Sun temple In ancient Egypt, there were a number of sun temples. Among these old monuments is the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel, and complexes built by the Fifth Dynasty, of which only two examples survive, that of Userkaf and of Niuserre. The Fifth Dynasty temples usually had three components, a main temple building at a higher elevation, accessed by a causeway, from a much smaller entrance building. In 2006, archaeologists found ruins underneath a market in Cairo, which could possibly be the largest temple built by Ramesses II. The sun temples of the Indian subcontinent were dedicated to the
Great and Small Temples of Abu Simbel is roughly on an East-West axis. However, it is slightly off this axis in order to accommodate for this phenomenon. For about twenty minutes every February 22 and October 22, the sun shined through the temple to light up the statues of the gods in the sanctuaries. Some people suggest that these dates correspond to the birth and coronation of Ramesses II. The Small Temple at Abu Simbel was dedicated to the goddess Hathor of Ibshek, the ancient name for an area in present-day Sudan more commonly called Faras (although it is now submerged under Lake Nasser). The Small Temple