Abu Simbel temples rooms decreasing in size from the entrance to the sanctuary. The temple is complex in structure and quite unusual because of its many side chambers. The hypostyle hall (sometimes also called a pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16.7 meters wide and is supported by eight huge Osirid pillars depicting the deified Ramses linked to the god Osiris, the god of the Underworld, to indicate the everlasting nature of the pharaoh. The colossal statues along the left-hand wall bear the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower
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