Winter soltice 22 dec
Start countin' down for summer folks!
Tomorrow's the shortest day and then the sun starts creeping northwards. Longer days, shorter nights and by june, warmer weather. That's
the theory anyway.
20 years ago this jan, we visited the temples at Abu Simbel in Egypt. I'm not a 'culture-vulture' by any means, and the locost
G&Ts on the Nile cruise were what attracted me, but I can still remember some of the facts because they were truly mind-blowing.
There was a dude called Ptah, god of the underworld, and his statue along with several others; Ramases etc sit at the back of this huge temple. The
whole temple had to be lugged in blocks like a giant Lego-set and raised 60 metres to prevent it being submerged when the Aswan dam was built and Lake
Nasser was created back in the early 60s. Huge, huge project in itself. But get this: in its original location, on two pre-determined days a year
only, (same number of days either side of the winter solstice), the sun's rays illuminate all the statues (Indiana Jones style) ALL BUT that of
Ptah, because he's the underworld dude and is perpetually in darkness.
The temples, there are two of them, were built over 3,000 years ago. No lasers or theodolites for those boys. It's impossible to imagine how
they worked to such precision.
The dates the illumination occurred coincided with Ramases birth and coronation, (or some such, I don't recall), but dashed clever eh? And get
this: When they moved the temples 3,000 years later, in the 1960s, they got it a day out. The illumination takes place a day earlier and a day later
than the original.
I'll bet those boys of 3,000 years ago could build a mean locost today.
21c and sunny here today. We'll 'cop it soon though' as my old grandma used to say. 
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