In 2018, The Sun illuminated the face of Ramses II sanctuary in the Abu Simple temple in south Aswan for 20 minutes in a rare phenomenon that takes place twice a year - Muhammad Fawzy/Egypt Today
CAIRO - 11 February 2020: The General Authority of Cultural Palaces will hold the eighth Aswan International Festival for Culture and Arts in Aswan to celebrate the sun illuminating the face of Ramses II statue.
The festival will run from Feb. 16-22 and aims to contribute to the promotion of cultural and archaeological tourism. A total of 14 art groups from different countries will present the folklore art of each country.
This year teams from Russia, Greece, Romania, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Tunisia, Algeria, Benin, Morocco, Sudan, Serbia, America, Poland and Bulgarian are participating, in addition to ten Egyptian teams affiliated to the General Authority of Cultural Palaces.
The activities of the festival will include organizing a show for all the teams on sailboats over the River Nile in front of the historic Ferial Park in Aswan, to provide an opportunity for citizens and tourists alike to see the shows.
On Feb. 22 and Oct. 22 of every year, Egypt celebrates the solar phenomenon illuminating the face of Ramses II. Those dates represent Rameses’s birthday, and the day he reigned as king. This phenomenon comes to mark the beginning of the flood and agricultural season in ancient Egypt.
It is one of the 4,500 astronomical phenomena that Pharaonic Egypt has known throughout its various eras.
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