determine the declination of the axis of the temple
from the real east. Also, the miracle appears in the perfect straight axis along a distance of
65 meters cut in the rock.

Although there is no historical references assure this, many people say that the two days,
21st February and 21st October are the birth and the enthronement days of “King Ramses
II”. Also, many references assured that the origin of the idea of building Abu Simbel temple
was of “King Seti I” (King Ramses II’s father). Moreover, it was found that a big internal part
of this temple has been cut before “King Ramses II” enthronement.

We suggest here that those two days are representing both the beginning of the Agriculture
Season (21st of October), after the water of River Nile been uncovered, and the beginning of
the Harvest Season (21st of February) for some eaten green crops like onion and green bean.
So, they were very important days in the ancient Egyptian man when the land was planted
once a year in the system of irrigation by basins.

We are hoping from the tourism announcement to be accurate and scientific, especially
because the history and antiques tourist is a well-educated one not that fool who some
people think. So, if the announcement was not built on a true scientific and historical basis
and facts, it might lead to an opposite results because, in this case, it will be a kind of lie.

Now, we will go to the geological report about the temple prepared by a French consultative
office according to a request from the Egyptian government and the UNISCO published in
Paris in October 1960. This report states that there is a strong probability that the great
temple axis was not advisedly selected by the ancient Egyptian architectures but they were
pushed to select it as a result of the geological structure inside the rocks. The report also
mentions that this is not a unique case, but the same thing occurred to the temple of
“Hathour” (the ancient Egyptian goddess of the love and beauty). This means that the
ancient Egyptians were also pushed to select the temple axis.

Sun was the first god for the ancient Egyptians and the Solar disc “Ra” was their greatest
god. They founded the temples for it and joined its name to theirs. Also, they made the city
of “Heliopolis” or “Ain Shams” as a center for its worship. So, the main purpose of cutting of
“Abu Simbel” temple in a rock mountain in a such far place is the worship of the sun at the
time of its rise. Also, we can say that the ancient Egyptians were interested with the following
of the sun motion through the other stars and observing it accurately and regularly.

There are many evidences show their observations accuracy and their leading the other
civilizations in the celestial bodies observing and studying a deep study based on regular
accurate observations and a great knowledge of mathematical basis:

First: They used an accurate astronomical calendar since the old era. This calendar was
based on the sidereal year as a basic unit in the time measurement. Also, they measured its
length (365.25 days) by the phenomenon of Burning Sunrise of the star Sirius which was
occurring at the time of the floods of the River Nile. Their paints evident that they knew this
before pyramids building. They invented the civil year and divided it into 12 months each has
30 days, and finally they used to add 5 or 6 additional days (called “Al- Nassea” in Egypt) to
complete the year. On the other hand, the other contemporaneous (Greeks, Romans and
Assyrians) were hitting at random in many trails to join the beginning of the lunar months
with the civil ones.

Second: They built the pyramids as their kings tombs because they believed with the revival
after death. It can be noticed that the Giza pyramids were built at latitude 30° N on the edge
of the rock plane not in its center. The sides of their bases coincide with the original
directions with an error does not exceed 5? of arc measured by the recent instruments. Their
sides are equal with an error of 20 cm and their internal inclined paths coincide with the
Meridian. So, many astronomers deduced that the internal paths were used as star
observation instruments. Also, they deduced that the Sirius light was perpendicular on the
southern face of the biggest pyramids at 2300 B.C.. This accuracy in the direction
determination, as measured by its difficulty nowadays by using the recent instruments, is an
evidence that the ancient Egyptian priests who were surprising on the pyramids building,
were using the astronomical observations in this operation.

Also, there are evidences which prove the ancient Egyptians care of studying the celestial
objects like the pictures of the star clusters by which the ceiling of “Dandara” temple is
decorated, and which are found now in the “Lover Museum” in Paris. Also, there are many
paints on its wall show the day and the night hours, moon faces and the path of the sun
through the stars.

We designed a computer program for “Abu Simbel” temple and fed it by an astronomical,
geographical and topographical data for calculating the altitude and azimuth of the sun for
every day of the year. Also, we calculated the azimuth of the sun for the latitudes of ancient
Egypt from 20° N to 35° N.

The calculations showed that the azimuth of the sun for the two days 21st of February and
21st of October gets narrower as we go to the south. For example, it is 9.2´ for “Memphis”,
7.5´ for “Thebes” and 6.3´ for “Abu Simbel”. This leads us to say that the selection of
building such a temple in this place may be referred to astronomical and architectural reasons
besides the holiness of the place. (The azimuth of the sun is the angle of deflection of the
sun about the geographical north measured towards the east direction). This angle has to be
absolutely coincident with the direction of the temple axis on both 21st of February and 21st
of October to enable the solar ray falls on the sacrarium at sunrise. We know that the
deflection angle of the temple axis about the geographical north was 100° 33? 33? measured
towards the east direction before the temple rescue and its transition to the top of the
plateau during the 1960s of this century to save it from sinking in the High Dam Lake. Also,
we have to say that the temple transition and reconstructing process was done accurately
which is considered to be a wonderful geometrical and architectural work did not occurred
before.

Also, the calculations showed the sun has to rise on Abu Simble temple on 21st of February
in 6:22 A. M. if there is no topographical obstacle in the eastern horizon. But in the reality,
the phenomenon occurs at 6:26 A. M. at which the azimuth of the sun coincides with the
deflection angle of the temple axis. After these four additional minutes, the sun rises 34? of
arc above the horizon so that the hills lying in the eastern bank of the River Nile do not
obstruct its rays from reaching the temple and then the sacrarium. So, there is a relation
between the height of the eastern bank hills and the deflection angle of the temple.
These calculations assure that the direction of the temple axis was accurately selected and
previously determined before the cutting operation to enable the phenomenon to occurs on
both 21st of February and 21st of October a year. Also, we can assure that the calculations
were based on an accurate astronomical, geographical, topological and mathematical basis
since about 3300 years.

As we mentioned, there is no sure evidence indicates that the two days of 21st of February
and 21st of October are the days of birth and enthronement of “King Ramses II” respectively.
They are similar in the azimuth of the sun at the rise time. Similarly, there are another similar
days like 20th of February and 22nd of October, and 22nd of February and 20th of October.
The differences in azimuth for these four days do not exceed 20? of arc. Those days, besides
the two days of 21st of February and 21st of October, may have an importance in the ancient
Egyptian history.

Also, we have to say that the temple axis direction is slightly different from that in the time of
its building since 3300 years. This direction is probably changed by about 20? of arc due to
astronomical reasons (like variation of the Polaris star position in a very small circle around
the earth real north pole every 26000 years and the ancient Egyptian astronomers
observations were based on the observations of this star). But this is not the most important
 thing because this effect is so small. The most effective reason is the crust motion in Egypt as
a result of “Plate Tectonic Theory”. This effect has been proved by the recent geophysical
studies that used the earth gravitational force around the High Dam Lake and the recent
space studies using lasers in artificial satellite observations used in the geodesy studies. Also,
there is an old earthquake activity in this area due to the “Kalabsha” natural crack. In 1210
B.C., an earthquake occurred and leaded to the destruction of one statue of the four colossal
ones of the temple facade during the reign of “King Seti II”. This king repaired the first of the
two statues on the north of the portal which has damage signs began to appear.

Also, As we mentioned, pyramids bases sides coincide with the original directions with an
error does not exceed 5? of arc measured by the modern instruments. There are many recent
studies indicate that this slight difference is not due to a defect in the building or a mistake
by the ancient architectures but due to the crust motion in the lower Egypt. This motion was
in a larger scale in the Upper Egypt.

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