The total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027, from Marsa Matruh, Egypt
Marsa Matruh, Egypt: a deep partial eclipse on the Mediterranean coast, outside the path.
No totality here
Marsa Matruh, Egypt is outside the path of totality. At maximum, about 97 percent of the Sun is covered and a sliver stays visible the whole time. The corona does not appear, the sky does not go dark, and eye protection must stay on for every minute of it.
Local contact times
All times are for Marsá Maţrūḩ on Monday, 2 August 2027, in local clock time, computed for latitude 31.353, longitude 27.237 at sea level. A few hundred metres of elevation moves these by well under a second.
| Stage | Local time | UTC | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partial eclipse begins | 11:24:06 GMT+3 | 08:24:06 UTC | The Moon takes the first bite out of the Sun. Filters on. |
| Maximum eclipse | 12:46:03 GMT+3 | 09:46:03 UTC | The deepest point, with 97 percent of the Sun covered. Filters stay on. |
| Partial eclipse ends | 14:07:17 GMT+3 | 11:07:17 UTC | The Sun is whole again. |
- Sun altitude at maximum
- 75 degrees (high in the sky)
- Most of the Sun covered
- about 97 percent
- Duration of totality
- none
- Whole eclipse lasts
- 2 hr 43 min
- Time zone
- Africa/Cairo
- Coordinates used
- 31.353, 27.237
Eye safety. There is no moment during this eclipse when it is safe to look at the Sun without a certified solar filter. Marsá Maţrūḩ never reaches totality, so a sliver of the photosphere is visible throughout, and that sliver is as damaging as the whole Sun.
How far to real totality
The edge of the path is about 112 km south of Marsá Maţrūḩ. Reaching the edge is not the goal, though: totality there lasts seconds. Going further is what buys the experience.
- 122 km south: 2 min 20 sec of totality
- 147 km south: 4 min 07 sec of totality
- 197 km south: 5 min 47 sec of totality
Distances are measured due south along this town's meridian. The path runs east-southeast, so the true shortest hop is a little less: treat these as an upper bound, and plan the drive on real roads rather than a straight line.
What to expect here
Marsa Matruh is well north of the path and sees about 97 percent of the Sun covered. That is a striking partial eclipse and not remotely a total one: at 97 percent the daylight dims oddly and the temperature drops, but the Sun stays too bright to look at and the corona never appears. The distances to real totality are in the section above, and they are substantial from here.
Checking another location
This page is computed for one set of coordinates. For anywhere else, including a specific hotel, a viewpoint or a spot out on the path, the Eclipse Explorer computes local contact times and how much of the Sun is covered for any location you give it, and the main page for this eclipse carries the global circumstances, the Saros series and the shape of the path.
These are mean-limb times. The Moon's edge is mountainous, so the exact instants totality begins and ends shift by a second or two depending on which lunar valley the last sliver of Sun drains through. That correction is smaller than the difference a short drive makes, and smaller than the error in standing somewhere other than these exact coordinates. Every figure here is a computed fact you may reuse freely; see how these were computed.
The same eclipse from other towns
Every town below is computed the same way, so the durations are directly comparable.
Ceuta
4 min 51 sec of totality, Sun 38 degrees up.
Cadiz, Spain
2 min 54 sec of totality, Sun 37 degrees up.
Malaga, Spain
1 min 51 sec of totality, Sun 39 degrees up.
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
6 min 03 sec of totality, Sun 76 degrees up.
Aswan, Egypt
Outside the path: about 99 percent covered, no totality.
All towns, side by side
Every town on this path in one table, sorted by how long totality lasts.