Fans of Ancient Egypt will adore this festival, which takes place twice a year on October and February 22nd. The magic of this festival is all in the timing – at these two times of the year, the sun aligns with the entrance of the Abu Simbel temples honoring Ramses II and his wife, Queen Nefertari, to illuminate two of the three statues within – leaving Ptah, the god of the underworld, in darkness. Interestingly, the entire temple had to be moved when the Egyptian government made plans to dam Lake Nasser in the 20th century. This was achieved by cutting the monument into massive blocks for transport, each weighing 30 tons! Needless to say, there was some careful maths involved to get the temples to align again as they used to, although in the process the day had to be moved forward. Originally, the alignment would have occurred on the 21st of October and February.
Egypt