Foreign tourists, Arab and Egyptian visitors gathered at dawn on Thursday at King Ramses II temple in Abu Simbel in Aswan to watch the sun alignment, an astronomical phenomenon that takes place biannualy - on the 22nd of October and 22nd of February.

During the solar alignment, sun rays enter the temple’s sanctum to light three of four statues.

The three statues belong to King Ramses II and the deities Amun-Re and Re-Hur-Akhty, leaving the God of Darkness Ptah in shadow to symbolise his connection to the underworld.

The head of the antiquities sector in Aswan and Nuba, Abdel-Moneim Said, said that the alignment phenomenon took place at around 5:52am and lasted for nearly 20 minutes.

He asserted that all hygiene safety precautionary measures were taken, social distancing was kept and visitors wore masks.