Esna is located about fifty kilometers south of Luxor. The temple now stands in the middle of the modern town at a level about nine meters below that of the surrounding grounds. However, texts mentions that it was built on the site of a temple that may have been constructed as early as the reign of Tuthmosis III. Some blocks of the earlier 18th Dynasty structure are preserved. The present structure dates to the Greek and Roman periods and is one of the latest temples to have been built by the ancient Egyptians. 

Though only the hypostyle hall was excavated by Auguste Mariette, it is well preserved. Other remains of the temple lie buried beneath the surrounding buildings of the modern town.  The back wall of the hypostyle hall is the oldest part of this construct, having been the facade of the old Ptolemaic (Greek) temple. It has depictions of both Ptolemy VI Philometer and VIII. The remainder of the building was built by the Romans (Claudius through Decius) and some of its decorations date as to as late as the third century AD. 

Offerings being made in the Temple of Khnum at Esna (Isna)

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The roof of the hall, which is still intact, is supported by four rows of six tall (twelve meters high) columns with composite floral capitals of varying design that retain some of their original painted color. They are adorned with texts describing the religious festivals of the town and several Roman emperors before the gods. One of the columns shows the Emperor Trajan dancing before the goddess Menheyet. The facade of the hall is in the form of an intercolumnar screen wall similar to those of the temples at Dendera and Edfu. This structure, prior to its ruin, may have resembled those temples. The whole, remaining structure at Esna is extremely regular in design and symmetrical except for a small engaged chamber on the southern side of the entrance, perhaps serving as a robe room for priests. This feature is also found at Edfu. The facade of this structure measures some forty meters wide by seventeen meters high.

The decorations and inscriptions in the Temple of Khnum are frequently well executed and some are of special interest. There is a scene depicting the king netting wild fowl, said to represent inimical spirits, on the north wall that continues very ancient Egyptian themes. However, other depictions such as the king offering a laurel wreath to the gods, represented on a column at the rear of the hall, are decidedly new motifs. Decoration of the south wall was carved for Septimus Servus and his sons, Geta and Caracalla, depicting them before several divinities. The ceiling of the hypostyle shows Egyptian astronomical figures on the northern half and Roman signs of the zodiac on the southern half.

There is also interesting text within the temple, including a pair of cyptographic hymns to Khnum, one written almost entirely with hieroglyphs of rams and other other written with crocodiles. These are located inside the front corners of the hypostyle hall, next to the small doors used by the priests to enter and exit the temple. Other texts records four smaller temples in the region that probably had cultic connections with this temple, though none of these have survived . One of the smaller temples, dedicated to Isis and built by Ptolemy IX Soter II and Cleopatra Cocce on the East Bank of the Nile near el-Hilla (Contralatopolis), was recorded during Napoleon's expedition. It fell victim to the construction of an administrative building in 1828. Another temple mentioned in this text has been excavated at Kom Mer, south of Esna.

In the courtyard in front of the temple there is a statue of the goddess Menheyet or Menhyt who was a little known lion-headed goddess named as the consort of Khnum at Esna. Here, there are also blocks from an early Christian church. There is also an inscription found on the back of a block from Emperor Decius decreeing that Christians will suffer death if they do not sacrifice to the pagan gods.

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Originally, the temple was linked by a ceremonial way to the Nile, where its ancient quay, adorned with the cartouches of Marcus Aurelius, is still discernable.

Several examples of column capitals in the Temple of Khnum at Esna

Location: 

Kom Ombo, Egypt

How to get there:

Description

Located in the town of Kom-Ombo, about 28 miles north of Aswan, the Temple, dating to the Ptolemies, is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile. The actual temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor in the early second century BC.  Ptolemy XIII built the outer and inner hypostyle halls. The outer enclosure wall and part of the court were built by Augustus sometime after 30 BC, and are mostly gone.  There are also tombs from the Old Kingdom in the vicinity of Kom-Ombo village.

The Temple known as Kom Ombo is actually two temples consisting of a Temple to Sobek and a Temple of Haroeris.  In ancient times, sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank near here. The Temple has scant remains, due first to the changing Nile, then the Copts who once used it as a church, and finally by builders who used the stones for new buildings.

Everything is duplicated along the main axis.  There are two entrances, two courts, two colonades, two hypostyle halls and two sanctuaries.  There were probably even two sets of priests. The left, or northern side is dedicated to Haroeris (sometimes called Harer, Horus the Elder) who was the falcon headed sky god and the right to Sobek (the corcodile headed god).  The two gods are accompanied by their families.  They include Haroeris'  wife named Tesentnefert, meaning the good sister and his son, Panebtawy.  Sobeck likewise is accompanied by his consort, Hathor and son, Khonsu.

Foundations are all that are left of the original Pylon.  Beyond the Pylon, there was once a staircase in the court that lead to a roof terrace.  The court has a columned portico and central altar.  There is a scene of the King leaving his palace escorted by standards. Near the sanctuary is a purification scene.  On either side of the door to the pronaos are columns inscribed with icons of the lotus (south) and papyrus (north), symbolizing the 'two lands' of Egypt.

In the southwest corner of the pronaos is the one column that does not echo the duality of the temples.  Here, there are scenes depicting purification of the King, his coronation and his consecration of the Temple.  The ceiling has astronomical images.

The hypostyle hall has papyrus capitals on the columns.  Here, there is an inventory of the scared places of Egypt, the gods of the main towns and the local and national festivals. 

In the anti chamber, there are scenes depicting the goddess Seshat launching the building of the temple, followed by a scene of the completed temple with the king throwing natron in a purification ceremony.  The staircase leading to the roof is all that remains of the offering hall.

Statues to the gods and the builders of the temple once occupied the net room just before the sanctuaries.  The ceiling of the pure place to the north still remains with an image of Nut.  There is little left of the sanctuaries.  

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See Also Marie Parsons Feature Story on Luxor

Many festivals were celebrated in Thebes. The Temple of Luxor was the center of the most important one, the festival of Opet. Built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, it appears that the temple's purpose was for a suitable setting for the rituals of the festival. The festival itself was to reconcile the human aspect of the ruler with the divine office. During the 18th Dynasty the festival lasted eleven days, but had grown to twenty-seven days by the reign of Ramesses III in the 20th Dynasty. At that time the festival included the distribution of over 11,000 loaves of bread, 85 cakes and 385 jars of beer. The procession of images of the current royal family began at Karnak and ended at the temple of Luxor. By the late 18th Dynasty the journey was being made by barge, on the Nile River. Each god or goddess was carried in a separate barge that was towed by smaller boats. Large crowds consisting of soldiers, dancers, musicians and high ranking officials accompanied the barge by walking along the banks of the river. During the festival the people were allowed to ask favors of the statues of the kings or to the images of the gods that were on the barges. Once at the temple, the king and his priests entered the back chambers. There, the king and his ka (the divine essence of each king, created at his birth) were merged, the king being transformed into a divine being. The crowd outside, anxiously awaiting the transformed king, would cheer wildly at his re-emergence. This solidified the ritual and made the king a god. The festival was the backbone of the pharaoh's government. In this way could a usurper or one not of the same bloodline become ruler over Egypt.

Luxor Temple from the South

On the face of the great pylon are carved episodes from the Battle of Kadesh, when Ramesses and his army defeated the forces of the Hittites and their allies. The obelisk is one of a red granite pair which Ramesses erected in front of the pylon; its twin now in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris. On the pedestal are carved the four sacred baboons who were the first to greet the morning sun. Three lines of vertical inscription on every face of the obelisk repeat the names and titles of Ramesses the Great: The Horus, Mighty Bull, Exalter of Thebes, Favorite of the Two Goddesses, establishing monuments in Luxor for his father Amun, who placed him upon the throne; Golden Horus, seeking excellent things for him who fashioned him; King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usermare, Chosen of Re." It is of interest to note that when the one obelisk was lowered, in order to be transported to France, Ramesses name was also found inscribed on the bottom. Pharaohs were notorious for usurping other pharaohs monuments, and Ramesses was determined that this was to remain his own. The pyramidal tip of the tall shaft was covered in sheet gold which flashed in the sunlight, symbolizing the sungod Re in his brilliance. Colossal seated statues of Ramesses flank the gateway.

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Located in the northeast corner of the Court of Ramesses in the Temple of Luxor is the Mosque of Abu'l Haggag. The Sufi sheik spent the last fifty of his ninety years in Luxor. Though Abu'l Haggag died in 1243, the mosque is only 19th century.

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Within the southern enclosure is what has been called the entrance hall, a large court with four rows of nine columns each. The limestone capitals of these columns were palmiform and filled in with colored pastes. A central path through the columns opens at both ends where, to the west is the street and to the east the interior of southern enclosure and the garden and its pool within. Just to the north of the entrance hall was a columned court and to the south, a court with an altar or throne surrounded by three or more columned rooms. At the eastern end of the garden, which was planted with shrubs, are two houses.

The western end of the northern enclosure is segregated from the remainder of its plan by a wall, and within the wall are uniformly planned houses in a row. These house are of the same type as in the Eastern Workers Village at Amarna, with a narrow common yard along their long, eastern side, where it seems animals were kept. Each has a tripartite plan that consists of an entrance or front hall, a living room with two columns and two small rooms in their rear. Of course, these seem to be the houses used by workmen or officials of the precinct.

Plan of the maru-Aten

From the wall that divided off the small front section of the northern enclosure, a quay extended along the enclosures axis to an artificial lake which dominated its interior space. The quay extended into the water and has a breast wall on both sides and presumably an awning at its end. The rectangular lake was about one meter deep and measured some 120 by 60 meters. It had sloping gravel sides similar to the lake in the palace of Amenhotep III at Malqata. The lake in the northern enclosure was surrounded by a garden planted with trees in holes filled with Nile humus and enclosed within a low mud wall.

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On the northwest end of the lake is a building on a symmetrical plan along a east-west axis with an entrance through a long passage between two screen walls on its western side. Its ground plan consisted of three adjacent courts divided by two transverse walls. In the first court are two rows of three columns. It may have contained a throne and a painting of the Aten on its back wall. The balusters were decorated with colored stripes. In the southern section of this court stretched a long room and at the rear of it was an alcove which may have functioned as a bedroom where the pharaoh might withdraw while worshipping his god, Aten. In the north part of this first court were three contiguous rooms with brick floors and whitewashed walls. 

The second court of this structure was the largest. It had two rows of columns along two series of four contiguous lateral rooms. A brick coping less then a quarter of a meter high was built against the column bases and enclosing the central part of this court, which was left open to the sky. From the west a central alley flanked by two smaller columns led to two mud compartments The walls were decorated with painted patterns of grapes and pomegranate designs. There were also two staircases that led up to a roof terrace. 

The third court of this structure has a central hall with three rooms, each of which have four columns. They are flanked by two series of three lateral rooms, probably used as cellars, evidenced by the quantities of broken wine jars found in their ruins. The walls of this area are plastered with cement and painted in tempera with vine patterns and pomegranate designs.

It has been suggested that this building may have been a temple palace, which would have typically been laid out in front of the funerary temple in the New Kingdom at Thebes.

To the northeast of the lake, and running along its eastern side was the largest and probably the most important grouping of elements, consisting of buildings (a temple and a kiosk on an island, flower beds and a water court. This was most likely a maru which was a religious building that would have served as a "viewing place" of the solar god so that members of the royal family might be rejuvenated by the sun's rays.

The front temple was situated on a north-south axis with the remainder of this complex, and on a east-west axis of the large lake. This temple is in the typical Amarna style, with an outer court with four column. The lower part of these columns were made from alabaster, while the upper sections were sandstone. There was also a pronaos with four columns and a sanctuary open to the sky, including a central altar exposed to the sun flanked by two columns along each side wall. It has been suggested that a window of appearance opened in the east rear wall of this sanctuary just above the altar so that the Aten could be seen and adored as it rose in the morning.

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This sanctuary was probably very richly adorned. The shafts of the columns are carved with wreaths of grapes and ducks while the capitals had lotus carvings. The lintels were made of alabaster and the walls were adorned with inlaid reliefs and inscriptions.

This building's connection with the lake is clearly indicated by the west-east axis that is common to both. The quay on the other side of the lake would have formed the parallel element to view the Aten in the morning across the lake, and the sun disk could have been viewed at sunset from the temple as it went down over the lake. It is possible that the lake was symbolic of the Nile River, which is said in the solar hymns of Akhenaten to have been created by the sun.

A kiosk forms the central element of this eastern complex. It seems to be a chapel surrounded on all sides by columns and raised on a platform accessed by a stairway. Four columns with reed style shafts connected by high screen walls form the sides of the pavilion. In the middle rose a dais for an altar or throne. The outside of these walls were adorned with naturalistic designs of plants and animals. According to some scholars, the kiosk would have served as a "sunshade" which was mentioned in a number of inscriptions.

Cross section of the Kiosk Island

The kiosk stood amidst an artificial moat so that it formed a small, square island. The approach to the kiosk was flanked by two houses that were similar in design and decoration. Each had a pavilion with an open front facade on two pillars flanking the doorway. These structures were carefully made, with reeded doorjambs, screens that were perhaps in the shape of inlaid quartzite or alabaster stelae, floors of alabaster and internal walls lined with faience.

It has been suggested that this kiosk might have functioned as a temple where the initial monthly festival of the Aten, called "Birth of Aten" (mswt-ltn), was celebrated. It may have been connected with the eleven tanks in the northern most water court, which could have symbolized the remaining eleven monthly festivals. The flower beds flanking the pathway between the kiosk and the water court would then symbolize the beneficial action of the sun upon plants. One of the solar hymns of Amarna read, "Thy rays nourish every garden".

The water court itself was a long rectangular space with a central row of thirteen square piers in the midst of a series of contiguous T-shaped shallow tanks. The design of these tanks is interesting. The T-shaped elements alternate in plan and are separated by ridges that are triangular in section and plastered with mud. The sloping sides of the tanks were adorned with designs of water plants above the water level, and below were painted white. The floor of the passage that bordered the tanks was also decorated with motifs such as fowl and heifers. The rich colors were probably symbolic of the flora and fauna of each month, and calls to mind the treatment of the pavement in the Northern Palace. The artwork shows a good sense of composition and technical ability with a mixture of details and impressionistic treatment.

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In the initial phase of construction of this water court, the whole area of the tanks was excavated and cross walls were built in brick as were the floors. Two of the pillars were reinforced with timber beams laid crosswise in superimposed layers. It should be noted that the tanks were laid out asymmetrically about the alley and the axis of the kiosk. This may be explained if we accept the assumption that each tank symbolized a specific month with its particular flora and served the celebration of the monthly "Birth of Aten".

However, we must point out an alternate theory. Some scholars believe that the complex was a miniature representation of the cosmos for the celebration of the birth of the Aten, with the eleven tanks representing the eleven stretches of water that the sun god had to cross during the nightly journey, while the Kiosk would form the island emerging out of the waters to form the primeval mound. 

On the southeast corner of the lake are the remains of an unusual square structure with two wings flanking a central core and a tank. In the wings, cellars formed the lower story, perhaps surmounted by a loggia, while the central element consisted of various rooms of uncertain distribution.

With the exception of the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos, the Maru-Aten is probably the most elaborate symbolic layout in religious architecture built during the New Kingdom. It would have represented by means of architectural elements and layout the various aspects of Aten in his potentiality as Creator. However, we must also point out that a number of scholars may point out that, due to the limited remains of this structure, its real purpose could differ. Most of the excavated pavement remains from this temple are now located in the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.

A final notation: It would seem that a number of sites on the internet describing Maru-Aten confuse this site with the Northern Palace. They are two very distinct sites located almost as distantly from each other as two complexes could be in the valley at Amarna, though there may be some similarities in their design and even in their function. Certainly one reason for this is that both seem to, from all accounts, have had inscriptions originally engraved for the King's consort, Kiya, that were apparently usurped by his daughter Meritaten. However, it is likely that the Maru-Aten never served as a principal palace for his daughter or Kiya, as possible did the Northern Palace.

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An overview of some of the ruins at Medinet Madi in the Fayoum of Egypt

Situated about 30 kilometers southwest of Medinet el-Fayoum, Medinet Madi, which means "City of the Past", was during the Graeco-Roman Period known as Narmouthis (City of Renenutet). It was first recorded in modern times by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. Grenfell and Hunt were aware of its existence but did no excavations. Early in the 20th century, Jouguet investigated the site and he was the first to suggest that it consisted of two distinct towns, one measuring forty thousand square meters situated on an eastern kom, and another, some three or four times as large, on a western kom. German archaeologists began work there in 1910, but the war interrupted those efforts and the concession was later taken over by the University of Milan.

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During the first season of excavation under the Milan team directed by A. Vogliano, the remains of a temple dedicated to Isis Hermouthis, the Greek version of Renenutet was unearthed. Though later transferred to the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, pilasters incorporated into the temple structure were inscribed with Greek hymns to this goddess. However, one line in one of the hymns also referred to an earlier Middle Kingdom temple on the site dedicated by Amenemhet III. That now famous temple was later unearthed in the second excavation campaign. Also uncovered from the sand was a second Ptolemaic temple, back to back with the Middle Kingdom one. However, this series of excavations only lasted for two additional seasons. Afterwards, it was not until 1966, under the direction of Dr. Edda Bresciani that excavations resumed.

Today, the most interesting structure is of course the southern facing Middle Kingdom temple with its Ptolemaic addition, located just over a mound beyond the Italians' old dig house. Though there is little left of this building, and though everywhere there is debris, what does remain of the temple is fairly well preserved. Every so often, the antiquity authorities must come along and clean out the sand, but typically one can see, from the top of the mound, the processional way which is part of the Ptolemaic construct, flanked by sphinxes and lions and these days, a considerable amount of other Ptolemaic Period construction. The human headed ones probably portray the facial features of one of the Ptolemaic kings. On the right side of the entrance portal is a smiling lion with crossed paws, while the inner left wall is engraved with the relief of a goddess, probably Hermouthis, suckling her son.

Made of dark sandstone, the inner two rooms of the Middle Kingdom structure are roofed and intact, and thus are extremely rare examples of Middle Kingdom monumental building. Indeed, this is one of the few buildings that allows the visitor to sense a sanctuary as it was seen by the ancient priests. This temple was dedicated to Sobek and his consort Renenutet (a protector of the harvest and granaries), along with their son, a form of Horus. These depictions of Renenutet are very rare. Inside there are representations of Amenemhet III and his son, Amenemhet IV who finished the temple, making offerings to Sobek and Renenutet. Many of the hieroglyphic inscriptions remain on the walls, and though faint, often can still be read. All of the inscriptions on the western side of the temple belong to Amenemhet III, while those on the eastern wall are those of this son.

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This part of the temple is in fact rather small, with a columned hall, or probably more precisely, a two Papyrus columned portico leading into a sanctuary with three shrines (niches really) occupying the rear. The two large papyriform columns in the first room have identical inscriptions to Renenutet, except that the column on the left bears the two names of Amenemhet III, while that on the right belong to Amenemhet IV.

On the wall on the left side of this room is a relief depicting the purification of the king. Here, the god Sobek, recognizable by his crocodile snout, stands before the king while Anubis stands behind the king. The two gods pour purifying water over the king's head. As we see in other such reliefs, the drops of water take the form of the ankh, the hieroglyphic symbol of life. The inscription here is still legible, and can be translated as, "You will be purified, and your "ka" purified, with the water of life."

There is a small corridor that leads to the second and last room. The walls of the corridor are inscribed with a dedicatory formula to the goddess Renenutet. Very interestingly, just inside this inner chamber, on both sides of the doorway, is another dedicatory inscription to the goddess Renenutet, though here, for reasons rather unknown, the name of Amenemhat inside the cartouche has been defaced.

This inner chamber of the oldest part of the temple complex is dominated by the three large niches recessed into the back wall. The niche on the left (west) contains a scene depicting the pharaoh offering unguent molded into a conical shape to the goddess Renenutet. In this rendition of Renenutet, one can clearly see her serpent's head. Far from appearing grotesque, the image is quite graceful with the cobra hood adorning her shoulders like a coiffure. On the opposing wall is a scene of him making offerings to Sobek. Similar offering scenes adorn the walls of the other niches, which were meant to hold statue groups representing Renenutet flanked by the two kings. Indeed, in the largest, center niche are the remains of such a group.

Notably, the probable wife of Amenemhet III and mother of Amenemhet IV, Hetepti, is so far only known from this temple. The temple was restored during the 19th Dynasty. To the east of the temple there are also mudbrick storerooms and other foundations.

The small, Ptolemaic temple that lies back to back with the Middle Kingdom temple is its more modern counterpart. It was probably Ptolemy IX Soter II who added the two courtyards that lead to the central chapel containing an altar and flanking it are two smaller chapels. Here, we find stone doorways and lintels. The Greek inscriptions are badly worn and for the most part unreadable. The best preserved relief is found on the outer left wall as one enters the interior courtyard. Here, a delightful, grinning Sobek is depicted with a frightful set of teeth.

The Ptolemaic expansion of the temple included the processional way to the south with its lions and sphinxes (in both Egyptian and Greek style), which passed through a columned kiosk which eventually leads to the older two columned portico. A kiosk with eight columns once existed along the processional route.

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The Processional Way leading up to the Entrance of the Middle Kingdom Temple at Medinet Madi

Very recently in 1995, the Italian team from Pisa and Messina University that has been excavating this site since 1966 also discovered a Ptolemaic gate to the east of the temple and on further investigation another temple dedicated to Sobek was discovered beneath the rubble. This second temple was built of mudbrick with stone doorways and lintels, with its axis at right-angles to the older temple. Tablets and papyri were also found in the debris, including an important oracular document written in demotic script. Apparently, in 1930, a number of texts of some importance (known as AManichaean Psalm-Book, Part II) were also discovered in this general location by Carl Schmidt which are thought to date from about 340 AD.

The team has also recently excavated a vaulted structure on the north side of the new temple, but the remains are poorly preserved. On the north side of the temple court, a crocodile nursery was discovered with dozens of eggs in different stages of maturation.

The Italian team, which is working to construct a three dimensional model of the monuments in the area in order to explore the chronological development of the site from the Middle Kingdom through the Greek and Roman periods, has also uncovered a large Roman town and ten Christian churches of the sixth and seventh century, indicating that the site saw activity perhaps well at least through Roman times. . 

This most prominent ancient town is located on a small hill commanding a strategic position guarding the southwestern entrance to the Fayoum, and was probably occupied even as early as the prehistoric period. 

We do not know what happened to spell the end of ancient Medinet Madi. It seems to have simply been abandoned, even though it clearly had a presence up into the Christian era and beyond. A medieval romance poem known as the "Story of Abu Zayd", which was often told in coffee shops throughout the Middle East even outside of Egypt, relates that Medinet Madi was destroyed by a popular semi-fictional war hero named Abu Zeid. It is said that he led his tribes from the desert of Nejd through Egypt on his way to Tunisia in the eleventh century AD. On their way, they passed through the ancient town located at Medinet Madi and asked the ruler, King Madi, for food and shelter. Unfortunately for Madi, he refused, so Abu Zed razed the town, killed the king and all of his subjects, and took what food and shelter he needed.

From the rise above the temples there are good views of the Fayoum basin to the east, the Gharaq basin to the south, and the bare desert to the north and west. The temple is one of the most isolated and romantic sites in the Fayoum region. This is one of the hardest sites to reach in the Fayoum, but tourists who make the effort will very often find themselves with a monument all to their own and plenty of time to look about. A guide is recommended.

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The 11th Dynasty terraced tomb of Mentuhotep II, the ruler who united Egypt at the end of the First Intermediate Period, on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes) is an anomaly. It was built deep within Egypt's pyramid

In many respects, Mentuhotep II's mortuary temple complex had important historical overtures, so it is not surprising that various teams have investigated the site.  It was the first temple in Western Thebes to house a cult to the goddess Hathor, and foreshadowed a new theological concept of the "Temples of Millions of Years" that would gain popularity during the New Kingdom. While it was Lord Dufferin who discovered the temple complex in the later half of the 19th century, Henri Edouard Naville and Henry Hall may have been the first modern scholars to examine the site between 1903 and 1907. They were supported by the Egypt Exploration Fund. Between 1911 and 1931, the site was further investigated by a team from the Metropolitan Museum of New York directed by Herbert Winlock. However, neither of these groups completed their excavations, so the site was not fully investigated until the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, under the direction of Dieter Arnold, excavated it between 1968 and 1971.

Mentuhotep II selected a site on a rocky hillside at modern Deir el-Bahari where some of his predecessors of the First Intermediate Period built their saff tombs. Saff is an Arabic term meaning "row", and these tombs were so named for their row of pillars along their facades. Most Egyptologists agree that the ground plan of Mentuhotep II's complex combined architectural elements of both the staff tomb and the pyramid complex, though few seem to agree on the original appearance of his tomb. 

The complex consisted of a valley temple, the ruins of which lie under the fields at the edge of the Nile valley and probably also under the ruins of Ramesses IV's valley temple, a causeway, a stepped, terraced mortuary temple that is partially cut into the rock cliff face, and a subterranean burial chamber. Winlock believed that the temple went through three construction phases, while Arnold thought there were four phases. The complex is generally oriented east-west, but bends slightly to the north. 

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Ground Plan of the Mortuary Temple Complex of Mentuhotep II

While not much is known of the Valley Temple, the causeway, unlike most of its counterparts in the Old Kingdom, was open, and had Osirian statues of the king located along its sides at irregular intervals. It terminated at the main temple complex in a large courtyard surrounded by a limestone wall. 

At the back of the courtyard (western end) stood the massive, terraced mortuary temple. The facade of the lower, pillared hall consisted of a portico built of limestone blocks. This portico, which had two rows of pillars, was divided in half by a ramp leading to the second terrace. Originally, the portico walls were decorated with scenes of battle.

Like later temples located here, the main second level was accessed by a broad ramp of limestone blocks with a grove of parallel sycamores and tamarisks planted to either side. This terrace may be divided into three sections, consisting of an outer pillared portico hall surrounding an ambulatory on the north, south and east sides, with a core at the center of the ambulatory. 

The outer portico section of this level, like the lower level, consisted of two rows of limestone pillars. It is often referred to as the "upper pillared hall". The front of these pillars were decorated with scenes depicting Mentuhotep II and various gods, and were inscribed with text in low relief. The rear limestone walls of the pillared hall around the inner ambulatory were slightly inclined and decorated both inside and out, suggesting that it once composed the outer facade of the ambulatory. This, and other evidence, has led Egyptologists to believe that the pillared hall itself was built at a later date. 

An entrance on the east wing of the pillared portico hall, located on the main axis of the complex as a whole, lead to the inner ambulatory. An ambulatory can, at least in terms of ancient Egyptian architecture, be defined as a partial roof that ran around the edges of a structure, and was supported by pillars. Most often we find ambulatories surrounding an open courtyard but in this case it surrounds an inner core. Within this ambulatory stood 140 octagonal pillars arranged in two rows on the west (rear) side, and three rows on each of the other sides. The ambulatory was dimly illuminated by shafts in the exterior wall near the outer portico. 

Inside of the ambulatory was a central core that Egyptologists believe was a symbolic version of the primeval mound. We believe it was made of hard clay shaped roughly into a cube, and probably surrounded with limestone slabs.  It may have extended into the upper or top terrace through the ambulatory. It is the object of considerable debate. 

Naville, the first investigator of the temple, believed this core to be a pyramid built upon the rock subsoil. A number of different views contradict his assumption. For example, Arnold rejected Naville's argument mostly because there was simply no evidence to support it. There are no ruins of a pyramid's inclined walls and no casing, so he sees this structure as a more or less a rectangular flat roof terrace with a stylized representation of the primeval mound. Stadelmann offers us a variation on Arnold's prospective with a sand hill planted with trees. This would combine Osirian beliefs with that of the primeval mound. 

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Debate on these issues is not only influenced by the lack of any ruins of this upper terrace structure, but also by conflicting documentary sources. For example, the Abbott papyrus definitely refers to the structure as a pyramid. Arnold also came across two fragments of inscriptions that contain the structure's name and seem to elude to it being a pyramid. We also find other similar references to its name elsewhere. American Egyptologist L. Bull saw the name as a "truncated obelisk or pyramid, projected above another structure. The obelisk appears to be a sun-disk from which Bull tells us that there, "usually extend two rays of light on each side". In an inscription on the 12th Dynasty stele of Tutu, the temple is actually represented by the hieroglyphic sign for a pyramid. Nearby the temple was found New Kingdom graffiti that refers to the tomb more as a terrace with an obelisk that terminated in a pyramidion. 

Despite all of this, most Egyptologists seem to believe that the top superstructure did not take the form of a pyramid. For example, in the Abbott papyrus, other tombs that are clearly not pyramids were also designated as pyramids. Therefore, Egyptologists believe that the ruins of the tomb either took on the look of a funeral mound or pyramid, or more likely, the tradition of monumental royal tombs was so strongly associated with the pyramid at this time that the hieroglyph of a pyramid was used to represent all such tombs. Yet it is important for us to point out that this debate is far from over. Perhaps new archaeological discoveries will someday put it to rest. 

On the west side of the second level terrace were discovered a row of six shaft tombs cut into the rock. These tombs were apparently integrated into the temple when an expansion project to the west was inaugurated. Their subterranean sections were built of limestone blocks, with false doors and cult statues. Apparently woman of the royal family were buried in these tombs. Interestingly, all of these women died young, the eldest at about twenty-two, and the youngest at only five. Egyptologists speculate that they may have all died at about the same time, due to some accident or epidemic. Only four of them bore the title of Royal Consort. Arnold believes that others may have been priestesses of the goddess Hathor, though Callender contends that they were diplomatic marriages arranged for Mentuhotep II in order to stabilize and unify the country after the chaotic years of the First Intermediate Period.

Among the consort, two are especially notable. One, a Nubian whose obvious importance is evidenced by her decorated wooden coffin, was named Aashait (Ashait). The other, Kauit (Kawit), had a large limestone sarcophagus with fine reliefs, now located in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

The expansion to the west was made some time after the initial construction of the mortuary temple. This expansion included an open, pillared courtyard, Egypt's first grand  hypostyle hall, a chapel to various gods, and a rock hewn temple, referred to as a Speos. Sandstone was used in the construction of the courtyard that was surrounded on the south, east and north sides by octagonal pillars. There were also 82 pillars in the hypostyle hall. The hypostyle hall had a limestone floor with walls built of sandstone.

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The Speos at the far west end of the complex is a long, vaulted room with a statue niche in the very rear. Here, the paving is sandstone while the walls are made of limestone. There was a low ramp that led to a limestone altar at its rear (western most part) that set in front the niche and the oversized statue of the king.. This altar seems to have been the center of the entire temple complex, according to Mark Lehner. This room originally also had a false door. Among other cult objects found in the Speos, a seated statue of the god Amun was discovered. However, a small chapel situated off the eastern corner of the western addition's courtyard served the worship of several important gods including Amun, Mont, Osiris and Hathor, of whom a statue was discovered that now resides in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.

On the axis of the pillared courtyard's pavement in this western addition is a vaulted, descending corridor, first clad in limestone that abruptly ends with its remaining length consisting of rough bedrock walls. It leads down to what is referred to as the king's burial chamber. Naville investigated the corridor and burial chamber in 1906, and Arnold again studied it in 1971. Niches along the corridor walls held some six hundred wooden figurines that were once part of the models of workshops, bakeries and boats. The burial chamber is located about 12 meters down the entrance corridor. It was made of granite and had a saddle ceiling. Actually the room is divided into two sections, with an alabaster chapel topped by a single, gigantic, granite slab, entered by way of a double wooden door, taking up the larger part. Naville concluded that this room was for the symbolic burial of the king's "ka", or soul, because no sarcophagus was found here, but most Egyptologists now disagree with his findings. They now believe that the alabaster chamber probably held the king's sarcophagus.

One reason for this is that in 1899, the well known discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb, Howard Carter, or rather his horse, literally stumbled onto a new riddle in Mentuhotep II's complex. While riding across the initial courtyard in front of the complex, his horse stumbled. He dismounted to see if his horse was injured, and discovered the entrance to an underground part of the tomb complex. Because of the manner in which the discovery was made, not unlike more than one future find in Egypt, Carter's crew named the substructure Bab el-Hussan, meaning "horse door, or gate".

The entrance started out as an open trench that soon turned into a vaulted corridor. Some seventeen meters deep, Carter discovered a door sealed by a four meter thick mudbrick wall. Behind this simple barrier, the corridor continued westward before finally turning north. At this point, the excavators found a shaft in the floor. Though it was only two meters deep, in it were found the remains of a wooden chest inscribed with the ruler's name. Further down the corridor a second shaft opened into an actual burial chamber.

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Left: Merenptah's Mortuary temple before restoration

During these excavations and restorations, the archaeological team made a number of discoveries, including blocks from a monumental gateway, fragments of a colossal limestone sphinx and parts of nine jackal-headed sphinxes. We are told by the project director, Horst Jaritz, that some of these objects were stunning. For example, he notes the find of astonishingly well preserved polychrome reliefs of Amenhotep III, which may be the finest examples known from Egyptian history. 

The New Museum

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The structure, which reused considerable material (including statuary) from other monuments (including those of Hatshepsut and Akhenaten), especially those of Amenhotep III mortuary temple, was excavated by Petrie. However, it should be noted that Amenhotep III's mortuary temple was almost completely destroyed prior to Merenptah's quarrying of its stone. Petrie discovered the famous Israel Stele here in 1896. However, this stele too was originally made for Amenhotep III. But it was Merenptah, a 19th Dynasty King, that had the text recarved on its reverse side to describe his victories over the Libyans and other foreign people, including the earliest known historical reference to Israel. 

Plan of the Mortuary Temple of Merenptah

Interestingly, the original destruction of Merenptah's temple complex resulted from the same forces that took Amenhotep III's structure. Built not far away from the more ancient temple of Amenhotep III, a Nile flood first swept away the two pylons leading into the temple, along with the first hypostyle hall, its side chambers, the second hypostyle hall and even the cult chapels. Soon the rest of the building also collapsed. This was not unlike the destruction of Amenhotep III's complex, though the earlier king's mortuary temple was built so close to the flood plan that a flood was not required for its demise. 

Right: an Osiride Statue of Merenptah

The temple, though much smaller than his fathers (just over half as large), nevertheless copies much of the Ramesseum's design. It is basically the same, only scaled down in size. Like his father's monument, this mortuary temple featured a forecourt with columns along its sides, and a palace adjoining the southern wall. Also, the second court featured Osiride pillars at least on its inner side, and may have also had Osiride statues of the king. After the second court was a twelve columned hypostyle hall, in turn followed by an eight columned and then an inner sanctuary with related chapels. Here was also found a court with a large sun altar.

There we mudbrick buildings along the sides of the temple including a complex of storage annexes to the north where a "treasury" was found. A small sacred lake lay to the south within an extension of the complex. The complex as a whole was then surrounded by a mudbrick enclosure wall.

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While there was a Middle Kingdom temple built to the god, and possibly even an earlier structure, it was destroyed. That temple was mainly built by Senusret III, with perhaps additions by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. Kings of the late Middle Kingdom and 2nd Intermediate Period continued to build there, including Amenemhet VII, Sebekhotep II and Sebekhotep III of the 13th Dynasty, and Sebekemzaf I of the 17th Dynasty. We may also see some scattered remains of the New Kingdom and Late Period. However, a ruined temple of the Graeco-Roman period survives, which together with the war like god, Montu, is also dedicated to Rattawy (the female counterpart of Re who is often depicted like Hathor as a cow with a sun disk surmounting her head) and Harpocrates (Horus the Child). It is possible it may have been built on the site of the older temple.

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Behind the main sanctuary dedicated to Montu, his consort Rattawy and Harpocrates, is the smaller sanctuary of the sacred bull of Montu, with only a small section of exterior wall remaining. However, on one of these walls, a scene depicting the king (Trajan) worshipping the bull at the point were oracles were delivered is still visible. This small sanctuary probably included rooms for the living animal. Some of the walls within the main temple and the smaller Montu sanctuary show to have been decorated by the emperors Domitian and Trajan. 

This temple is surrounded by an brick enclosure wall, also built by Tiberius, and within the wall was a sacred lake, a well and granaries. There once also stood a Ptolemaic chapel, built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Ptolemy III Euergetes I, and Ptolemy IV Phiopator, at the southwest corner of the wall, and processional way lined with sphinxes ran from the main temple entrance to a quay which stood on a canal linking this temple to the temple of Montu in the Karnak precinct. The temple's axis at Karnak faces this temple. 

To the east of the temple precinct was a cemetery. A block field on the southern side of the temple is worth investigating as it contains many interesting fragmentary reliefs including a lintel of Ramesses III and the lower portion of a seated statue of Senusert I. However, much of this material did not come from this particular temple.

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It should also be noted that a Christian church, perhaps dating as early as the 4th century was built within this temple. Its ruins are still traceable, and the remains of its pillars can still be seen. Unfortunately, these early Christians caused considerable damage to the temple reliefs, often carving out the faces of kings and deities alike.

Then, in 1934, Fernand Bisson de la Roque cleared the ruins of the first two halls, both of which could be dated to the Ptolemaic period. The first was a hypostyle hall, and the other was dominated by the high crypt. At the back of the temple on the far end were revealed traces of a church, built directly on the limestone paving of the pharaonic sanctuary. Made of sandstone, the eaves of Ptolemaic date surround an ancient limestone wall and are linked to this paving. They carry a lengthy historical inscription from the Middle Kingdom King, Senusret I, and were part of an earlier temple of that king. 

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Below the paving slaps were unearthed blocks from previous construction phases of the temple dating back to the very early Middle Kingdom kings, Montuhotep II and III, dating to the 11th Dynasty and to Amenemhet I who is credited with founding the 12th Dynasty. However, some blocks were even discovered that date back to the 5th Dynasty reign of Userkaf. These blocks and some of the Middle Kingdom material can be seen in the small open magazine at the site.

In the foundation sand of the Middle Kingdom structure, beneath a narrowed eave, were found four copper chests in the name of King Amenemhet II. Known as the "Tod Treasure", these were filled with lapis lazuli, silver and some gold objects. These items are now in the Egyptian Antiquity Museum in Cairo, and also in the Louvre in Paris.  The lapis lazuli was all either raw, uncut pieces, or fragments of beads or cylinder seals from various origins in the Near East, and dating back to the third and the beginning of the second millennium BC. The silver was made up of flattened ingots, ingot chains and coiled cups. The origins of these remain disputed among archaeologists, but the most consistent hypotheses is that they were of Minoan or Syrian creation, for the most part, representing foreign tribute. Some items came as far a field as Afghanistan lapis lazuli). 

Somewhat above the "Tod Treasure" was also found a rather common and unremarkable find of Saite (26th Dynasty) bronze figures of Osiris. 

Between 1981 and 1991, the site was again excavated, this time by Musee du Louvre focusing on the temple's surroundings. This work unearthed a terrace built at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. There, the excavators discovered private chapels that survived until the New Kingdom. There was no western entrance to the temple until the dromos (an avenue or entranceway) was created in the third century BC, probably by Ptolemy IV, who probably also built the two Ptolemaic halls as replacements for those dating back to the time of Tuthmosis III. The dromos was never finished and the platform overlooking the pier was redesigned in the second or first century BC to include a monumental door, which was also never completed. Here, there are also the remains of an avenue of sphinxes. 

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Prior to the Ptolemaic period, the temple was accessed only from the north, as indicated by the placement of a wayside park chapel begun by Tuthmosis III, and completed by Amenhotep II. Talatats, which were standard sized blocks used in construction during the reign of Amenhotep IV, were most likely brought from Karnak, and were possibly used to complete the upper sections of the temple at the end of the Ptolemaic period, or even as late as the Roman Period. Decorations are mostly attributed to Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and Ptolemy XII, though the most recent reliefs are dated to the Roman Period during the reign of Antonius Pius. 

The Middle Kingdom temple complex was mostly dedicated to the cult of the important Egyptian god, Montu, who has a number of other temples in this region dedicated to him. 

The surviving monuments today are of New Kingdom and later date. They include the partially preserved barque shrine of Montu built by Tuthmosis III and restored by Amenhotep II, Seti I, Amenmesse, and Ramesses III and IV. It stands before the chambers built during the Ptolemaic period. Only the front wall of Senusret I's structure remains, though it has good examples of later usurpation and reworking.

A Roman kiosk was located near the Ptolemaic temple. North of the two Ptolemaic halls there was a lake dug out, either while or shortly after the halls were built. To the south, another kom indicates different stages of urban growth, and not of some other temple.

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It is probable that a simple temple structure was present at el-Kab from the Early Dynastic Period, and certainly Middle Kingdom rulers built here, but the current remains date from the New Kingdom on. The largest part of the main temple complex at el-Kab was dedicated to Nekhbet but this temple was attached to an older temple of Thoth. Many reused blocks from the Middle and New Kingdom can be seen in both temples. These structures are on the typical plan of the New Kingdom cult temple, with an open courtyard including a portico, a hypostyle hall, pronaos and three contiguous sanctuaries. Surrounding them are various subsidiary structures, including a Roman era temple.

The construction of the Temple of Thoth was begun in the 18th Dynasty under the direction of Amenhotep II. A pylon of Ramesses II forms the entrance fronting the temple of Thoth. Beyond the pylon, the open courtyard has two porticoes each with four columns that flank the processional way. This courtyard gives way to a small, six column hypostyle hall that precedes the pronaos, a small transverse hall with only two columns Beyond the pronaos is the triple sanctuaries.

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The longer temple, dedicated to Nekhebet, adjoining the temple of Thoth on the northeast was also completed in stages, mostly during the Late Period's 29th and 30th Dynasties reigns of Hakoris and Nectanebo I and II, though it was probably initiated during the 25th Dynasty by Tahraqa with Psammetichus I adding to it in the 26th Dynasty upon even earlier remains. In this temple the walls of the forecourt were originally in line with those of the hypostyle hall in the adjacent temple of Thoth, but when this temple was enlarged eastward, it assumed an unsymmetrical plan.

In order to reach the courtyard, one passes through a set of small pylons. Within, there is actually an inner and outer courtyard, with the inner having two columns. Through a pylon with an interesting drainage system, this smaller, original courtyard gives access to an unsymmetrical hypostyle hall with two rows of four columns to the west, and four rows of four columns to the east. This hall was apparently built by Hakoris. Further east are two small chambers and one very small chamber. To the north of the hypostyle hall, a center entrance leads to the pronaos while to the left and right, entrances give way to a number of other annexes, some with columns. The pronaos itself has two pillars, and beyond this room, three doors lead to the triple sanctuaries, of which the center extends deeper than those to the left and right. A small space behind the left and right sanctuaries separated by the extended length of the central sanctuary are referred to as the "crypts of Psammetichus I. 

Just to the east of the Temple of Nekhbet there is a small sacred lake.

To the south of this part of the temple complex lies a birthhouse containing a chamber with six columns, and further south is an arrangement of structures including pylons and a kiosk of Nectanebo I. This kiosk and pylon represented the entrance way through the send temple enclosure wall. Just to the east of the main pylon entrance is another opening called the "Lion Gate" Still further south, there are also the remains of a small Roman temple. It is abutted up against the outer enclosure wall. It s entrance is commonly referred to as the gate of Nectanebo I.

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For Information on Ezbet Rushdi, Tell Far'un (Tell Fara'un), Kom el-Hisn (ancient Imu), Kom Abu Billo (known to the Greeks as Terenuthis) and Tell el-Maskhuta near Ismaliya, see part two of this series.. For information on Tell el-Muqdam (Leontopolis), Tell el-Qirqafa and Tell el-Rub'a (Tell El Robee, Greek Mendes) see part three in this series and for information on Tell el-Retaba, Saft el-Hinna, Samannud (Sebennytos) and Tell el-Yahudiya, see part four.

It is very easy to think that most building activity occurred in southern Egypt, but this is because the conditions in the Egyptian delta are not conducive to surviving structures. For all of the period prior to the building of the High Dam just south of Aswan, it was flooded yearly, burying any buildings remains which are often even underneath the water table! Often, our best source of information on these temples and other remains are not archaeological digs, but ancient documentation.

Abusir

This area is not to be confused with the pyramid field named Abusir near Saqqara. It is located about 48 km (30 miles) west of Alexandria, and is the site of the ancient Taposiris Magna, which was an important city of the Ptolemaic Period. The temple we call Taposiris Mana probably dates from the same period.  The temple was dedicated to Osiris. Only the outer wall, which were strangely made of limestone, while most other structures in the Delta during this period were made of mudbrick, and the pylons remain from the temple. There is evidence to prove that sacred animals were worshipped there. Archeologists found an animal necropolis near the temple. Remains of a Christian church show that the temple was used as a church in later centuries. Also found in the same area are remains of public baths built by the emperor Justinian, a seawall, quays and a bridge. Near the beach side of the area, we can see the remains of a tower built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The tower was an exact replica of the destroyed Alexandria's Pharos Lighthouse.

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Tell Atrib (Athribis)

This site is located just to the northeast of the modern town of Benha on the Damietta branch of the Nile, about 48 miles north of Cairo. It is the site of ancient Hut-hery-ib, called Athribis by the Greeks. Today, it is called Kom Sidi Youssuf. It was the capital of this nome (10th), and the city's history dates back into the Old Kingdom period. A number of kings built here, including Amenhotep III, who's northernmost building project was a temple in the city. It is now completely gone, but the remains of a number of temples has been located. Several of these date to the Graeco-Roman period, and another dates to the reign of the King Amasis, of Egypt's Late Period. Unfortunately, the ruins are too destroyed to even allow a full reconstruction. Most of the minor monuments found here can be dated to the 25th through 30th Dynasties, with none being earlier than the 12th Dynasty. There is also an extensive Graeco-Roman cemetery. Some 26th to 30th Dynasties silver ingots and jewelry that were found at the Athribis site that are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Unfortunately, considerable excavation work needs to be done in the location quickly, for the area is slowly sinking even has modern apartment buildings are being built atop it. It is the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission that is carrying out this work. 

There work has been concentrated in the northwestern part of the Ptolemaic quarter, where the remains of workshops and a bath compound had been found. In the area extending west and southwest of the baths, three different Ptolemaic strata could be distinguished. The majority of the ceramic material found here was produced by local workshops. The vessels demonstrate a continuation of ancient Egyptian traditions or an imitation of Greek patterns, or a combination of both. Such mixed traditions are also visible in the terracotta figurines found in the Ptolemaic strata. Various furnaces and stoves were unearthed, and workshops for the production of faience vessels and the sculpting of limestone votive objects could be identified. The excavations of the Mid-Ptolemaic baths were continued as well.

Ausim (Letopolis)

Ausim is located only about 13 kilometers northwest of Cairo, and is the site of the ancient Egyptian town of Khem. The Greeks called it Letopolis. It was the capital of the second Lower Egyptian nome. Ausim is an ancient city, and it, along with its principle god, Khenty-irty (Khenty-Khem) are both mentioned in text dating to the Old Kingdom. Though this god probably had a temple in the city, we have found nothing of it, and the few scattered and fragmentary remains that have been found bear the names of Necho II, Psammetichus II, Hakoris and Nectanebo I, of the 26th through 30th Dynasties. 

Behbeit el-Hagar

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Behbeit el-Hagar is located about 8 km (5 miles) west of el-Mansura. It is situated on the Damietta branch of the Nile very near Samannud, which in ancient times was known as Sebennytos, and was the home of the kings of the 30th Dynasty. The temple at Behbeit el-Hagar was dedicated to Isis, to whom the 30th Dynasty kings were particularly devoted. Egyptologists believe that it was one of the most important temples to Isis in Egypt, possibly acting as a northern counterpart of the Isis temple at Philae. In fact, some inscriptions to Isis in the temple probably predate those at Philae. Within its enclosure walls, some remains of the early Ptolemaic Period temple may still be seen. However, the temple has collapsed, possible as early as the late in Egypt's dynastic history. Almost uniquely, however, the structure seems to have been built almost entirely out of granite. So fine are the carved reliefs of the wall decorations, which well surpasses that found in the Ptolemaic temples of Upper Egypt, that in classical times one block from the temple was transported to the chief Isis temple at Rome.  

Recently, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has decided to use computers to reconstruct the Temple of Isis there. Plans call for determining the basic layout of the temple, then replicating that in stone. Accompanying excavations in the area should yield exciting new information about the Late and Ptolemaic periods. 

Tell el-Dab'a

Located just east of Tell el-qirqafa, near the village of el-Khata'na, about six kilometers north of Faqus in the eastern Nile Delta, this is likely the site of the Hyksos era capital of Avaris. However, even as early as the 12th Dynasty, apparently the Egyptian royalty granted liberal access to the town of Tell el-Dab'a, which seems to have become something like a free trading town. This probably resulted in the marked increase in the number of settlers of Syro-Palestinian origin. Very little remains here, but the site is apparently being excavated by a Czech team at this time. Other archaeologists in the region seem to include the Austrian Archaeological Institute of Cairo and the Institute of Egyptology of the University of Vienna.  It has a complex history, and New Kingdom building activity by Horemheb and the Ramessids included a large temple which was probably dedicated to the god, Seth. 

Apparently the Austrian teams are investigating a mortuary precinct with several necropolises dating to the 2nd Intermediate Period. These included several strata of burials dating from the late 13th Dynasty to the very end of the Hyksos Period. Three main types of burials were found, including vaulted mud brick tombs set into pits, simple pit burials, and infant burials in large vessels of Egyptian and foreign origin. There are 32 burials in this relatively small area. Interestingly, most of the tombs were undisturbed. 

The most prominent tomb in the area was orientated NW-SE with the burial chamber (measuring 2,65 x 1,65 m) and single vault constructed of mud-bricks. The vault collapsed some time after the covering of the tomb and seemed therefore to be destroyed by grave-robbers. Luckily, this conclusion was incorrect. A single skeleton was found in the entrance area together with a round bottomed cup and a jar. Next to the northeastern wall a young female servant was buried in a slightly contracted position looking towards the tomb chamber. The body was placed in this position at the time of the main burial. Because of the circumstances of this and other burials of the period there is a strong possibility that the girl was offered to her master as a human sacrifice. This would have been a very rare occurrence practically unheard of since the earliest of of Egypt's history.

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Apparently, the owner of the tomb was a soldier. He was buried with his weapons and an assemblage of different pottery types. Bones of goats or sheep placed on a dish next to his head are remains of a meat offering. He wore a copper belt with an attached dagger with five middle ribs on his left side. In his arms he held a scimitar still in its sheath. The sword itself was made of copper and well preserved; the sheath, consisting of an organic material, probably leather, is still to be examined, the handle was made of bone. The blade is cast with a riveted socket, it's point voluted and therefore unique. It is the oldest specimen of this type yet found in Egypt.

An overall view of the funerary equipment in combination with Egyptian and foreign goods and Egyptian and foreign habits confirms the typical picture of most tombs belonging to this period in Tell el-Dab'a. The tomb is accompanied by several other partly excavated tombs and seems to be at the center of the group, possibly a hint at social implications.

In addition, the Austrian team has recently unearthed a number of horse burials at Tell el-Dab'a.

This is the continuation of Part I in this series examining minor ruins of temples and other monuments in the Nile Delta. For information on Abusir (in the Delta), Tell Atrib (Arhribis), Ausim (Letopolis), Behbeit el-Hagar, and Tell el-Dab'a, as well as a listing of the major ruins in the Nile Delta, please see Minor Temple and Other Ruins of the Nile Delta, Part I. In this article, we will take a look at the sites of Ezbet Rushdi, Tell Far'un (Tell Fara'un), Kom el-Hisn (ancient Imu), Kom Abu Billo (known to the Greeks as Terenuthis) and Tell el-Maskhuta near Ismaliya. For information on Tell el-Muqdam (Leontopolis), Tell el-Qirqafa and Tell el-Rub'a (Tell El Robee, Greek Mendes) see part three in this series and for information on Tell el-Retaba, Saft el-Hinna, Samannud (Sebennytos) and Tell el-Yahudiya, see part four.

Ezbet Rushdi

Today known as Ezbet Rushdi el-Saghira, this site near Tell el-Dab'a was apparently the location of a Middle Kingdom town. The local temple, discovered during the 1950s by an Egyptian archaeologist named Shehata Adam, seems to have been founded by Amenemhet I and probably expanded by Senusret III in his 5th year of rule. Both of these rulers reigned during Egypt's 12th Dynasty. The temple was primarily made of mudbrick but had some stone architectural elements such as doorways and columns. The structure's design was typical of Middle Kingdom temples, with a small pillared court followed by a tripartite sanctuary. 

In 1996, the Austrian Archaeological Institute under the directorship of Manfred Bietak decided to re-excavate the temple. It was a major surprise to discover that the temple wall cut into the structures of an older settlement that stretch beneath it. This lower strata has yielded a lot of purely domestic pottery, and some pottery types which are related to cult activities were discovered. Hence, it is believed that there was probably an earlier temple cult on this site. Canaanite and Aegean pottery, much of it dating from about the time of Amenemhet II, was present in most of the substrata, but showed different distribution patterns. Prior to this excavation, the earliest finds of pottery from the Levant and Crete dated to the very end of the 12th Dynasty, but these pieces likely date from the first half or middle of that dynasty. 

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Tell Far'un

Near the eastern Delta village of el-Huseiniya are the ancient remains of the Egyptian city named Imet. Today, it is called Tell Far'un, or sometimes Tell Nabasha or Tell Bedawi. The city was the capital of the local nome and the local deity was Wadjit  The outlines of a temple enclosure dedicated to her may still be seen. It measures 215 x 205 meters (705 x 673 ft). From the scant ruins, there appearss to be two temples within the enclosure. The larger of the two was a Ramessid era temple measuring 65 x 30 m (213 x 98 ft 6 in). The smaller temple to the northeast of the Ramessid temple dates from the Late Period, and was 30 x 15m (98 ft 6 in x 49 ft). It was apparently built during the reign of Amasis. There are usurped architectural elements form Middle Kingdom monuments, which seems to imply that there was once a temple of that period here as well. 

Petrie, who explored the area, also discovered a cemetery that he thought turned out to be a very curious place, quite unlike the cemeteries of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. It consisted of an immense number of small chambers, or isolated groups of chambers, scattered irregularly over a sandy plain. These were built of unbaked brick and roofed using a  barrel-vault design. Some of the largest were cased (or lined if subterranean) with limestone. These tomb chambers dated from about the period of the 20th Dynasty (Ramessid period). Unfortunately, most of these tombs had been plundered early on, and some even leveled so that new tombs could be built. 

In one of the earlier tombs no fewer than two hundred uninscribed funerary statuettes in green-glazed pottery were found. In another, some thirty thousand beads of glass, silver, and lapis lazuli were also discovered. Bronze spear-heads, amulets, scarabs and other items were also turned up in considerable numbers. Last, but in point of interest certainly not least, came the discovery of two sets of masonic (foundation) deposits under the corners of an unimportant building in the cemetery. These consisted of miniature mortars, corn-rubbers, and specimen plaques of materials used in building, such as glazed-ware, various colored marbles, jasper, and the like. 

A magnificent gray granite sarcophagus inscribed for a prince and priest of the 26th Dynasty, and part of a limestone statue dedicated to Harpakhrat, the "child Horus," whose legendary birthplace was in these Delta marshlands, were also discovered.  Among other valuable items unearthed in the course of Petrie's excavations included a black granite altar from the reign of Amenemhet II, two thrones in red sandstone belonging to statues of royal personages of the same line, a colossal seated statue of Ramesses II in black granite, and most interesting of all, a headless black granite sphinx, upon which successive Pharaohs had engraved their cartouches, each in turn erasing the names and titles of his predecessors.

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Kom el-Hisn

Between Kom Abu Billo and Naukratis lies what is left of the ancient town of Imu (imAw), today known as Kom el-Hisn. In Arabic, Kom el-Hisn means "Hill of the Fort", probably referring to the ruins of the local temple. 

In text, we find the name of this community mentioned as early as the 5th Dynasty, so it is not surprising that at least several excavations have also revealed a rich Old Kingdom occupation fairly near the modern ground level, and above the water table. A large part of the structures so far investigated were related to food storage and preparation. These included facilities for large scale grain storage, as well as specialized structures for cooking, plant and animal processing. The overall impression is that Kom el-Hisn functioned as a specialized center for cattle processing. The community probably sent most of its herds to Memphis and other cult and settlement areas. In the same nome as Kom el-Hisn was another town designated as "The Estate of the Cattle," or Hwt-iHwt, which was one of the oldest of the state foundations in all of Egypt, dating to the reign of King Den of the 1st Dynasty

Imu was an important New Kingdom local administrative center as well. In antiquity, it was situated near a branch of the Nile that has since shifted eastward and was near the desert edge on the route to the Libyan frontier. A temple of Sekhmet-Hathor (here, Hathor is known as Het-Hert) was located in the town, but all that remains of it today is the outline of a rectangular enclosure. The site was identified by inscribed statues of Amenemhet III and Ramesses II found in the area. 

Information about Het-Hert's worship in this location comes from the New Kingdom grave of Khesuwer. He was a priest of Het-Hert and Supervisor of the Priests and of the temple precinct. His designation as Chief of the Harem and Chief of the Maidens probably denotes a position as supervisor of the women who were in the service of Het-Hert. During the 19th Dynasty, Ramesses II renovated the temple and in the 22nd Dynasty, Sheshonq III expanded it. In the Late Period, the town was known as pr-nbt-imau, meaning "Domain of the Mistress of Imau". Regrettably, much of the ruins of Kom el-Hisn are rapidly yielding to agricultural expansion in the area. 

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Kom Abu Billo (Terenuthis)

Just outside the town of Tarranam, a name derived from the Coptic era name of Terenouti,, known in classical times as Terenuthis, lies the mound of Kom Abu Billo. Actually, Kom Abu Billo refers specifically to the part of the site where the Greco-Roman cemetery is found, and this name probably derives from the Greek god Apollo, who had a temple at the northern edge of the site. The site lies on the western edge of the Delta about 70 kilometers northwest of Cairo. It sits on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, and  is located on the route to the Wadi Natrun, today famous for its monasteries but in ancient times a source for Natrun (salt). The name of the ancient city appears to be connected with the snake goddess Renenutet or Termuthis, so we assume that they were important local deities. 

However, the area may have been earlier known as Per-Huthor-nbt-Mefket, or the "House of Hathor, Lady of Turquoise"". In fact, in 1897, F.L.I. Griffith discovered a temple dedicated to this Goddess, who was also worshiped in the Sinai,. This is an alternate guise for Hathor as the Mistress of Mefket (Turquoise). The temple may have been started by Ptolemy I, the first ruler of Egypt's Greek period, and may have been completed by his son, Ptolemy II. If so, it would be one of the few surviving monuments built by the founder of the Greek Dynasty. 

Most of the excavation of this temple actually took place between 1969 and 1974, when the construction of the Nasser Canal required a salvage exploration of the site. The ruins of this temple contained blocks with finely carved bas relief scenes depicting Ptolemy I and Hathor. A cattle cemetery associated with the worship of Het-Hert (Hathor) was also found in the vicinity. In addition faience statues and statuettes inscribed with hieroglyphs of Yinepu, Aset (Isis), Taweret and Bes were found at this site.

The large cemetery of Kom Abu Billo contains thousands of tombs dating from the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom through the 4th century AD Coptic Period. The Coptics (Egyptian Christians) were probably established in the area by St. Poemon, known as one of the fathers of the Egyptian Desert who settled in the ruins of the pagan temple during the Christian era. The mud-brick tombs have superstructures which are rectangular or square with barrel vaulted roofs or truncated pyramid shapes. New Kingdom ceramic coffins, sometimes called Philistine type coffins, or "slipper coffins" with large, often unusual and grotesque faces modeled on the lids have been found there, in addition to a special type of stele made during the first four centuries of the Common Era. 

Right: Ptolemy I Sorter from Kom Abu Billo

These non-Egyptian style stele, called "Terenuthis stelae", depict the deceased standing with upraised arms between two columns with Greek pediments, or reclining on a couch. Usually, they have text in demotic or Greek at the base.

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Evidence in the tombs suggest that offerings consisting of lettuce, grapes, and wine for the deceased. On occasions, lamps were lit within the tombs, while music was played. Hunting and fishing were common occupations of the people who lived here, but there were also many vintners, potters, jewelers, and other craftsmen. In addition, the area was known as a major trading center, particularly of wine and salt (Natrun).

Many ceramic lamps have been found within the tombs taking the shape of olive branches, Nile fish, and the frog Netjert Heket. In addition, gold and silver rings, bracelets, gold earrings, necklaces, hair clips, ivory combs, and amulets have been discovered. Pottery painted in different colors and dating from the end of the pharaonic period through the Coptic period, plus amphorae, have also turned up in excavations.

Little evidence of the settlement with which these burials were associated has been found so precisely what was happening here in the New Kingdom is difficult to establish. Beyond the cemeteries, the only evidence of activity during this period seems to be a limestone block which bears the names and titles of Ramesses II. Other blocks ascribed to him have also been found in the area. It is possible that some of the foreigners buried in the unusual coffins in the necropolises may have been foreign soldiers employed by Ramesses II in the battle of Qadesh.

It has been suggests that this site may have been the southernmost in a chain of fortified settlements, though not much evidence exists to prove such. The cemeteries seem to indicate that a settlement existed in the area from the Old Kingdom which might, by the reign of Ramesses II, have been important enough to have required fortification. If so, it was because of its location at the head of the ancient route between the Delta and the Wadi Natrun.

Tell el-Maskhuta

First excavated by Edouard Naville in 1883, Tjeku, known today as Tell el-Maskhuta, is strategically located in the Wadi Tumilat about 15 km west of the modern Suez Canal town of Ismaliya. Here, Naville unearthed a large enclosure (210 x 210  meters (689 x 689 ft), inside of which was a badly ruined temple to the god Atum. Naville believes it is the biblical city of Pithom (per Atum, meaning house of Atum), related in the story of the Exodus. 

However, a more recent excavation conducted by the University of Toronto under the direction of J. S. Holladay revealed that the site was founded by Necho (Nekau) II, well after the probable time of the Exodus. Further, their excavations showed that the site was probably associated with the building of a canal, one of the Suez Canal's early predecessors. This canal cut through the wadi (canyon) and connected with the northern reaches of the Gulf of Suez. However, soon after Necho the area declined in importance and the canal became unmanageable. The community seems to have been revived under Ptolemy II, who reopened the canal, as well as establishing a mortuary cult to Arsinoe II in the vicinity.

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Tell el-Muqdam (Leontopolis)

About 10 kilometers (6.25 miles) southeast of the modern town of Mit Ghamir on the Damietta branch of the Nile are the several mounds that represent all that is left of ancient Taremu (Leontopolis, or "City of the Lions"). The ancient Egyptian name for the site means, "Land of the Fish". The remains cover more than 30 hectares (304,260 square meters). Some Egyptologists believe that  in ancient times, this was the home of the kings who ruled during Egypt's 23rd Dynasty, though most now locate the capital of this period at Thebes. It was also a regional capital during the Greek (Ptolemaic) Period and was probably the center of a powerful Delta kingdom during the Third Intermediate Period (about 1069 through 664 BC). It was also the ancient capital of the Eleventh Lower Egyptian Nome (province). 

Leontopolis was mentioned by Strabo in his Geography reference work, and the name appears sporadically in other classical and coptic documents. 

There was once a temple of the local lion-god, Mihos (hence, Leontopolis, "City of the Lions") located here, and while ruined, its location has been found on the eastern part of the site. However, it has not been completely investigated and the date of this temple is unknown. The goddess Bastet, who was considered the mother of Mihos, was probably also worshipped in the area.

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Notable were the excavations of C.C. Edgar in the area that produced the "Treasures of Queen Kama". Her apparently undisturbed sarcophagus provided a number of jewelry and other items, including a grand gilded silver pectoral with inlayed lazuli and a human headed scorpion amulet of gold and inlayed agate. A number of bronze inlay statues of Mihos (the lion) were also discovered in the area. 

Apparently, current excavations are being conducted at Tell el-Muqdam by UC Berkeley under the direction of Carol A. Redmount and Dr. Renee Friedman.. One of this group's objectives is to document these comparatively well preserved ruins in order to enhance our understanding of history including the development and the character of Egyptian urbanism, particularly in the Delta region. They also hope to gain valuable information on the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt's history, a time we know relatively little about, but this focus seems to be shifting into the Persian period. 

Some of the findings and discoveries of this group include:

• No discoveries have been made that date prior to the Third Intermediate Period, when it is now believed the cities were founded (the newer Roman city was built beside the more ancient city).
• Of the 24 sites documented at the turn of the century, only 9 still survive, due to the expansion of local agricultural land.
• The site was probably originally located on the ancient Mendesian Nile branch, which slowly migrated eastward over a period of time, with the development of the area expanding towards this migration.
• There is considerable evidence at the site suggesting trade with Greece and the Levant. 
• One of the remaining sites located about a kilometer from Muqdam produced Third Intermediate Period pottery. Unfortunately, this site has recently been turned over to farmers for agricultural use. 
• Atop the ruins were discovered a red granite torso of Ramesses II, and a red granite block with some of his titles.
• Other surface discoveries include objects dating mainly from the Saite Period (664-525 BC) through the Late Roman/Coptic Period (about the 4th Century AD). 
• From test excavations, a number of small items have been discovered. These test indicate that remains date from the Roman, Greek, Persian and Saite periods, and include domestic, industrial, monumental and possibly cult elements. Small items that have been discovered include erotic figurines, mostly male, a number of terra cottas, glass, amulets, including a wadjet eye mold, stamped jar handles originating outside of Egypt, a few sculpture fragments and many potsherds. 
• The ruins of the site extend far beyond the ground water level. The bottom level of these layers has not yet been completely  identified, but it seem that the lowest level may be as much as four or more meters below the water level in places. Most of the earliest remains are, of course, beneath this ground water level. 
• According to information provided to these excavators by locals, a cache of statues discovered here was smuggled out of Egypt as late as the 1970s.

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Some of the latest excavations have demonstrated that during the Saite period, and especially during the Persian period, the occupation of the site was very large and important. A number of different districts within the area have been identified, including an elite domestic district (Carnel Station), a non-elite domestic district (Qasr Station) and an industrial sector (Iuput Station). Within the domestic districts, the excavators have identified neighborhood fragments, including roads and houses. Apparently within this last district was located what was probably a Greek period bronze smelting installation. 

Tell el-Qirqafa

Tell el-Qirqafa is located near the village of el-Kjhata'na about 6 kilometers (3.75 miles) north of Faqus.  It is in the eastern Delta. There was apparently a temple located here that dated from the Middle Kingdom sometime between the reigns of Amenemhet I and Senusret III. We have not identified the deity or deities that were worshipped in the temple, but the remains of a granite entrance gate and a small pillared hall are known to Egyptologists. 

Recent excavations in the area have demonstrated three distinctive strata, with the deepest dating to the late Hyksos period and the latest to the New Kingdom. Recent objects discovered include, surprisingly, fragments of Minoan painted wall plaster and some 15- scarabs, 18 of which bear royal names of the early 8th Dynasty (First Intermediate Period).

Tell el-Rub'a (Tell El Robee, Greek Mendes)

The remains of the ancient sixteenth nome capital Djedet, or Per-banebdjedet (Greek Mendes), which means "House of the Ram Lord of djedet", are located in the northern Delta near the modern village of el-Simbellawein. It may have originally been known as Enebet to the ancient Egyptians. Known today as Tell el-Rub'a, it could have served as a royal residence or even the capital of the 29th Dynasty. 

The site has seen several excavations, mostly by North American groups including the University of Toronto and Pennsylvania Statue University team led by Donald Redford. Apparently some of the latest work of this group has focused on an Old Kingdom necropolis estimated to contain over 9,000 interments.

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Mendes was referred to in the sarcophagi Book as the Ba dwellers where Re and Osiris met and their Ba unified to conceive their son. Mendes was also mentioned in the geographic list carved over the white compartment in the Karnak temple. The area is rich in monuments and remains of Egypt's Old Kingdom and has proven to also contain artifacts from the predynastic eras.

Left: Mastaba tombs and houses uncovered at Tell el-Rub'a in 1977

The worship of a ram god (Amun Re)  in this area was ancient, and increased in importance as the god was associated with the soul (ba) of Osiris, Re and all the other gods. Along with a temple to this god, there were no doubt others dedicated to a number of different deities. 

Remains at the site include a Late Period (or New Kingdom) temple enclosure probably originally built by Amasis (Ahmosis), and later restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. This architectural element is still visible, along with a red granite naos. The naos was originally one of four that might have been related to the first four divine generations manifested in the ram god, consisting of Re, Shu, Geb and Osiris. The naos is approximately eight meters (26 ft) tall. Beneath the temple, the remains of an earlier temple possibly of the Middle Kingdom have been discovered. Beneath the Middle Kingdom temple, stratification remains apparently date to the First Intermediate Period. Apparently, a fire occurred about this time period (end of the Old Kingdom or First Intermediate Period). Burnt mudbrick was discovered, along with the bodies of victims who were apparently attempting to escape the fire.

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South of the Late Period temple, the remains of an Old Kingdom Temple have also been unearthed. 

While not much else is clearly visible, recent excavations have found a number of New Kingdom monuments built by kings such as Ramesses II, Merenptah and Ramesses III.  Some of these monuments may have been relocated here after Pi-Ramesse was abandoned.  

In addition to temples, Tel er-Rub'a has produced the remains of mortuary, industrial, and residential areas.

Tell el-Retaba

Tell el-Retaba is the site of a fortified military fortress used to guard the Wadi Tumilat approach to the Delta during Ramessid times. It is located about 14 kilometers (8.75 miles) west of Tell el-Maskhuta in the Nile Delta. Along with the fortification, there is also a temple of Atum that also dated from the Ramessid period.

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Saft el-Hinna (Saft el-Henna)

Right: Headless statue of Nactanebo I;  Left: A bronze statue of the God Sopdu 

Just to the southeast of the modern city of Zagazig in the Nile Delta is the site of an ancient provincial capital named Per-Sopdu (The House of Sopdu). Sopdu, sometimes referred to as Sopedu, Soped, or Sopedu-Horus, was a falcon style god who came to be very revered in the eastern region as a warrior god and protector of the eastern frontier. He was often represented either as a crouching falcon or as a bearded man wearing a Shesmet girdle and a headdress of two falcon feathers, often carrying a scepter, a battle-axe and an Ankh sign. Here, in 1885, Edouard Naville discovered the enclosure walls of a temple dedicated to that god, measuring 75 x 40 meters (246 x 131 ft). Inside the enclosure wall he discovered a Late Period granite naos of Sopdu built by Nactanebo I. Little of the artifacts discovered in the area predate the reign of Ramesses II.

Samannud (Sebennytos) 

Located on the Damietta branch of the Nile in the Egyptian Delta, the modern town of Samannud, a cotton marketing center, is just east of el-Mahalla el-Kubra, and is the site of ancient Tjebnutjer (coptic Djebenoute or Djemnouti), which the Greeks called Sebennytos. It was the capital of Egypt's 12th Lower nome. Manetho, perhaps the greatest of the native Egyptian historians, was from this region, and claims that Tjebnutjer was the home of the 30th Dynasty kings. There are remains, though mostly only a mound, of a temple dedicated to the local god, Onuris-Shu (Anhur-Shu) who was a hunter and sky-god. It was probably at this temple that Manetho served as a priest. It is located on the western side of the modern town.  There are scattered granite blocks from the site inscribed with the names of Nectanebo II, Alexander IV, Philip Arrhidaeus and Ptolemy II, with none of the inscriptions appearing to predate the 30th Dynasty. Some items found here are said to have come from neighboring towns, including an Old Kingdom false door, an altar of Amenemhet I, a statue dated to Psammetichus I, a fragment of a shrine of Nepherites and a sculpture dating to the reign of Nactanebo I.

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Offer bearers from Nectanebo II present gifts to Onuris-Shu
From the Temple at Sebenmytos

It should also be noted that today, the area is well known as a part of the route of the Holy Family when they were in Egypt. 

Tell el-Yahudiya (Leontopolis)

Tell el-Yahudiya, also known as "Mound of the Jews, is located only about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) northeast of Cairo on the Ismailiya road. This is the site of ancient Nay-ta-hut, which dates from at least as early as the Middle Kingdom. Here we find a huge earthen enclosure wall measuring some 515 x 490 meters (1,689 x 1607 ft), that was excavated by PetrieSecond Intermediate Period is traditionally thought to be a military enclosure, but could possibly have had a religious purpose, or served as a perimeter wall for both military and religious structures. There are no other good Egyptian parallels for such a massive defensive enclosure wall such as this. The walls are plastered over and have sloping outside facades and that are almost vertical on the interior.  between about 1905 and 1906. This structure that dates from either the Middle Kingdom or the

In the western part of the enclosure wall there was a temple and/or palace of Ramesses III, and colossal statues of Ramesses II found in the northern part of the enclosure suggest that ruler may also have had a cult temple here. In the structure associated with Ramesses III, early scholars discovered enameled tiles imprinted on their back side with Greek letters, with some also bearing the name of Ramesses III. They were decorated with rosettes, rekhyt birds symbolic of the king's subjects, and foreign captives. 

Right: a Polychrome faience tile with a depiction of a captive Libyan, one of the traditional enemies of Egypt. 

This site is especially noted for a type of pottery dating to the Hyksos period and the Middle Kingdom. It is characterized by a type of juglet, named after the site, and found as far away as Syprus, Syria/Palestine and in the ancient Nubian towns of Buhen and Aniba. Known as Tell el-Yahudiya ware, the juglets were made in a distinctive black fired material which was often decorated with incised zigzag designs filled with white pigment. 

Outside the enclosure wall to the northeast are also the remains of a temple that Ptolemy VI allowed Onias, an exiled Jewish priest, to build. Here, Onias established a small Jewish settlement that flourished between the early 2nd Century BC and the 1st Century AD. Vespasian had the temple enclosed when, in 71 AD, the Jews in Jerusalem rebelled.

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A temple from Semna, kumma (Semna East), two of the temples located at the famous fortress of Buhen, a temple from Aksha (Serra West) and the rock cut tomb of Djehutihotpe were all moved to Khartoum in the Sudan.

What we hear less about is the temples and structures that were lost to the waters of Lake Nasser. Certainly, many ancient towns, and some huge fortresses lay deep beneath this massive lake, together with a number of notable temples. Here, we wish to examine as best we can some of these temples that now are lost.

Quban (Kuban)

Quban, know to the Egyptians as Baki and o the Greeks as Contra Pselchis, stood on the east bank of the Nile just across from Dakka. It was a fortress probably built at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty by Senusret I, but it may have had an Old Kingdom Precursor. Many of the most important sites lost to Egyptologists beneath the waters of Lake Nasser were Nubian fortresses, and were perhaps more important for this reason than for their small temples. Unfortunately, these fortress could probably have never been saved from Lake Nasser, for unlike the temples that were moved, they were mostly made of mudbrick.

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During the New Kingdom Quban was one of the more important Egyptian centers in Nubia controlling the gold mines of Wadi 'Allaqi. It contained several temple, of which little today is known. Apparently, a number of blocks from this temple were latter used at the nearby Temple of Dakka that was itself saved from the waters of Lake Nasser.

Faras (Pachoras)

Faras was an important center in Nubia. During the third century, it was an important town of the Meroe kingdom, and from the eight century it was the capital city of the Christian bishops in Nubia. In fact, this site is perhaps more famous as an early Christian center then for its pharaonic monuments. 

This site, which originally stood on the west bank of the Nile between Abu Simbel and the Wadi Halfa, had a destroyed 18th Dynasty temple of Tutankhamun and an early New Kingdom rock-cut chapel of Hathor of Ibshek (perhaps originally constructed by Tuthmosis III). The latter temple was enlarged in the reigns of Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The temple built by Tutankhamun was designed on a symmetrical plan, consisting of a square courtyard bordered on either side by a portico (2 rows of columns). It also contained a hypostyle hall with 12 columns and a sanctuary with annexes. There were hundreds of Thmosid blocks discovered at this site that where probably removed from the temple at Buhen next tot he second cataract. 

Pottery from the necropolis at Faras

In addition to the temples unearthed at Faras, there was also the ruins of an early Christian basilica dating to the seventh or eighth century, the ruins of a bishop's palace, an early monastery and other ruins. Over 120 Byzantine-Coptic style paintings in tempera on dry plaster  were removed from these sites, many of which remain in Sudanese museums and the National Museum in Warsaw.

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A Christian painting from Faras

Mirgissa

Mirgissa was located in the region of the Nile's second cataract on the west bank of the Nile about 15 kilometers south of Wadi Halfa. Here, a small New Kingdom temple of Hathor was built, perhaps replacing an earlier Middle Kingdom structure. However, like many of he sites lost beneath Lake Nasser, Mirgissa is again more familiar to us as a fortress then for its temples. 

Of course, the list of possible archaeological sites that were lost to the waters of Lake Nasser are more then simply numerous. Great heritages were lost, but at the same time, one must first place importance on the living, and most of the population in this part of Africa, particularly Egypt, will not argue the value of the Aswan High Dam in their modern culture.

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Just south of the High Dam is New Kalabsha, which can be reached by bus or taxi from Aswan with just a 30 minute drive.  Therefore, the main Temple of Kalabsha will also be familiar to many readers.  The temple was moved to New Kalabsha during the salvage operation, and is the largest freestanding Egyptian temple in Nubia.  It was built by Agustus Ceasar (27 BC - 24 AD) and dedicated to Osiris, Isis and Mandulis.  The half finished column capitals, and fragments of relief decorations of the temple provide considerable insight about ancient Egyptian construction and carving techniques.  

Connected by a path to the Roman era Kalabsha temple is the older Beit al-Wadi temple (the House of the Holy Man) that was also moved to New Kalabsha.  This small rock-cut temple was originally fronted by a mud-brick pylon which was not moved, and consisted of an entrance hall, a hypostyle hall and a sanctuary.  It is a delightful temple with painted decorations in reds, blues and greens that retain most of their original brilliance.  In the entrance to the temple scenes of Ramesses II show him smiting his enemies, often accompanied by his pet lion. In the sanctuary are seated statues of Ramesses II and deities such as Horus, Isis and Khnum.

Finally there is the temple of Kertassi (Kiosk of Qertassi) on the south side of Kalabsha, with two Hathor columns and four elaborate columns with capitals.

Regrettably, many people who visit Aswan do not take, or have the time to visit these nearby monuments.

The other Nubian monuments are much more difficult to visit, and are rarely included in generalized tours.  They generally require either a multi-day Lake Nasser cruise, or some may be visited on an overland trip to Abu Simbel.

Unfortunately the remains of Gerf Hussein are very fragmentary.  It was built by Setau who was a viceroy of Kush during Ramesses II's reign.  Originally a combination rock-cut and freestanding temple similar to Abu Simbel, it was dedicated to Ramesses II, Ptah, and Ptah-Tatenen (a Nubian-Egyptian creator god).  As at Abu Simbel, gods were carved out of the rock in the sanctuary. 

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Early Picture of Gerf Hussein

The Temple of Dakka, a Ptolemaic temple originally situated forty miles north of its present location. Built using fragments of an older 18th Dynasty temple (possibly built by an Ethiopian king Arkamani), it was dedicated to Thoth of the Sycamore Fig. The axis of the temple runs parallel with what was once the river. 

Dakka Temple

Close by is the temple of Mahararqa which once stood fifty miles to the north. It was dedicated to Isis and Serapis, but the decoration was never completed. The most important remains are those of the hypostyle hall.

Temple at Wadi as-Subua

Just south of the Dakka Temple is Wadi as-Subua (Wadi es-Sebua) where two temples are located. It is known as the Valley of the Lions because of the sphinxes that once lined the avenue leading to the first temple.  It was constructed by Amenhotep III and added to by Ramesses II.  Unfortunately, most of the decorations were defaced by early Christians.  The front is free standing and the rear was rock-cut.  This temple consists of a sanctuary, a court, a hall and pylons.  It was originally dedicated to the Nubian version of Horus, but was later rededicated to Amun-Re.

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Just south of the Dakka Temple is Wadi as-Subua (Wadi es-Sebua) where two temples are located. It is known as the Valley of the Lions because of the sphinxes that once lined the avenue leading to the first temple.  It was constructed by Amenhotep III and added to by Ramesses II.  Unfortunately, most of the decorations were defaced by early Christians.  The front is free standing and the rear was rock-cut.  This temple consists of a sanctuary, a court, a hall and pylons.  It was originally dedicated to the Nubian version of Horus, but was later rededicated to Amun-Re.

Wadi as-Subua

The second temple of Ramesses II, Re-Harakhte (a sun god), and Amun-Re was moved about three kilometers (two miles) to the west from its original location.  This temple was also also originally free standing and rock-cut.

Temple of Derr

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The next temple is Amada, the oldest of the temples, going back to the 18th dynast with restoration work from the 19th dynasty.  Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep II, and Tuthmosis IV were all involved with its construction, and Seti I restored sections of it. The fine preservation of the temple is due to Christians plastering over the reliefs. The temple, dedicated to Amun-Re and Re-Harakhte, contains an inscription relating the crushing of a Libyan-backed rebellion by King Merneptah (1212-1202 BC). At the back of the temple inscriptions tell about the famous wars in Syria of Amenhotep II�s and how he bought back the bodies of rebel chieftains to hang on the walls of Thebes.  One body was hung from the prow of his ship sailing through Nubia as a warning. This temple was moved about two kilometers (one mile) from its original site.

Nearby is the temple of Derr, built by Ramesses II and dedicated to himself, Amun-Re, Re-Harakhte and Ptah.. This rock-cut  temple is well decorated with bright, visible colors and was moved from near the Amada temple in 1964.  There is also the tomb of Pennut here that originally stood at Aniba. Pennut was an administrator in Nubia during the reign of Ramesses VI and is shown receiving honors from him in this rock-cut tomb. However, large sections of wall inscriptions have been cut away. 

The last site before Abu Simbel is a large, mostly flooded island at Qasr Ibrim.  It once housed as many as six temples and a Roman era fort, encompassing an expanse of historic periods including the pharaonic, Roman, Christian and Arab/Nubian eras.  It was the last bastion of paganism in Nubia. Tourists could once visit the site, but damage by boats and foot traffic in the mostly mudbrick ruins have led to the Egypt Exploration Society convincing the Antiquities Council to bar tourists from the site. Boats still stop for a look however. At one time prior to the rise of Lake Nasser, it could be visited by a land bridge.

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North Abydos

This was perhaps the principal region for the worship of the god Osiris, who gained popularity to such an extent that, from the Middle Kingdom on, a ritual journey to Abydos was often depicted in private tombs from other parts of Egypt. In fact, Osiris continued to gain popularity throughout most of Egypt's ancient history. Hence, it is no surprise that a number of kings built temple in this location. 

We have elsewhere examined some of the major temples and monuments of Abydos, including the mortuary temple of Seti I and the Osireion, a small temple built by Ramesses II, as well as one built by Tuthmosis III, and even a pyramid and mortuary temple of Ahmose. However, there is at least one additional major temple, and a number of minor structures that we have not really covered in any detail. 

The Temple of Osiris

To the northwest of the Ramesses II temple in an area known as Kom es-Sultan was an ancient mudbrick temple, probably dating to the Old Kingdom, dedicated to the god Khenty-Amentiu (or Khentiamentiu) 'Foremost of the Westerners', who  was a major funerary deity. Later he became associated with Osiris as god of the dead and was eventually completely synchronized with Osiris.

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Artifacts representing kings dating from the Early Dynastic Period to Graeco-Roman times have been found here but little of the structure survives today. These include a fragment of a vase of the 1st dynasty king Aha, as well as small figures of men and animals of the same period. However, most of the rulers of the Old Kingdom are attested here, as are a number of rulers of the Middle and New Kingdoms, including Amenhotep I, Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep III, who all undertook rebuilding projects here. 

Mostly what remains of this temple is its wall, which eventually became known as the enclosure of the Temple of Osiris. Little, with the exception of doorways, was constructed of stone and so most has been lost. 

By the Middle Kingdom, this temple had become completely associated with Osiris, and would have been a significant nationally within Egypt, for it was almost certainly here that the annual Festival of Osiris originated. The cult statue of this god was moved in his portable barque, carried on the shoulders of priests from this temple to his supposed tomb on the mound known as Umm el Ga'ab. 

In fact, it is likely that the area of Kom es-Sultan was crowded with temples by the Middle Kingdom and a new complex of private chapels developed along the escarpment overlooking the Osiris temple. By then, the pilgrimage to Abydos would have been an important part of religious life with many kings adding to the Temple of Osiris. 

12th Dynasty king Senusret III adding a temple to the Abydos collection at the western edge of the desert to the southeast of Seti's temple. However, there is now little remaining above the sands, and yet, this has been called one of the best preserved temples from Egypt's Middle Kingdom.

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In 1994 Josef Wegner re-excavated and re-studied the severely damaged temple complex built for Senusret III, with important results. The temple proper had been entirely removed in antiquity, but Wegner's painstaking excavations located part of its outline, scratched by builders on the stone platform upon which the temple had stood. The temple's approximate size is now known. Moreover, the brick-built wings of the temple, identified as doorless storerooms, turned out to be interconnected chambers, integral to the temple itself. Most important of all, hundreds of decorated fragments, reflecting the temple's function and overlooked earlier, were also recovered. 

We know know that this temple consisted of a limestone cult building sitting at the center of a larger rectangular mudbrick building. Of course, the decorative theme in painted reliefs depicts Senusret III showing his eternal association with Osiris. There were many statues made of alabaster and red quartzite that adorned the temple, which also included housing for the priests who maintained the cult of Senusret III. Peripheral to the temple were storage magazine and even a town which was associated with the temple estate. 

Either the real, or cenotaph tomb of Senusret III lies further to the west. Dieter Arnold seems to believe that this structure is the actual burial place of Senusret III. In any event, this tomb is arguably the largest of any underground tomb in Egypt. The temple and the tomb together represented a funerary complex that was called "Enduring are the Places of Khakaure justified in Abydos".

Ramesses I and now destroyed, stood between the principal Ramesses II temple and Seti's temple. However, on the southwestern side of the walls of the Osiris temple Ramesses II also built a limestone 'Portal Temple' which probably represented the entrance to the ancient cemetery area. Petrie noted that the "temple" was very different from any other and it was he that suggested that it could be the terminus of a processional ritual. Unfortunately, the ruined condition of the rear section of the temple makes a complete reconstruction of its original plan or decorative theme impossible at this time.

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The reason for this was perhaps a brilliant, but regrettable religious concept. The temple was apparently uniquely built on the flood plain. The temple was purposely built so low that the inundation of the Nile would flood its outer courts and halls, probably leaving only the inner sanctuary, built on a knoll above water level, dry. Thus, when the water receded, the whole temple symbolized the emergence of the world from the primeval waters of creation. Of course, this did nothing for the temple's preservation, particularly considering that many of the temple walls were built of mudbrick. Aggravating the destruction, many of the massive sandstone pylons and columns were far too heavy for the weak or even missing foundations upon which they were built. 

However, we do have Amenhotep III's own description of the complex:

"He did (it) as his monument for (his) father Amen, lord of the throne of the two lands, making for him a splendid temple on the right of Thebes; a fortress of eternity out of good white sandstone - worked with gold throughout.  Its floors were purified with silver, all its doorways were of electrum..."

Much of the temple was build during the last ten years of Amenhotep III rule and in conjunction with his three Sed-festivals.

Though this temple has never been fully investigated, the only real remains seem to be the two huge statues we call the Colossi of Memnon, along with a few fragments of pylons, and various statues and column fragments A quartzite stela which has been re-erected but was probably originally one of a pair set up at the entrance to the court describes Amenhotep III's building accomplishments. Also, in the vicinity of the Solar court there are many column bases, though they are overgrown and difficult to spot, along with fragments of standing statues of Amenhotep III as Osiris. Some of the huge column bases are important to Egyptologists, because they reveal foreign place names known in the time of Amenhotep III, including references to the Aegean.

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Other statues discovered in the area depict the goddess Sekhmet, sphinxes, some with the bodies of crocodiles and other deities. Ancient documents tell us that there was one seated and one standing statue of Sekhmet for each day of the year. Many other colossal statues were built here, including a pair of striding figures of the king that flanked the northern entrance to the temple, fragments of which also still remain. In fact, some Egyptologists believe that some of the colossal statues in the Ramesseum, including the famous fallen statue of "Ozymandia", were probably usurped from the Amenhotep III complex. 

Of course, the Colossi of Memnon actually portray Amenhotep III. Due to an earthquake in 27 BC, these statues became known for a bell like tone that usually occurred in the morning due to rising temperatures and humidity. Thus they were equated by the early Greek travelers with the figure of Memnon, the son of Aurora who's mother, Eos, was the goddess of dawn. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus, seeking to repair the statues, inadvertently silenced them forever. 

Left: Side of the Colossi of Memnon showing Nile gods uniting plants of Upper and Lower Egypt

These colossal statues set at the front of the temple, which was located almost directly across the Nile from the Temple of Luxor at Kom el-Hetan. Behind them were two massive courtyards with other seated, colossal statues. There were a total of three pylons. In front of the second set of pylons were two additional quartzite colossal statues, and before the third pylon stood two additional colossal statues made of alabaster. Betsy Bryan has suggested that this was the largest sculptural program in history. 

A long processional way similar to that built by the king in the Luxor Temple, lined with sphinxes, stretched from the innermost pylons to a large peristyle solar court. 

A considerable part of the temple was dedicated to Amen, but it is also known that the northern part of the temple was devoted to the Memphite deity Ptah, or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris to whom Amenhotep also built a temple in honor of in Memphis. 

There is also a small, separate limestone temple dedicated to Ptah-Sokar-Osiris in the northern part of the compound. It had its own gateway flanked by two quartzite standing statues of Amenhotep III. However, it was so destroyed by stone thieves that we can barely guess at its ground plan.

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Arial view of the Colossus of Memnon

The Other Temples on the West Bank at Thebes in Egypt, Part I

by Mark Andrews

In part one of this series, we will briefly investigate the ruins of the Temples belonging to Amenhotep I, Amenhotep II, Siptah, the Colonnaded Temple of Ramesses IV, the Ramessid Temple, the Chapel of the White Queen and the private temple of Nebwenenef

A map of the Temple area on the West Bank at Luxor, Egypt

The Temple of Amenhotep I

This temple is often mentioned in conjunction with Amenhotep I's principle queen, Ahmose Nefertari, who apparently had her own cult worship at this temple. Though this king's tomb has yet to be found, he and his queen's mortuary temple was discovered on the edge of the floodplain just to the south of Dra Abu el-Naga. This possibly made him the first king to locate his mortuary temple in an area other than that of his tomb, or at least the first ruler of the New Kingdom to do so. There have been a number of blocks recovered from this temple, many of which depict the king's Sed-festival. Other recovered items include various statues and stele fragments, but as usual with these temples, virtually nothing else remains. 

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The Temple of Amenhotep II

A temple commissioned by Amenhotep II lies just ot the north of the site on which the Ramesseum would later be built. Though little remains of this temple due to the plunder of the temple's stone at an early date,  we know that it was probably small considering the long reign of this king. It had a court bordered on all four sides by a columned portico. Petrie, in his investigation of the temple, discovered foundation plaques.

The Temple of Nebwenenef

Occasionally, a high official would gain such favor with his ruler that he might be allowed to build his own temple. Such was the case with Nebwenenef, who was a high priest of Onuris and Hathor at Dendera. He achieved the office of first prophet of Amun in only the first year of Ramesses II's rule, who granted him the unusual opportunity to build his own mortuary temple on the West Bank of ancient Thebes. Nebwenenef's small facility was built beneath the slope of Dra Abu el-Naga, very near the temple of Ramesses II's father, Seti I. Within this temple was found two broken colossi of Ramesses II, lying at the entrance to the court, though the rest of the temple is now destroyed.

The Colonnaded Temple of Ramesses IV

The mortuary temple of Ramesses IV was constructed at the entrance to the bay of Deir el-Bahri, just north of Hatshepsut's famous Temple. A number of Egyptologists investigated the ruins, including Carter and Spiegelberg, but very little was discovered other than foundation deposits, along with a few inscribed sandstone blocks. This structure is now also completely destroyed. 

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The Ramessid Temple

Ramesses IV at first decided to build a large mortuary temple just to the south of his Colonnaded temple. However, after deciding to build a little to the north, he abandoned this project, but additional work may have been performed on this temple by Ramesses V and VI. Nevertheless, it appears that this temple remained unfinished. Archaeological investigations of the site unearthed foundation deposits, and many re-used blocks from various earlier temples including those of Tuthmosis II, Amenhotep II, Hatshepsut, Ramesses II, Merenptah and Ramesses III. And again, as with most temples in this area, virtually no remains are to be found of the temple today. 

Temple of Siptah

Situated between the temples of Tuthmosis III and the Ramesseum is the monument built by the relatively unknown 19th Dynasty King, Siptah. Though Petrie examined this site, as he did most all of the minor temples in the area, virtually nothing of importance was found other than foundation deposits of Siptah and chancellor Bay. While the function of this temple seems to be unexplained, it should be noted that Siptah and his queen, Tawosret (Tausert) apparently also built another temple on the west bank. It is located about half way between the temples of Tuthmosis IV and Merenptah. Hardly anything is know of this second temple, and the only items discovered in its ruins were jar fragments and small stone and faience plaques. 

Chapel of the White Queen

The name for this temple was derived from a pale limestone bust of Merit-Amun, who was both the oldest daughter and wife of Ramesses II, that was discovered at the site. It depicts her as a "Sistrum-player of Mut" and "Dancer of Horus", but she also held the titles of  "Priestess of Het-Hert);  Songstress of Atum; and Ritual in addition to being "the One Who Fills the Forecourt with the Scent of Her Fragrance; Superior of the Harem of Amun-Ra; the Eldest Daughter of the King and Nefertari, with the Splendid Face; Magnificent in the Palace; the Beloved of the Lord of the Two lands; She Who Stands by Her Master like Sothis is Beside Orion; and One is Satisfied with What is Said When She Opens Her Mouth to the Lord of the Two Lands" This small chapel is located just west of the Temple of Amenhotep II, not far from the Ramesseum. 

In a recent discovery made at the site, four amazing status, dating to the Middle Kingdom, were discovered. Unfortunately all of them have had their names defaced, but it is believed they were set up in the shrine of one of the nearby tombs.

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The mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut is one of the most dramatically situated in the world. The queen's architect, Senenmut, designed it and set it at the head of a valley overshadowed by the Peak of the Thebes, the "Lover of Silence," where lived the goddess who presided over the necropolis. A tree lined avenue of sphinxes led up to the temple, and ramps led from terrace to terrace. The porticoes on the lowest terrace are out of proportion and coloring with the rest of the building. They were restored in 1906 to protect the celebrated reliefs depicting the transport of obelisks by barge to Karnak and the miraculous birth of Queen Hatshepsut. Reliefs on the south side of the middle terrace show the queen's expedition by way of the Red Sea to Punt, the land of incense. Along the front of the upper terrace, a line of large, gently smiling Osirid statues of the queen looked out over the valley. In the shade of the colonnade behind, brightly painted reliefs decorated the walls. Throughout the temple, statues and sphinxes of the queen proliferated. Many of them have been reconstructed, with patience and ingenuity, from the thousands of smashed fragments found by the excavators; some are now in the Cairo Museum, and others the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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The approach path to the temple is between two Roman fountains that end at the massive entry gate.The enclosure walls are mud-brick and date to the Roman era. Within the walls are the temple, two birth houses, a Coptic Basilica, a sanitorium, a sacred lake, and a temple to Isis. The temple has a long history. There is evidence that Pepi I (Old Kingdom) rebuilt the temple while other texts refer to reconditioning by Thutmose III, Amenhotep III and Ramesses II and III (of the New Kingdom). Additions were made during the Greek, Roman and Ptolemy periods.

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The Temple of Dendur
An Ancient Egyptian Temple Now in New York

by Jimmy Dunn

Originally, the Temple of Dendur stood on the left bank of the Nile River, very near the ancient town of Tutzis, a little less than 20 kilometers south of Kalabsha, some 77 kilometers south of Aswan. It was probably built around the year 15 BC (or perhaps as early as 23 BC). In Nubia, the temple originally stood on a wide, stone built platform facing the Nile  We know that it was originally visited and described by the early travelers, Richard Pococke in 1737 and Frederik Norden in 1738. Amelia Edwards, a well known English lady whose 19th century grand tour up the Nile was recorded in her famous book, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, once called Dendur "decadent.", though she went on to say that, "The whole thing is like an exquisite toy, so covered with sculptures, so smooth, so new-looking, so admirably built. Seeing them half by sunset, half by dusk, it matters not that these delicately-wrought bas reliefs are of the Decadence school. The rosy half-light of an Egyptian afterglow covers a multitude of sins, and steeps the whole in an atmosphere of romance." In 1906, Professor A.M. Blackman of Liverpool, accompanied by Mr. F. L. Griffiths, more carefully examined the Temple of Dendur in its original location above the First Cataract of the Nile River.

It shares the same fame as a number of other such temples in Nubia, such as Abu Simbel, in that it was saved from the waters of the rising Lake Nasser behind the High Dam by being dismantled and moved. However, while other Nubian temples were simply moved to higher ground, the Temple of Dendur took a somewhat longer voyage, all the way to America. It was given by the Egyptian government to the United States in recognition of its part in helping to save the other Nubian monuments that would have been drowned beneath the waters of Lake Nasser.

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At a cost of about 9.5 million dollars, the temple's 642 blocks, weighing more than 800 tons in total with the largest pieces weighing more than 6.5 tons, were moved to the US. They were packed in 661 crates and transported to the United States by the freighter S.S. Concordia Star.

In the United States, several institutions made bids for housing the temple, in a competition which was nicknamed the "Dendur Derby" by the press. Alternative plans proposed re-erecting the temple on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. (by the Smithsonian Institution). or on the Charles River (by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) in Boston. However, these suggestions were dismissed because it was feared that the temple's sandstone would have suffered from the outdoor conditions. Museums in Cairo (Illinois) and Memphis (Tennessee) also vied for the monument, but the fact that their names are derived from Egyptian cities likewise did not weigh heavy on the presidential commission established to pick the derby winner. Finally, on April 27th, 1967, the temple was awarded to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Since September of 1978, the temple has formed the Sackler wing of that museum. Inside the Sackler Wing, designed by the architects Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo, and associates, a reflecting pool in front of the temple and a sloping wall behind it, represent the Nile and the cliffs of the original location. The glass on the ceiling and north wall of the Sackler is stippled in order to diffuse the light and mimic the lighting in Nubia.

The temple of Dendur is actually a very early Roman Period temple built during the rule of Augustus who ruled Egypt between 30 BC and 14 AD, but like the Greeks, the Romans built in accordance with local traditions, both religious and esthetic.

The temple was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the gods Harpocrates and Osiris, and in honor of two brothers, Peteese (Pedesi, "he whom Isis has given") and Pihor ("he who belongs to Horus), sons of Quper (Kuper, a local Nubian Chief who is said to have assisted the Romans in territorial wars in this area), who were elevated to divine status in the region of Dendur. The reason for their deification is unclear. Some have speculated (specifically Herodotus)  that they may have drowned at this location. The original place of their worship was probably a rock chamber behind the temple in its original location, that may have dated back to the 26th Dynasty.

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Though this sandstone temple is small and simple in plan, it is nevertheless impressive. It consists of a portal, which would have originally been flanked by a brick pylon except that it was never built,  that fronts a small court with a columned pronaos, and inner hall for offerings and a sanctuary. The main building measures only about 13.5 by 7 meters, but it is a fine example of its type. The temple measures about 24.99 meters from the gate to the rear of the temple, as it stand in New York, and stands 8 meters tall from its base to its highest point.

The decorative theme of the temple depicts the king (Augustus) before various gods, including the two deified brothers, Isis, Harpocrates and Osiris. Other gods depicted in the temple include the solar god Mandulis, Satis of Elephantine and Arensnuphis, the "companion" of Isis, deities honored in a number of Nubian temples. On the outer walls, the king, identified by his name cartouche, is depicted in sunk relief  making offerings to Isis, Osiris and their son Horus (Harpocrates), who hold scepters and ankhs, the sign of life. These scenes are repeated in two horizontal registers. In the first chamber of the temple, reliefs again show the king praying and making offerings to the gods, but here the relief are raised. Past this room, however, in the offering chamber and the sanctuary, the only carvings are around the door frame leading into the sanctuary, and on the back wall of the sanctuary, there is a flat cult image recess where a relief of offerings being made to Isis appears (according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art). We know that the original reliefs were painted red, blue, green, yellow and black, from archaic descriptions, but those colors were washed away after the first, smaller Aswan dam was built.

Otherwise, lining the temple base are carvings of papyrus and lotus plants that appear to grow from water, symbolized by the Nile god Hapy. Above the gate and temple entrance are images of the sun disk flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, the sky god. The sky is also represented by the vultures, wings outspread, that appear on the ceiling of the entrance porch.

In 577, the temple was converted into a Christian church. The conversion is documented by a Coptic inscription.

While small, and probably never considered a very important temple in Egypt, the Temple of Dendur nevertheless encompasses the entire cosmos of an Egyptian temple. It should be noted that Dendur was not the only Nubian temple restored outside of Egypt. Dabod, is now in Madrid, Spain, located in City Park and el-Lessiya, a rock-cut temple is located at Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy. The gateway of Kalabsha is now in the Agyptisches Museum in Berlin Germany, while the Taffa temple is at Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands.

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However, unlike many of his best known temples in Nubia, which were built, it would seem, primarily as a display of his power, often in remote areas where little actual priestly activity took place, this one was built in apparently a much more populated region. In fact, on her journeys in Nubia, Amelia Edwards tells us that the town where it originally stood was the Nubian capital at the time of her visit. However, given the temples relatively small size and well known crude execution, it is difficult to believe that Derr was any type of real, thriving community when the temple was built.  

Also, like other rock hewn Nubian temples, some of the temple's decorations were lost due to its  use as a church by early Christians. However, a number of scenes remain, including one depicting a procession of his children with girls on one side of the temple and boys on the other, a theme used often by Ramesses II. Where the reliefs are preserved, the paint is often vivid.

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Nothing has remained of the pylon that must have stood in front of the temple, or the forecourt from which the temple was probably approached. What remains of the temple that was cut into a cliff, and today it basically consists of two pillared halls and the rear sanctuaries, all oriented north-south. We do know that Both halls are mostly square.  The first, cut into the rock, but possibly using masonry for roofing slabs, measures about fifteen by twelve meters and has three rows of four pillars. The third row consists of engaged Osiride Pillars of Ramesses II that are larger than the others. This is a typical theme in many of his Nubian temples, though here, the arrangement does not conform to the usual one, where the pillars and adjoining statues face the central axis of the temple, but instead face the entrance. In this first hall,. low relief scenes on the side walls cover topics of war, whereas on the rear wall there are scenes of triumph. 

The second hall follows the axis of the temple and measures twelve by thirteen meters and is five meters high.  It contains six, tapered pillars mounted on projecting bases and surmounted by transverse architrave. Here, the process of laying out the plan and the low relief work was carried out very inaccurately. The ceiling is was covered with stucco and then painted with a series of vultures along the center axis. Along the upper part of the walls runs a frieze of uraei alternating with the royal cartouche of Ramesses II. Lower on the walls are scenes of a religious motif, including Ramesses II's jubilees, his purification and the reception of the bark. Other scenes depict Shu, Tefnut and Montu. On the sides of the pillars are depictions of Pharaoh and a deity, including Weret-hekau, Menhit, Ptah and Amun-Re. 

Left: Pillars in the second Pillared Hall; 
Right: Ramess makes offerings to Amun-Re in his orm of Kamutef, "Bull of His Mother"

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Of the reliefs within, Amelia Edwards in her "A Thousand Miles Up the Nile" tells us:

"But more interesting than all these - more interesting because more rare - is a sculptured palm-tree against which the king leans while making an offering to Amen-Ra. The trunk is given with elaborate truthfulness; and the branches, though formalised, are correct and graceful in curvature. The tree is but an accessory. It may have been introduced with reference to the date harvests which are the wealth of the district; but it has no kind of sacred significance, and is noticeable only for the naturalness of the treatment. Such naturalness is unusual in the art of this period, when the conventional persea, and the equally conventional lotus are almost the only vegetable forms which appear on the walls of the Temples."

Ramesses II Before Various Gods

The second pillared hall gives way to three chapels. The centermost of  these sanctuaries, which was intended to contain the sacred bark as indicated by depictions of priests carrying the boat on the walls, contained a statuary group consisting of Ptah, Amun-Re, Ramesses II and Re-Horakhty.

The Second Pillared Hall looking back to the center sanctuary

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Today, the area is strewn with thousands upon thousands of potsherds mixed in among two ancient temples and several cemeteries including about 150 Ottoman tombs, attesting to the continued use of the site. The area was excavated by the Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale, whose dig house is at the base of the hill.

The town itself probably existed before the Greek Period, perhaps even with temporary settlements dating back to the Old Kingdom (possibly the 4th Dynasty), and there is evidence that the community was of great importance, having a rather robust merchant class who traded with the caravans that passed by going both north-south and east-west. There were also potters, jewelers, metal workers and other craftsmen, as well as schools, and gaming houses filled with good food and wine from the excellent oasis grapes, to fill the need of the soldiers. The ancient town is scattered over the hillside around the fortress. The discovery of an elaborate system of clay pipes, irrigation channels and a Christian church suggests that the town was abandoned when its wells dried up, some time after the forth century AD.

Ancient cemeteries surround the town on the north and west. Although the Roman cemeteries running southeast almost to the escarpment are the largest, the most impressive is a tiny version of Bagawat that lies to the north of the fortress. Dating to the late Ptolemaic Period, the tombs are, however, undecorated.

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The fortress surmounts the highest hill in the area about two kilometers northeast of the modern village of Dush. It is situated about 79 meters above sea level. The oldest building found so far on this site dates from the Ptolemaic era, though there is some evidence that the fortress could even date to the Persian period prior to Greek control of Egypt. The Romans enlarged the Ptolemaic structure. Its ruined walls, rising to six meters and even twelve meters in some places, enclose a rectangular space densely covered with barrack structures, while four or five stories lie underground. Many scholars now believe that it may have guarded the southern end of the Darb el-Arba'in, an important trade route.

Abutting the Roman fortress on the eastern side are the remains of a sandstone temple, originally dedicated to Osiris, who the Greeks transformed into Serapis, and also to the goddess Isis.

The temple was probably erected under the reign of Domitian, enlarged by Trajan, who added a courtyard, and then partly decorated and further enlarged by the Emperor Hadiran during the 1st to 2nd centuries AD. Though there are actually few decorations, the temple is believed to have been covered in gold. However, all three Roman Emperors are depicted in scenes carved on the temple walls.

A monumental stone gateway fronts the temple and contains a dedicatory inscription by Trajan dated to 116 AD, as well as graffiti by Cailliaud (who claimed to be the first European traveler to reach the site) and other nineteenth century travelers. To the north is a large forecourt containing five columns with a pylon at its northern end. The main part of the temple measures about 7.5 by 15.5 meters and contains a pillared hall with four slender columns, a staircase to the roof, an offering table in an outer chamber and an inner sanctuary with a vaulted roof.  Two long side chambers also had barrel-vaulted roofs. A taller pronaos was later added to the front of the main building.

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From the Temple courtyards, many artifacts have been discovered, including pottery, coins and ostraca including a large collection of demotic ostraca dated from the Persian Period. Some were also written in Greek, and appear to date from the early 4th to 5th centuries. They specifically consist largely of receipts and payments for supplies for the Roman army, but also include names of individual soldiers and civilians. Though the names include a blend of Egyptian, Greek and Roman origin, there are also numerous instances of biblical Hebrew names, demonstrating that Christianity was practiced at Dush during this period. Some of the most interesting items from Dush include a few brief private letters in the form of ostraca, which have allowed scholars to piece together the human elements of life at this Roman outpost.

An excavation in March 1989 in one of the magazine complexes at Dush on the west side of the temple unearthed a magnificent collection of artifacts, now known as the Dush Treasure, which is now in the Egyptian Antiquity Museum in Cairo. At fist, they discovered a linen wrapped gilded statuette of Isis, along with a small bronze figure of Horus dressed as a Roman legionary and a bronze figure of Osiris. Nearby, they also found a large, loose-lidded pottery jar which had been concealed by masonry. It contained a hoard of magnificent gold religious jewelry and votive objects. These objects had clearly been gathered for safety and hidden in the jar during the 4th to 5th centuries AD.

The religious objects are of the highest quality craftsmanship and include a golden crown depicting the Roman god Serapis, as well as bracelets and pendants of gold and semi-precious stones. These items have provided scholars with valuable information about Roman worship in Egypt.

There is a second temple located at Dush that probably dates to the Roman Period. It lies about 200 meters west of the first. It has vaulted ceilings, small rooms and a staircase. It was built entirely of mudbrick, but little else is known of this temple.

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Since few people can lay claim to having seen the temple in its original location in the Nubian village from which the temple took its name, its reconstruction ranks as one of the most momentous archaeological activities of today. It recalls those days, back in the late 1960s, before the completion of the High Dam, when one could still sail from the port of Shellal south of Aswan through Nubia and see the temples in their original locations, mostly overlooking the Nile.

Gerf Hussein, or more correctly,  Per Ptah, the "House of Ptah", so named by the ancient Egyptians, was actually the work of a high ranking official named Setaw (Setau) during the reign of Ramesses II. Other temples built in Nubia during the reign of Ramesses II include Beit el-Wali, el-Sabua, el-Derr, Aksha and of course, Abu Simbel (and some small additions to the Amada). Setaw was the viceroy of Nubia, and he supervised the temple's construction on the same plan as Ramesses II's temple at Wadi al-Sabua (the Valley of the Lions), which was also rescued from the waters of Lake Nasser during the 1960s. The temple is also very similar to the more famous Temple of Abu Simbel, farther south.

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The rear wall of the court is cut to imitate a pylon with battered faces and cornice. After the courtyard, in the rock- hewn part of the temple is a large, mostly square hall with a ceiling supported by six pillars against with engaged, Osiris style  standing colossal statues of Ramesses II. In the lateral walls of this chamber on each side are four niches  in which statuary groups of Ramesses II stand between two deities. 

A transverse antechamber flanked by two deep chambers beyond the pillared hall leads to the three chapels, the largest of which is the sanctuary decorated with reliefs of Ramesses II in the company of the gods. In one relief he offers fresh vegetables to the god Bark of Ptah, while in other scenes Ramesses II is embraced by Mut and embraced by Pakhet.  This is the sanctuary for the sacred bark of Ptah that was set on a socle. At the rear of this room is a niche with a statuary group consisting of Ptah, the deified Ramesses II, Ptah-Tatenen and Hathor.

As a side note, in the Nubia Museum at Aswan, the focal point of its central exhibition hall is a colossal statue of Ramesses II which hails from Gerf Hussein. It is unique in not having been fashioned by royal sculptors, but by the people of Nubia, in sandstone. It was too fragile to be transported to New Kalabsha along the architectural elements of his salvaged temple and the other statues.

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Deir al-Hagar (Deir el-Hagar, Deir el-Haggar) can be translated as "Monastery of Stone", and in ancient times this was a lone Roman Period temple located south of the cultivated area of the Dakhla Oasis about ten kilometers from el-Qasr in the desert. Its ancient name was Setweh, Place of Coming Home.

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Edmondstone found the temple half filled in with sand and he tried to clear it, though he soon abandoned the project and simply measured the structure. At that time, the sanctuary still had a roof and parts of three front columns were standing. Rohlfs related that Remele removed the sanctuary roof to clear the sand.

There is an interesting legend surrounding the visit of Gerhard Rohlf to the temple. Local residents believe that he came to the oasis, with a treasure book in hand, to find a buried treasure. When he was unsuccessful, they believe he sacrificed one of the workers of his group to the afrit, a spirit, who was guarding the entrance to the treasury. Then he took the treasure and departed.

In 1995, restoration efforts on the temple were carried out by the Dakhla Oasis Project under the direction of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The restoration was done entirely with the technology and materials used by the original craftsmen. Many stones were replaced, as were the doors, and a fence of palm branches was erected to protect the temple grounds from encroaching sands. A visitors' center was also erected, which includes photographs depicting the restoration efforts. Today, the temple of Deir el-Hagar represents one of the most complete Roman monuments in this Oasis.

The temple building measures 7.3 by 16.2 meters and has a well preserved outer mudbrick enclosure wall where some remains of painted plaster can still be seen. The main gate is situated in the eastern side of the enclosure wall, though there is another gateway on the south side, in the temenos wall of the sanctuary. This is where most of the early travelers recorded their names, but there are also later Greek inscriptions. There is a processional way that leads from the main gate up to the temple entrance, and along it are the remains of round, mudbrick columns which would have been part of pillared halls flanking the entrance. A few small sphinxes found in this area can now be seen in the Kharga Heritage Museum.

Entrance into the temple was gained through a screen wall that led into a wide pronaos, which contains two columns. From there, a doorway leads to a small hypostyle hall with four columns, which in turn gives way into a hall of offerings before reaching the central sanctuary. The sanctuary is flanked by two side chambers. The one to the south contains the stairway that would have given access to the roof. To the north, the second chamber was a storage annex.

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The sanctuary was decorated with a magnificent astronomical ceiling, dating to the rule of Hadrian (117-138 AD), which had pained reliefs including an arching figure of the goddess Nut, representing the sky and the god Geb, who symbolized the earth. In the center of the ceiling, the god Osiris is represented by the constellation of Orion, while other astronomical features are represented by various deities whose task was to maintain the universe. It is on the west wall at the rear of the sanctuary where the main Theban gods, Amun-Re and Mut are depicted, while on the south wall the Triad of Amun-Re, Mut and Khonsu are represented, along with Seth, Nephthys, Re-Horakhty, Osiris, Isis and Min-Re. The north wall includes the Theban Triad alongside the Heliopolitan creator gods, consisting of Geb, Nut, Shu and Tefnut.

Also on the northern wall is an important representation of the Dakhla god, Amun-Nakht, and an inscription in the sanctuary records his earliest known visit to the oasis. This desert god, who appears to have characteristics of both Amun-Re and Horus, is shown with his consort, Hathor. Thoth, who is frequently depicted elsewhere in the Oasis, is also represented with his consort, Nehmetaway.

All about the temple are the other ancient remains, much of it evidencing the Roman farms that surrounded the temple. Many of these are pigeon houses in various stages of ruin. There is a field containing cut, stone blocks to the west of the enclosure, and about 800 meters to the northwest of the temple is a Roman Period cemetery with about 250 tombs. Here, very crude, human headed terracotta coffins of the roman period were unearthed. When Rahlfs excavated the cemetery, he found a complete terracotta coffin in one tomb, and seven mummies covered with a mat in another. 

Photo Credits:

Some photos copyright Alain Guilleux Une promenade en Egypte

Ptolemaic Temple of Hathor at Deir el-Medina

by Jane Akshar

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Notation: Jane Akshar, operates Flats in Luxor, a member of the AETBI, that offers flats for lease as well as local tours of the Luxor Region. 

The temple is primarily dedicated to Hathor, with sanctuaries also for Amun-Sokar-Osiris and Amun-Re-Osiris

It is very small being only 15 x 24 meters and is the last in a series of temples on this site going back to the foundation of the village. Surrounded by a 50 square meter enclosure wall, it is at the Northern end of the village, the opposite end to the tombs of Senedjem and Anherkhau.

It is covered with graffiti as it was well visited in ancient times, just as it was by wealthy Europeans doing the grand tours of the by gone modern era. So we have Greek travelers, Coptic visitors, and finally Europeans from the 19th century, all leaving their mark. There is even a drawing of a camel done by Blemyes who were an Ethiopian Christian group.

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Today's structure was built and decorated by Ptolemy IV Philopater and and several later Ptolemaic Kings in a rock bay to replace an earlier building of the New Kingdom that had been damaged by the Persians and repaired by Ptolemy II and III.  A cult terrace was constructed opposite the temple entrance, in the east wall of the enclosure. The temple itself is fronted by a staircase of Ramesses II.

The plain exterior walls of the temple enclosed an interesting architectural arrangement that unites an entrance hall or forecourt, which includes columns with papyrus capitals done in the late period style, with the facade of a pronaos. The pronaos front rises on a step behind the entrance hall and has two columns with composite capitals in antis. On three sides the antae piers display engaged Hathor columns. Columns and piers are connected by screen walls. The broad room behind the columns and piers corresponds to an offering hall and includes the usual staircase to the temple roof. No doubt some rituals to Hathor as the daughter of the sun God were conducted up there. In the side wall above the staircase is a clerestory window with a fine stone grill composed of two miniature Hathor columns and a composite column.

Three parallel shrines open beyond the offering hall. The right hand sanctuary has scenes of Ptolemy IV before Ma’at and Hathor as well as many of the other Gods and this sanctuary retains much of its color. It was dedicated to Amun-Re-Osiris. The middle sanctuary is dedicated to Hathor and its entrance was accordingly decorated with a frieze of seven Hathor heads.  Within, there are also a number of baboons worshipping the rising sun, Kephri.

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The left hand sanctuary, dedicated to Amun-Sokar-Osiris has a particularly fine judgement scene which is most unusual in a temple. Ma’at is one of the principal players at the judgment. She is often described as the goddess of truth but in fact her role is much wider and more complex than that. I like to describe her as anti chaos. Ideally, everything is right with the world, pharaoh is on his throne, the Nile has flooded, the sun has risen, and everything is as it should be. From the 28th Dynasty onwards she is described as the daughter of Re, as is Hathor. Kings would often describe themselves as Beloved of Ma’at signifying their right to rule and the stability they give the land. It is the divine order of things. To explain it further Akhenaton, the heretic king was considered to have gone against Ma’at and therefore much of the trouble of that period was because Ma’at was destabilized. She is often depicted as having a feather on top of her head or merely as a feather.

The judgment scene shows the 42 accessor Gods who will have quizzed the deceased about his life. The list of crimes is long but many we would recognize today. They include depriving an orphan of his property, killing, eavesdropping, homosexuality, anger but some are special to Egypt and the Nile. These include not encroaching on other peoples fields and not damming the flood water. Apparently one was allowed to use magic to get past these Gods but then it was the moment of truth. Your heart, the centre of intelligence according to the Egyptians, was weighed against Ma’at. Would you get through to Osiris and live in the after world or end up as Ammit’s dinner. These judgment scenes are often seen in tombs and on papyrus but this is the only one I know that is on a temple wall.

Opposite this judgment scene is the barque of Sokar and the emblem of Nefertum. Above the door way is a four headed ram symbolizing the four winds.

here also are found, as they also are in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, chapels dedicated to both Imhotep and Amenophis son of Hapu, two of the most famous deified architects of ancient Egypt.  The remains of several small votive chapels stand around the enclosure's north wall. Also, there is a tiny birth house that leaned against the southern external wall.

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The Temple shows the continued sanctity of this sacred site long after its associated dwellings were deserted. Eventually, the complex was transformed into a Coptic monastery from which the site's present name, Deir el Medina, meaning "Monastery of the Town, is derived.

Ptolemaic Temples Seton-Williams
Gods of Ancient Egypt Barbara Watterson
Book of the Dead R Faulkner
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses George Hart

Right: Bronze Statue of Aphrodite

While the temple is now almost completely destroyed, there remains sufficient foundation and other evidence that we may examine the layout of the temple in some detail. The temple was probably approached from an avenue that led to the southern section of the temple. The temple itself was surrounded by a mudbrick and local sandstone wall.  This wall, with an outer coating of thick, while plaster, incorporated bases that probably held a series of sphinxes. The western part of the wall was slightly curved, and three lower walls that branched off to the west may have acted as the base for statues of deities.

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Entrance was made through what was probably a massive temple gate with thick mudbrick walls set on a foundation of  local sandstone blocks. The entrance path through the gate measures some ten feet across.

Public worshipers must have had to walk up a short set of steps in order to enter a long, rectangular hall just in front of the inner sanctuary. The inner sanctuary itself has three chapels that archaeologists have designed A, B and C. Chapel B is the largest of the three, and was probably dedicated to Hercules, who the Greeks called Herakles (also known by the Egyptian name, Hry shef). To the Egyptians during the Roman period, Hercules (his Roman name) was a symbol of power and a protector during times of war.

Chapel B, which lies between Chapels A and C, was probably enclosed by a wooden door, as evidenced by square sockets at its entrance, and was covered with a thicker coasting of white plaster then the other chapels. To either side of the doorway were two tall blocks that framed the entrance, and below them were found sandstone stelae with Greek inscriptions  Within this chapel, the ceiling was probably vaulted. Remains of carved, bas-relief legs and feet of an emperor, probably belonging to Octavian Augustus, can still be seen. Facing him are two sets of carved legs painted dark red that we believe originally depicted Hercules, and perhaps an Egyptian deity. 

The other two chapels, with Chapel C being the smallest, had flat ceilings and were somewhat obviously built with less care then Chapel B. Chapel A may have contained an oven used to prepare offerings. 

Sometime after the initial construction of the temple was completed, it appears that several additional rooms were added to the complex. These included a rectangular chamber next to the west wall, with a smaller inner room that may have been used to provide the temple with water. East of the temple, a completely separate structure that was fronted by two mudbrick columns covered with plaster may have been the residence of the chief priest.

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Ground Plan of the Temple of Hercules

Considerable excavation at this site will probably take place in the future, and is expected to reveal considerable information about the interaction between the Egyptian, Greek and Roman religions and rulers during this period of history.

The largest and best preserved temple in the Kharga Oasis is the Temple of Hibis, probably because it was buried in sand until the excavators dug it out early during the twentieth century. In fact, it is one of the finest temples anywhere in Egypt from the Persian period. Hibis, from the Egyptian Hebet, meaning "the plough", is located just over two kilometers north of the modern city of Kharga. The town associated with the temple, known as the Town of the Plough, was in ancient times the garrisoned (known as the fortress of Qasr el-Ghuieta) capital of the Oasis, easily covering a square kilometer. It lay in the valley between the foothills of Gebels al-Teir and Nadura. We know very little about the ancient town, though early excavations did unearth a few houses with vaulted ceilings and fresco paintings.

This temple, which was excavated and restored by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this century, has suffered from a locally rising water table. It has recently been repaired by the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and was scheduled for removal to another site due to problems with ground water. However, recently Zahi Hawass has decided that the temple can be restored in-situ. The temple has also recently been the object of a five-year epigraphic survey carried out by an American team led by Eugene Cruze-Uribe.

The temple of Amun at Hibbis is approached through a series of gateways

The temple is dedicated to the Theban triad, consisting of the gods, Amun, Mut and Khonsu, who's reliefs are in very good condition.

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Floor plan of the Hibis Temple in the Kharga Oasis

The temple as well as the fortress it was built within, dominates the desert road from the south by sitting on a volcanic outcropping. During ancient times, the temple  was surrounded by a lake that has now disappeared.  The temple was begun by Apries in 588 BC, during the 26th Dynasty, so the foundation may date somewhat earlier. It was completed by the Persian, Darius I in 522 BC. Later, Nectanebo II built the colonnade, and other additions were made during the Ptolemaic period. During the fourth century, a church was also added along the north side of the portico. 

There are many aspects of the temple's plan, construction and decorations that are unusual. The temple was built from the speckled local limestone in an east/west orientation.  A sphinx-lined approach leads through a series of gateways beginning with one built by the Romans. Inscriptions on this gate contributed greatly to our understanding of Roman Rule. Created in 69 AD, they provide information on various topics, including taxation, the court system, inheritance and the rights of women. 

Nectanebo I and II surrounded the temple with a stone enclosure wall which, at the front enclosed a monumental kiosk with eight columns. Because of the excessively wide span of 7.4 meters, the kiosk had to be roofed with wooden rafters. The composite capitals in the kiosk and hypostyle hall are the earliest known in Egypt. In front of the kiosk are two obelisks at the end of the avenue of sphinxes. 

In the front of the temple is an early form of pronaos with four smoothed papyrus columns and screen walls. Beyond the pronaos lies the hypostyle hall covered with decorations dating to Ptolemy III and IV. On the south door jamb of the hypostyle all, the top register has the king making offerings to Amun-Re. The middle register depicts the king offering wine to Mut, and in the bottom register the king makes an offering, perhaps of Ma'at, to Amun-Re. On the north jab, the king offers wine to Amun of Perwesekh (the ancient name of Ghuieta).

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After the hypostyle hall is an offering room with a sanctuary. On the north interior wall of the sanctuary are the figures of the god Khonsu (falcon headed with moon crown) and Amun-Re-Min. The make up part of a scene depicting the king making offerings to the triads. The north and south wall of the sanctuary are the only areas in the temple that have plaster and paint decorations. The remainder of the temple has "simple" raised or sunk bas relief with painted stone. 

There is also a chapel of the deified king and side rooms with stairs that lead to the roof. The roof contains areas dedicated to Osiris, with some scenes depicting the burial of the god, a feature that was not uncommon in the Graeco-Roman temples. 

Many of the temples representations are distinctive, not only for their rather bold style but also for a number of themes such as the catalogue of deities represented in the sanctuary. In the hypostyle hall a winged, blue figure of Seth with a falcon head, who is overcoming the serpent Apaphis with his spear, has been regarded by some art historians as a precursor of the motif of St. George and the dragon. 

Graffiti found in the hypostyle hall includes the names of several nineteenth century Eurpean travelers, including Cailliaud, who claims to have discovered the temple, Drovetti, Rosingana, Houghton, Hyde, Schweinfurth and Rohlfs. 

In front of the temple are found Greek and Roman tombs.

Across the river from Silsila is the Speos of Horemheb. This is a rock-hewn chapel with five openings formed by four pillars. A ramp of steps once accessed the chapel from the river.  Inside there is a vaulted hall that leads to the sanctuary.  In the sanctuary are seven statues, including that of Amun (in the center) and the Pharaoh Horemheb.  The southwest wall has a scene of Horemheb being suckled by the goddess Taweret, represented as a hippopotamus.  She is the god of the Nile, and was worshipped here perhaps more than anywhere else, as this part of the Nile was thought by the Egyptians to be its origin.  The decorations were finished by Ramses II.

South of the Speos is a stelae with inscriptions about offerings from Ramses III, Ramses V and Shoshenq I to the gods of Thebes, Heliopolis and Memphis.  There are small chapels beyond which are actually tombs commemorating the Nile.

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Idfu was the Greek city of Apollinopolis Magna, and is a religious and commercial center. Located about 33 miles south of Isna and 65 miles north of Aswan, this is a friendly town which produces surgar and pottery. It is also a hub of a road network.  It was the capital of the second nome (Horus) of Upper Egypt. The main attraction here is the Temple of Horus, which is considered by most to be the best preserved cult temple in Egypt, but there is a mound of rubble to the west of the Temple which is probably the original old city of Djeba.  The town was known as Tbot by the early Egyptians, by the Greeks as Apollinopolis Magna and by Atbo during Coptic times. It was the capital of the second nome (Horus) of Upper Egypt.French and Polish teams have excavated some of the ancient city, finding Old Kingdom mastabas and Byzantine house.

Thoth Hill is the site of two temples, an archaic temple that may date to around 3,000 BC and would be the oldest temple built on the West Bank at Luxor, and built upon it, a later temple built by an 11th DynastySankhkare Mentuhotep.  pharaoh known as

This site became known to modern explorers relatively late. The ruins were only discovered in 1904 by George Sweinfurth. It was later examined by Petrie in 1909, but not very thoroughly and only for a few days. Not until a Hungarian expedition led by Gyozo Voros for Eotvos Lorand University between 1995 and 1998 was the site systematically investigated. The older temple was unknown until this expedition's work. The newer temple was investigated first, during the seasons 1995-1996 and the older temple during the season of 1996-1997.

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The area is somewhat difficult to reach. The hill is surrounded by desert ravines and the ancient route leading up to the temple is difficult to ascend. 

The Archaic Temple

Beneath the Middle Kingdom structure of Sankhkare Mentuhotep, the oldest known temple in the Theban region was only recently discovered. Made of stone, it was very small and had a similar plant to the later temple built upon it, though it probably only had a single chambered sanctuary. Interestingly, the older temple appears to have had a pylon entrance, just as the newer temple. However, considering the age of this temple, this would be most unusual. Also like the later temple the earlier site was surrounded by an enclosure wall, and had a free standing inner sanctuary, though the older temple has only a single room within the sanctuary while the newer temple had three.

This older temple was slightly offset in its axial alignment (by about 2 degrees towards the south). It was built upon an artificial terrace, as was the newer temple. Egyptologists believe that the older temple was oriented towards the helical rising of Sirus, and have determined that the older temple's orientation would have been correct in about 3000 BC, at the very beginning of Egypt's dynastic period. The star Sirius was worshipped as the god Horus, and apparently because the later temple was probably dedicated to Horus, Egyptologists believe the older structure was as well. 

The Horus Temple of Sankhkare Mentuhotep

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The 11th Dynasty temple is made of  mudbrick and consisted of an entry pylon and walls surrounding a free standing inner sanctuary with three rooms at the rear (northwest). The floors of the newer temple were covered in plaster. This temple was more closely aligned with the modern helical rising of Sirus. Found among the ruins were foundation deposits and fragments of the foundation text and dedicatory inscriptions form the fine limestone door jambs. The dedication reads:

"Horus Sankh-towi-ef [Who Causes his Two Lands to Live], 
He of the Two Goddesses 'Who Causes his Two Lands to Live,' 
The Peaceful Golden Horus, 
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt Sankh-ka-Ra [Who Causes the Soul of Re to Live], 
Son of Re Montuhotep [The Peaceful Montu], 
Living Eternally. 
He made this as his monument to Horus, 
may he make to him given-life, 
like Re eternally." 

The foundation deposits were located at each of the complex's four corners. Within the foundation deposits were terra-cotta animal figurines, portions of animal sacrifices, alabaster vessels and shallow offering saucers. There were also parts of a lintel, decorated with a winged sun-disk and inscribed with hieratic graffiti that indicate the older temple may have been badly damaged by an earthquake before the end of the 11th Dynasty.

Artifacts

Restoration work has also apparently been completed on the artifacts found at Thoth Hill, including ceramics recovered form the new temple and pottery from the older stone temple. Items from the older temple included cylindrical jars and rectangular basins also thought to be of archaic date. The fragmentary baboons that provided the site with its name were also restored and are believed to date from the 11th Dynasty.

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Kalabsha Temple

Kalabsha Temple originally built at Kalabsha (Talmis) was moved to its present location at New Kalabsha (Chellal) in 1970, together with other monuments from Nubia, including the Kiosk of Qertassi (Kertassi). Also nearby is Beit al-Wali. Reachable by taxi or by boat, depending on the water level, the sandstone edifice was built by the Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus (30 to 14 BC) and dedicated to the fertility and Nubian Solar deity known as Mandulis (Merwel who was the Nubian counterpart of Horus).

It was the largest free-standing temple of Egyptian Nubia and the design of Kalabsha Temple is classical for the Ptolemaic period with pylons, courtyard, hypostyle hall and three room sanctuary. However, the Pylon is offset, which creates a trapezoid in the courtyard beyond. It was built on the site of an earlier structure built by Ptolemy IX as evidenced by a chapel. There is also a small chapel and gate on Elephantine Island from Kalabsha, and a gate built by Augustus was given to the Agyptisches Museum in West Berlin.

The courtyard just inside the pylon once had columns on three sides. At either end is a staircase that leads to the upper stories of the pylon and a good view of Lake Nassar. On the right screened wall separating the courtyard from the hypostyle hall is an inscription from Aurelius Besarion (about 249 AD), the governor of Ombos and Elephantine, decreeing the expulsion of swine from the town for religious purposes. On a column here is the text of King Kharamadoye and is one of the longest Meroitic inscriptions found to date. On an end wall is thought to be an inscription of the 5th century Nubian King, Silko, who conquered the fierce Nubian Blemmyes. Other seances on the on the screen walls include the King with Horus and Thoth. On the rear of the vestibule are scenes depicting a Ptolemaic king making offerings to Isis and Mandulis. Also, Amenhotep II, who founded the original temple (1450 to 1425 BC) upon which this one is built, is making offers of wine to Min and Mandulis.

After the vestibule are three chambers, the pronaos (a chamber preceding the sanctuary, the naos, or sanctuary where statues of gods were located, and the adyton, which is the innermost or secrete shrine). Various seances within these chambers show the King surrounded by the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt, Amun-Min and Ptah while receiving holy water from Thoth and Horus. In the naos and adyton, the king is making offerings to Osiris, Isis and Mandulis.

There is also a small chapel which can be reached from stairs in the first chamber which then descend from the roof into the chapel set inside the wall. As you leave the temple, be sure to note the rear wall with images of Mandulis with his vulture feathered cloak.

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The ancient Egyptians considered Ipet-Isut as the place of the majestic rising of the first time, where Amun-Ra made the first mound of earth rise from Nun. At Karnak, the high priests recognized a king as the beloved son of Amun, king of all the gods. The coronation and jubilees were also held here. Staffed by more than 80,000 people under Ramesses III, the temple was also the administrative center of enormous holdings of agricultural land.

The largest and most important group in the site is the central enclosure, the Great Temple of Amun proper. The layout of the Great Temple consists of a series of pylons of various dates. The earliest are Pylons IV and V, built by Tutmosis I, and from then on the temple was enlarged by building in a westerly and southerly direction. Courts or halls run between the pylons, leading to the main sanctuary.

The temple is built along two axes, with a number of smaller temples and chapels and a sacred lake. The northern enclosure belongs to Montu, the original god of the Theban area, while the enclosure of Mut lies to the south and is connected with Amun�s precinct by an alley of ram-headed sphinxes. An avenue bordered by sphinxes linked Karnak with the Luxor temple, and canals connected the temples of Amun and Montu with the Nile.

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Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten, erected several temples for his new state deity to the east of the central enclosure of Amun. The most conspicuous features of these temples were open courts surrounded by pillars and colossal statues of the king. The temples were dismantled in the post-Amarna period and the stone blocks reused in later structures, especially the pylons built by Horemheb.

The Precinct of Montu

The square northern enclosure is the smallest of the three precincts and its monuments are poorly preserved. It contains the main temple of Montu, several smaller structures, particularly the temples of Harpre and Ma�at, and a sacred lake. A structure thought to be a treasury built by Tutmosis I was discovered outside the east enclosure wall.

The Montu precinct is the most significant architectural complex north of the Amun-Ra temple. It was first built by Amenhotep III, on a podium, its masonry including blocks belonging to discarded monuments from Amenhotep I, Hatshepsut-Tutmosis III, Amenhotep II and Tutmosis IV. It includes other monuments besides the Montu temple.

Amenhotep III, the founder of the main Montu temple, built an enclosure wall around the Montu precinct. In its current state, the Montu precinct also includes several other temples and structures. The temple of Ma�at, the only one extant to this deity, leans on the rear side of the Montu temple. Largely destroyed now, it still preserves inscriptions of some of the viziers of Ramesses III and XI. A previous Ma�at temple apparently existed in this area, indicated by reliefs and stelae belonging to the reign of Amenhotep III. The trials of the accused tomb robbers were held in this temple.

The precinct also includes a temple of Harpre. The temple of Harpre is built along the east side of the Montu temple. The oldest part, the sanctuary on the south side, may date back to the 21^st dynasty. Nepherites and Hakor of the 29th Dynasty built a hypostyle hall with Hathor capitals. A geographical procession formed part of the decoration of the hypostyle hall. An open court and a pylon were added to the north fa�ade during the 30^th dynasty. A subsidiary building in front of the pylon is known as the eastern secondary temple, and may be related to the cult of the bull of Montu.

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The sacred lake on the west side may have been dug by Amenhotep III and restored by Montuemhat, who has a biographical inscription in the Mut temple. A "high temple" was erected by Nectanebo II as a storehouse for the offerings.

Lastly, six doors in the south wall of the Montu precinct lead to six chapels dedicated by Divine Votaresses of Amun to different forms of Osiris. The chapels are of Nitoqret, Amenirdis, an unattributed one, Karomama, and one from the reign of Taharka.

A dromos leading to a quay on a canal, which is no longer extant, completes the complex. The dromos is a stone-paved road leading from the gate of the precinct to a quay on a canal north of the site. The quay may be dated to the reign of Psamtik I. Two statues of Amenhotep III have been found broken and buried under a chapel in the middle of the temple dromos.

A copy of the "Restoration Stela" of Tutankhamun was erected here, as was a stela of Seti I, inscriptions of Ramesses II, Merenptah, Amenmesses, and Pinedjem. The eastern part of the temple collapsed at the end of the New Kingdom, and reconstruction was probably undertook by Taharka, who also built a great portico on the main fa�ade. This was dismantled and rebuilt by the first Ptolemies.

Outside the temple precinct, a limestone gate of Hathshepsut and Tutmosisi III was usurped by Amenhotep II and completed by Seti I. Only two brick walls of the chapel dedicated to Osiris, by Taharka, where a statue of the goddess Taweret was found by Mariette. Farther west, a door of Ptolemy IV marks the entrance to a small temple of Thoth, now in ruins. In the northwest, a columned building consecrated by Nitoqret to the Theban triad has suffered. To the east of the Montu precinct, the remains of a building known as a treasury, built by Tutmosis I, have been excavated. It consisted of a barque station of Amun, storerooms and workshops. This treasury may be the oldest building on the site.

The oldest remains on the site of North Karnak date back to the end of the Middle Kingdom and belong to urban settlements, with mud-brick houses, granaries and workshops.

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All these buildings are dedicated to Amun-Ra of Thebes, even if rare mentions of Montu have been found, mainly epithets describing various kings as beloved of Montu. The dedicatory inscription of the main temple attributes the sanctuary to Amun-Ra, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, Pre-eminent in Ipet-Sut., and this inscription is confirmed by various minor monuments such as the obelisks, the two quartzite statues of Amenhotep III and other statues.

The first dedicatory inscription to Montu appears on the stela erected by Seti I in the court of the temple. From the reign of Taharka we have a comprehensive documentation in the decoration of the portico, stating that Montu, Lord of Thebes, is the main god of the temple. Scenes on the Ptolemaic gate of the precinct confirm this rank for Montu.

Precinct of Mut

The southern part of Karnak contains the temple of Mut, on the east bank of the Nile, more than 900 feet south of the temple of Amun-Ra. It is surrounded by a crescent shaped sacred lake called Isheru, and subsidiary structures, especially the temple of Khons-pekhrod, originally of the 18^th Dynasty, and a temple of Ramesses III.

During the New Kingdom, Mut, Amun and Khonsu their son became the pre-eminent divine family triad of Thebes. The earliest reference to Mut, Mistress of Isheru, occurs on a statue of the 17^th Dynasty. Inscriptional evidence also links the site to Mut in the early 18^th Dynasty reign of Amenhotep I. The earliest, securely dated Mut Temple remains are no later than the reigns of Tutmosis III and Hatshepsut.

The temple of Mut was built by Amenhotep III, but here too the propylon in the enclosure wall is Ptolemaic, Ptolemy II Philadelphus and III Euergetes I, and there are later additions to the temple by Taharqa and Nectanebo I among others. Hundreds of statues of the goddess Sekhmet inscribed for Amenhotep III are in museums, but some are still on site, perhaps moved from the king�s mortuary temple on the West Bank.

Recent excavations indicate that much, and possibly all, of the present precinct was village settlement, until some time in the Second Intermediate Period.

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Under Hatshepsut and Tutmosis III, the precinct seems to have consisted of the Mut Temple and the sacred lake and to have extended no further north than the temple�s first pylon. Parts of the west and north walls of these precinct have been uncovered, including a gate bearing Tutmosis III�s name and a Seti I restoration inscription. The eastern and southern boundaries of this precinct are as yet undefined.

The Mut Temple was enlarged later in the 18^th Dynasty, when the Tutmoside building was completely enclosed by new construction, probably by Amenhotep III. The Mut temple�s present second pylon, of mud-brick, dates no later than the 19^th Dynasty, and may have replaced an earlier precinct or temple wall. Its eastern half was built of stone late in the Ptolemaic period. The temple�s first pylon, also of mud-brick, has a stone gateway built no later than the 19^th Dynasty, and displays at least one major repair. This pylon may also replace an earlier northern precinct wall. Also in the 19^th Dynasty, Ramesses II rebuilt Temple A, which lay outside the precinct and which was already enlarged by Amenhotep III. In front of Temple A, Ramesses II erected two colossal statues, at least one usurped from Amenhotep III, and and two alabaster stelae recarved from parts of a shrine of Amenhotep II. One stelae indicates that Temple A was at that time dedicated to Amun.

Temple A was more extensively renovated during the 25^th Dynasty, during which time it functioned at least in part as a birthhouse, celebrating the birth of Amun and Mut�s divine child, with whom the king was identified. A significant part of the Mut Temple was also rebuilt.

In the 25^th and 26^th Dynasties a proliferation of small chapels began. These include at least two dedicated by Montuemhat, an official in the reign of Taharka, a magical healing chapel dedicated by Horwedja, Great Seer of Heliopolis, a chapel related to Divine Votaresses, a small Ptolemy VI chapel, and Chapel D dedicated to Mut and Sekhmet, built by Ptolemies VI and VIII.

The massive enclosure walls built by Nectanebo II of the 30^th Dynasty give the precinct its current shape and size, incorporating Temple C and a large area south of the sacred lake as-yet unexplored.

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Karnak, Temple of Amun-Ra

Pylon I, the entrance to the temple complex, is preceded by a quay, probably reconstructed during the 25^th Dynasty and an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, most of which bear the name of the high priest of Amun, Pnudjem of the 21^st Dynasty. This pylon, which is unfinished, was probably built in the 30^th Dynasty by Nectanebo I, though an earlier pylon may have stood here. South of the avenue are several smaller structures, including a barque shrine of Psammuthis and Hakoris, and parapets of the 25-26^th Dynasties.

The court which opens behind this pylon contains a triple barque shrine of Seti II made of granite and sandstone, consisting of three contiguous chapels dedicated to Amun, Mut and Khonsu. In the center of the forecourt there are remains of a colonnaded entrance of Taharqa, one of the columns of which has been re-erected. A small temple or barque station, of Ramesses III faces into the forecourt from the south. This temple was a miniature version of the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu.

The doorway on the north side of this court leads to an open-air museum, where a number of small monuments have been reconstructed, including the limestone barque chapel of Senusret I and Hatshepsut’s Chapelle Rouge.

Pylon II, probably a work of Horemheb, is preceded by two colossal statues of Ramesses II. Only the feet of one remains. A third statue of the king includes Princess Bentanta standing between his feet. Behind the pylon, the now lost roof of the Great Hypostyle Hall, the most impressive part of the whole temple complex, was borne by 134 papyrus columns. The relief decoration of the hypostyle hall is the work of Seti I and Ramesses II. The exterior walls depict military campaigns of these kings in Palestine and Syria, including the Qadesh battle against the Hittites.

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Pylon III was built by Amenhotep III, but the porch in front of it was decorated by Seti I, and Ramesses II. Numerous blocks from earlier buildings were found reused in the pylon: a sed-festival waystation of Senwosret I, the White Chapel, shrines of Amenhotep I and II, Hatshepsut, the Red Chapel, and Tutmosis IV, and a pillared portico of the same king. The four obelisks which stood behind the pylon were erected by Tutmosis I and III to mark the entrance to the original temple, but only one obelisk of Tutmosis I is still standing

Pylons IV and V, both built by Tutmosis I, and the narrow once-pillared area between them, are the earliest parts of the temple. Two obelisks of Hatshepsut made of red quartzite can be seen here, one still standing.

Further east is the Festival Temple of Tutmosis III. One room in this temple is known as the "Botanical Garden", because of its representation of exotic plants, birds, and animals., It may have contained the core sanctuary of the temple.

In the 20^th Dynasty, Ramesses III built a triple barque shrine in the western court and undertook the construction of the temple of Khonsu.

Taharka in the 25^th Dynasty built the large sacred lake with a temple, the lake edifice, at its north-west corner. He also built columned pavilions leading to the eastern and western entrances of the temple and in front of the temple of Khonsu. The small pylon of the temple of Opet was also begun during the 25^th Dynasty.

The large gate of Ptolemy III Euergetes was built in front of the temple of Khonsu and at the back of the Opet temple. Extensive repairs were made to the bases of walls damaged where ground water had risen. Repairs were also made to the Hypostyle hall walls, and the eastern and western gateways were entirely redone

The court north of Pylon VII is known as the Cachette Court: Here a deposit of thousands of statues which originally stood in the temple was found in 1903.

Near the northwest corner of the temple�s sacred lake is a colossal statue of the sacred scarab beetle on a tall plinth, dating to Amenhotep III.

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The temple of Khonsu stands in the southwest corner of the enclosure. Its propylon in the main enclosure wall, built by Ptolemy III Euergetes I, is approached from the south by an avenue of ram-sphinxes protecting Amenhotep III. The pylon was decorated by Pnudjem I , the forecourt by Herihor, an the inner part by various Ramessids. There is also some Ptolemaic relief work.

Nearly 20 other smaller chapels and temples are within the precinct of Amun-Ra, including one of Ptah built by Tutmosis III, Shabaka, several Ptolemies and Tiberius. A good example of these small temples is that of Osiris Hek-Djet.

The Akhenaten temples

Akhnenaten was second son and successor to Amenhotep III. He spent the first five years of his reign in Thebes, and he favored the sun shrine characteristic of the Heliopolitan center of solar worship, which featured open courts on a central axis. Smaller stones were used which a single man could carry. Tens of thousands of these in the best sandstone were quarried at Gebel el-Silsila, about 100 km south of Thebes.

These small blocks were recycled later as the sun temples were reduced, and used as fill or foundation in walls and pylons of the 19^th Dynasty. Some have been found in Horemheb�s Pylons II and IX at the Amun temple at Karnak, as foundation blocks beneath the hypostyle hall of the Amun temple, and in Ramesses II�s pylon and outbuildings in the Luxor temple. Some survived to be used as late as the reign of Nectanebo I, and some turned up at Medamud in Ptolemaic period constructions.

Akhenaten erected four major structures at Karnak during the first five years of his reign. The major building was called "the Sun-disk is Found", built in anticipation of the jubilee; then there were the "Exalted are the monuments of the Sun-disc", and "Sturdy are the movements of the Sundisk." The smallest of the four was the Hwt-bnbn, "Mansion of the benben stone". A Hwt-itn, "Mansion of the Sun-disk", mentioned in tombs on the west bank, has not as yet turned up in the scenes on these blocks.

Only one of the four structures has been located and partly excavated. The main Aten temple was built to the east of Karnak. From the center of its western side ran a columned corridor 12 feet wide that led west to connect with the 18^th Dynasty royal palace which lay just north of Pylons IV, V and VI of the Amun temple. There were probably life-size statues made of red quartzite representing the king, arms crossed, though other statues may have included the queen as well. Reliefs show the king with one arm outstretched and being caressed by the rays of the sun-disc.

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In the Aten temple, the consistent theme was the celebration of the jubilee, or heb-sed. Scenes in the entrance corridor coming from the palace show the approach of the royal party, courtiers kissing the earth, men dragging bulls, etc. Turning right along the west wall, to the southwest corner and then east along the south wall, are reliefs depicting the ritual of the "days of the White Crown," when the king made offerings dressed as the monarch of Upper Egypt. It is presumed that similar scenes were depicted showing the King in the same ritual for the Red Crown and Lower Egypt.

The Hwt-bnbn, though to-date not found, is reconstructed in the scenes on the blocks featuring tall graceful pylons and walls. But the identity of the celebrant of the offering to the sun-disc is not Akhenaten, but instead, his wife Nefertiti.

The relief decorations of the two temples called "Exalted are the monuments of the Sun-disc," and "Sturdy are the movements of the Sundisk," both structures also as-yet undiscovered, show domestic apartments, rewarding of officers, and other scenes from domestic life.

After the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten moved from Thebes to Amarna, the new city he had built, and work on Karnak ceased. The name of Amun was obliterated throughout Karnak and the Theban area.

Sources:

• Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt ed by Katharine Bard
• Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt by Richard Wilkinson
• The Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt by John Baines and Jaromir Malek

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Esna is located about fifty kilometers south of Luxor. The temple now stands in the middle of the modern town at a level about nine meters below that of the surrounding grounds. However, texts mentions that it was built on the site of a temple that may have been constructed as early as the reign of Tuthmosis III. Some blocks of the earlier 18th Dynasty structure are preserved. The present structure dates to the Greek and Roman periods and is one of the latest temples to have been built by the ancient Egyptians. 

Though only the hypostyle hall was excavated by Auguste Mariette, it is well preserved. Other remains of the temple lie buried beneath the surrounding buildings of the modern town.  The back wall of the hypostyle hall is the oldest part of this construct, having been the facade of the old Ptolemaic (Greek) temple. It has depictions of both Ptolemy VI Philometer and VIII. The remainder of the building was built by the Romans (Claudius through Decius) and some of its decorations date as to as late as the third century AD.

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Offerings being made in the Temple of Khnum at Esna (Isna)

The roof of the hall, which is still intact, is supported by four rows of six tall (twelve meters high) columns with composite floral capitals of varying design that retain some of their original painted color. They are adorned with texts describing the religious festivals of the town and several Roman emperors before the gods. One of the columns shows the Emperor Trajan dancing before the goddess Menheyet. The facade of the hall is in the form of an intercolumnar screen wall similar to those of the temples at Dendera and Edfu. This structure, prior to its ruin, may have resembled those temples. The whole, remaining structure at Esna is extremely regular in design and symmetrical except for a small engaged chamber on the southern side of the entrance, perhaps serving as a robe room for priests. This feature is also found at Edfu. The facade of this structure measures some forty meters wide by seventeen meters high. 

The decorations and inscriptions in the Temple of Khnum are frequently well executed and some are of special interest. There is a scene depicting the king netting wild fowl, said to represent inimical spirits, on the north wall that continues very ancient Egyptian themes. However, other depictions such as the king offering a laurel wreath to the gods, represented on a column at the rear of the hall, are decidedly new motifs. Decoration of the south wall was carved for Septimus Servus and his sons, Geta and Caracalla, depicting them before several divinities. The ceiling of the hypostyle shows Egyptian astronomical figures on the northern half and Roman signs of the zodiac on the southern half.

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There is also interesting text within the temple, including a pair of cyptographic hymns to Khnum, one written almost entirely with hieroglyphs of rams and other other written with crocodiles. These are located inside the front corners of the hypostyle hall, next to the small doors used by the priests to enter and exit the temple. Other texts records four smaller temples in the region that probably had cultic connections with this temple, though none of these have survived . One of the smaller temples, dedicated to Isis and built by Ptolemy IX Soter II and Cleopatra Cocce on the East Bank of the Nile near el-Hilla (Contralatopolis), was recorded during Napoleon's expedition. It fell victim to the construction of an administrative building in 1828. Another temple mentioned in this text has been excavated at Kom Mer, south of Esna. 

In the courtyard in front of the temple there is a statue of the goddess Menheyet or Menhyt who was a little known lion-headed goddess named as the consort of Khnum at Esna. Here, there are also blocks from an early Christian church. There is also an inscription found on the back of a block from Emperor Decius decreeing that Christians will suffer death if they do not sacrifice to the pagan gods.

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Originally, the temple was linked by a ceremonial way to the Nile, where its ancient quay, adorned with the cartouches of Marcus Aurelius, is still discernable.

Several examples of column capitals in the Temple of Khnum at Esna

Location: 

Kom Ombo, Egypt

How to get there:

From outside Egypt
International flights to Cairo, or via Cairo and Luxor to Aswan and Abu Simbel. Contact your travel agent for details.

From Cairo
By air: egyptair@idsc.gov.eg Tel: +20-2-5750600 (Cairo)

ZAS:
Tel: +20-2-2918030 (Novotel, Cairo)

By rail
Wagons-lits and other trains depart from Ramses Station. For air-conditioned express trains with a restaurant car, contact Wagons-Iits. Tel: +20-2-3492365.

Overland by bus or service taxi from the Ahmed Helmi terminal, near Ramses Station.
Tel: +20-2-3646658.

Cruises down the Nile, with accommodation en route, can be arranged through your travel agent.

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Description

Located in the town of Kom-Ombo, about 28 miles north of Aswan, the Temple, dating to the Ptolemies, is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile. The actual temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor in the early second century BC.  Ptolemy XIII built the outer and inner hypostyle halls. The outer enclosure wall and part of the court were built by Augustus sometime after 30 BC, and are mostly gone.  There are also tombs from the Old Kingdom in the vicinity of Kom-Ombo village.

The Temple known as Kom Ombo is actually two temples consisting of a Temple to Sobek and a Temple of Haroeris.  In ancient times, sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank near here. The Temple has scant remains, due first to the changing Nile, then the Copts who once used it as a church, and finally by builders who used the stones for new buildings.

Everything is duplicated along the main axis.  There are two entrances, two courts, two colonades, two hypostyle halls and two sanctuaries.  There were probably even two sets of priests. The left, or northern side is dedicated to Haroeris (sometimes called Harer, Horus the Elder) who was the falcon headed sky god and the right to Sobek (the corcodile headed god).  The two gods are accompanied by their families.  They include Haroeris'  wife named Tesentnefert, meaning the good sister and his son, Panebtawy.  Sobeck likewise is accompanied by his consort, Hathor and son, Khonsu.

Foundations are all that are left of the original Pylon.  Beyond the Pylon, there was once a staircase in the court that lead to a roof terrace.  The court has a columned portico and central altar.  There is a scene of the King leaving his palace escorted by standards. Near the sanctuary is a purification scene.  On either side of the door to the pronaos are columns inscribed with icons of the lotus (south) and papyrus (north), symbolizing the 'two lands' of Egypt.

In the southwest corner of the pronaos is the one column that does not echo the duality of the temples.  Here, there are scenes depicting purification of the King, his coronation and his consecration of the Temple.  The ceiling has astronomical images.

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The hypostyle hall has papyrus capitals on the columns. Here, there is an inventory of the scared places of Egypt, the gods of the main towns and the local and national festivals.

In the anti chamber, there are scenes depicting the goddess Seshat launching the building of the temple, followed by a scene of the completed temple with the king throwing natron in a purification ceremony. The staircase leading to the roof is all that remains of the offering hall.

Statues to the gods and the builders of the temple once occupied the net room just before the sanctuaries. The ceiling of the pure place to the north still remains with an image of Nut. There is little left of the sanctuaries.

Kom Ombo and the Temple of Sobek and Haroeris

by Mark Andrews

The Kom Ombo basin has significance in the Nile Valley archaeology of the Late (Upper) Paleolithic (c. 15,000-12,000 BC). In the 1920s, Edmun Vignard identified and excavated prehistoric sites having a stone working industry he named Sebilian. Vignard's work has been revised by that of P. E. L. Smith and Fekri Hassan, who have also identified two other industries in the region, Silsillian and Sebekian, which appear to have coexisted with the Sebilian.

Little is known of the town during the Dynastic Period, and there has actually been little excavation of the ancient site beyond the clearance of the temple. Changes in agricultural techniques brought the city to prominence in the Ptolemaic Period, to which almost all the visible monuments date. An 18th Dynasty gateway was, however, seen by Champollion in the south enclosure wall, and scattered New Kingdom blocks have been found on the site. Hence, there is believed to have been a New Kingdom predecessor to the Greek and Roman structure. However, part of the temple forecourt has been eroded by the river, which may also have carried off other features (though modern control of the river has checked the threat of further damage). The mound behind the enclosure contains shards of the First Intermediate Period, showing that the site is far more ancient than the sacred enclosure, which is all that has been explored.

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In later times, Kom Ombo was situated at the terminus of two caravan routes, one running westward through the Kurkur Oasis to Tomas in Nubia, while the other ran from Daraw through the Eastern Desert, regaining the Nile at Berber. Those routes were regularly used during early modern times, although how old they are is uncertain.

The earliest king named in the temple at Kom Ombo is Ptolemy VI Philometor, though most of the decoration was completed by Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos. In the early Roman Period the forecourt was decorated and the outer corridor added.

The structure is built of local sandstone from Gebel el-Silsila. Apparently, troops stationed at Kom Ombo (it was a training ground for African elephants used by the army during the Ptolemaic Period) built much of the temple. The use of elephants was actually a Ptolemaic innovation, as was the use of camels in Egypt.

Plan of the Temple Complex at Kom Ombo

Although the layout of the temple is similar to that of Dendera or Edfu, it is somewhat smaller and has a very pleasing architectural elegance based on the careful planning of its architects. The temple is oriented east to west according to the "local north" determined by the river, and today the temple is entered through the remains of the Ptolemaic portal at the southwest of the precinct.

The main temple at Kom Ombo, originally cleared of debris by Jacques de Morgan in 1893, is dedicated to two triads of deities. One set consists of Sobek, Hathor and their child Khonsu, while the other consists of Haroeris (Harwer-equated with Apollo, or Horus the Elder), Tasenetnofret (the Perfect Companion) and their child Panebtawy (the Lord of the Two Lands). The last two have artificial names that express the goddess's function in such a group as a "consort," and the young god's to be kingly. Of course, the two most important gods were Sobek, whose part of the temple is on the south and Horus the Elder, whose part of the temple is on the north, to which the temple was dedicated equally. This was why the temple was called both "House of the Crocodile" and "Castle of the Falcon".

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Overall, the relief sculpture is typical of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, with very deeply carved sunken reliefs on the exterior walls and columns, and fine quality bas-relief on the interior walls. Much of the relief is covered with a very thin layer of plaster, and the original color survives in many places. The decorations of the inner rooms depict Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II, and Ptolemy VII with Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III.

The birth house, nearest to the river, has lost its western half, so little of it remains. However, the architects of Napoleon's expedition did find preserved the four Hathor columns and considerable parts of the walls of the birth house, with their splendid relief of Ptolemy VIII. The building measured 18 by 23 meters and was nine meters high. The plan was that of an ordinary temple with a room for visiting gods, an offering hall and a sanctuary that was laterally isolated. The platform commonly found at birth houses existed, but the equally typical ambulatory, which was included in the birth houses of Ptolemy VIII at Philae and Edfu, was apparently omitted. Therefore, it more closely resembled birth houses of the 30th Dynasty. The birth house abuts closely on the pylon of the main temple, perhaps because space was short in antiquity (the temple's rear is similarly cramped against the enclosure wall). Like elsewhere, the birth house is situated right of, and at a right angle to the main temple. It sits very near the gate of Ptolemy XII "Auletes", the "flute player".

The small Roman Period shrine of Hathor east of the courtyard long stored the mummies of sacred crocodiles from a nearby necropolis, as they are today in clay coffins. There is also a well west of the temple which is complex in design and, because of the temple's elevation above the river, very deep. Like other wells in temple enclosures, it allowed pure water, in theory from the primeval waters themselves, to be drawn within the sacred area, avoiding pollution from the outside world. Near the well is also a small pond where live crocodiles are believed to have been raised.

From the first hypostyle hall runs a corridor that encloses the entire inner part of the temple and contains a number of small chambers at the back. This is enclosed in turn by a second, three meter thick wall and corridor that take in the courtyard. Thus the double axis goes together with other dual features.

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The pylon entrance in the outer enclosure wall to the main temple had a double gateway, 14.5 meters wide and approximately 15.75 meters high, that is the first sign of a complex plan with an axis for each main gateway. This impressive structure could be climbed through a staircase in the west wall. However, all that is left of the great entrance pylon is the right hand part, where the Roman emperor Domitian can be seen with various gods rendering homage to the triad of Sobek, Hathor and Khonsu, together with a long text of 52 lines in hieroglyphics

The whole temple reflects its dual ownership, and even the Roman forecourt built by Augustus within the pylon was divided into equal shares for Sobek (east side) and Horus the Elder. In fact, an altar base is situated in the court's center with small basins, meant to receive libations, sunk into the ground at each side for the respective gods. The court was surrounded in the south, west and north by colonnades (sixteen total columns). The western colonnade was divided into two by the double gate. The north and south colonnades ended before reaching the hypostyle hall. The relief carvings on some of the surviving columns of the colonnade along the forecourt's sides are well preserved and many maintain their original coloring. Many depict images of the Roman emperor Tiberius.

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Beyond the forecourt, the facade of the hypostyle hall built by Ptolemy XII, with its intercolumnar screen walls and small side doors for use by the priests, is typical of its period. On either side of the doors, Ptolemy XII Neo Dionysos is shown purified by Horus, Thoth and Haroeris (in the part on the left) and by Horus, Thoth and Sobek on the right. The capitals of the columns within, arranged in two rows of five free standing columns, are often wrought with ingenious compound forms. As would be expected, the decoration of the hall and remaining parts of the temple is divided between the two gods, with scenes of Sobek on the east and Haroeris on the west. The ceiling is decorated with astronomical scenes, with the vulture, the symbol of Nekhbet and Wadjet. The column shafts are all carved with reliefs: above with a band of hieroglyphs with the symbol of life (ankh) and below with the pharaoh rendering homage to the various gods.  Some reliefs in the first hypostyle hall use the ancient technique of inlaying the eyes of the most important figures. The inlays, which must have given a special opulence and liveliness to the figure, are now lost, as they are on almost all ancient works that had this detail.

A second hypostyle hall beyond the first repeats its design on a smaller scale and again allows two separate processional paths towards the inner sanctuaries behind the three narrow transverse halls or vestibules. The staircases to the roof were located at either end of the second hall. Similar to the arrangement at Edfu, the northern staircase was right-angled, while the southern one was straight. The drainage system of the roof included lion-headed water spouts.

Beyond the second hypostyle hall, side rooms branched off to either side of the first broad room and probably served for the production of ointments and other offerings. In these broad chambers there are scenes illustrating the goddess Seshat launching the building of the temple. There is also a scene of the completed temple with the king throwing natron (carbonate salt used in mummifying) in a purification ceremony. These chambers were built by Ptolemy VI, Philometer. Also in these rooms is a calendar recording important festival dates.

The twin sanctuaries, like much of the temple's interior, are broken down but still contain the black granite pedestals which supported the sacred barques of the two gods. Because the pedestals left no room for wooden statue shrines, the statues must have been housed in the barques or in the chambers behind the bark shrines. The reduced condition of the sanctuary chambers reveals the secret chamber beneath them which was used by priests to overhear petitions or deliver oracles on behalf of the deities. In fact, much of the inner part of the temple is honeycombed with crypts, some on three levels, and hidden passages, and many of these can be explored by visitors to the temple.

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As at Dendera and Edfu, the sanctuary rooms are surrounded by smaller cult chapels (a total of ten), but unlike the other two sites, a small, internal hallway runs around the perimeter of the inner temple, between it and the outer wall of the building. The back wall of this area has six small rooms, three on either side of a stairwell leading to the roof, with varying degrees of decoration. The outer ambulatory which encircles this area, as at Edfu, is decorated with Roman period scenes of varying quality. Numerous reliefs in the inner corridor and its small rooms are unfinished, giving valuable insight into artists' methods during the Greco-Roman Period. Notably, among them, towards the left end of the rear wall, is the famous and controversial scene in which the king (Trajan) presents a group of ritual and/or surgical instruments. Some of these implements were certainly used in the practice of the cult, but other may very well be medically related. Furthermore, it is known that pilgrims came to Haroeris, Horus the Elder, who was also known as the healer, to be treated for their infirmities. They apparently waited on the god in the temple's hallways where game boards were scratched into the stones of the floor.

 The most striking feature of the rear part of the temple is the false door at the center of the back, outside wall of the sanctuary area, which is here modified and expanded in form to include a central niche flanked by hearing ears and seeing eyes and the figures of the two gods. Here we find Sobek, on the left, with a lion-headed scepter or baton, and Haroeris, on the right, with a strange human-legged knife. Between the two gods a double hymn extols them, and above the niche, along with the figure of Nut who holds up the sky, the figures of the four winds are represented by a lion, a falcon, a bull and a many-headed serpent. This oddly echoes the later Christian use of the ancient images of lion, eagle, bull and man as symbols of the four Gospel writers.

The outer surfaces of the temple enclosure walls are decorated with colossal relief, predictably divided in the subject of their representations between the realms of the two gods. This work was completed by Nero and Vespasian.

Much of the temple has only recently been restored. Also, a new museum is also scheduled to be inaugurated that will display mummified crocodiles

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See Also Marie Parsons Feature Story on Luxor

Many festivals were celebrated in Thebes. The Temple of Luxor was the center of the most important one, the festival of Opet. Built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, it appears that the temple's purpose was for a suitable setting for the rituals of the festival. The festival itself was to reconcile the human aspect of the ruler with the divine office. During the 18th Dynasty the festival lasted eleven days, but had grown to twenty-seven days by the reign of Ramesses III in the 20th Dynasty. At that time the festival included the distribution of over 11,000 loaves of bread, 85 cakes and 385 jars of beer. The procession of images of the current royal family began at Karnak and ended at the temple of Luxor. By the late 18th Dynasty the journey was being made by barge, on the Nile River. Each god or goddess was carried in a separate barge that was towed by smaller boats. Large crowds consisting of soldiers, dancers, musicians and high ranking officials accompanied the barge by walking along the banks of the river. During the festival the people were allowed to ask favors of the statues of the kings or to the images of the gods that were on the barges. Once at the temple, the king and his priests entered the back chambers. There, the king and his ka (the divine essence of each king, created at his birth) were merged, the king being transformed into a divine being. The crowd outside, anxiously awaiting the transformed king, would cheer wildly at his re-emergence. This solidified the ritual and made the king a god. The festival was the backbone of the pharaoh's government. In this way could a usurper or one not of the same bloodline become ruler over Egypt.

Luxor Temple from the South

The Pylons

On the face of the great pylon are carved episodes from the Battle of Kadesh, when Ramesses and his army defeated the forces of the Hittites and their allies. The obelisk is one of a red granite pair which Ramesses erected in front of the pylon; its twin now in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris. On the pedestal are carved the four sacred baboons who were the first to greet the morning sun. Three lines of vertical inscription on every face of the obelisk repeat the names and titles of Ramesses the Great: The Horus, Mighty Bull, Exalter of Thebes, Favorite of the Two Goddesses, establishing monuments in Luxor for his father Amun, who placed him upon the throne; Golden Horus, seeking excellent things for him who fashioned him; King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usermare, Chosen of Re." It is of interest to note that when the one obelisk was lowered, in order to be transported to France, Ramesses name was also found inscribed on the bottom. Pharaohs were notorious for usurping other pharaohs monuments, and Ramesses was determined that this was to remain his own. The pyramidal tip of the tall shaft was covered in sheet gold which flashed in the sunlight, symbolizing the sungod Re in his brilliance. Colossal seated statues of Ramesses flank the gateway.

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Located in the northeast corner of the Court of Ramesses in the Temple of Luxor is the Mosque of Abu'l Haggag. The Sufi sheik spent the last fifty of his ninety years in Luxor. Though Abu'l Haggag died in 1243, the mosque is only 19th century.

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The western end of the northern enclosure is segregated from the remainder of its plan by a wall, and within the wall are uniformly planned houses in a row. These house are of the same type as in the Eastern Workers Village at Amarna, with a narrow common yard along their long, eastern side, where it seems animals were kept. Each has a tripartite plan that consists of an entrance or front hall, a living room with two columns and two small rooms in their rear. Of course, these seem to be the houses used by workmen or officials of the precinct.

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Plan of the maru-Aten

From the wall that divided off the small front section of the northern enclosure, a quay extended along the enclosures axis to an artificial lake which dominated its interior space. The quay extended into the water and has a breast wall on both sides and presumably an awning at its end. The rectangular lake was about one meter deep and measured some 120 by 60 meters. It had sloping gravel sides similar to the lake in the palace of Amenhotep III at Malqata. The lake in the northern enclosure was surrounded by a garden planted with trees in holes filled with Nile humus and enclosed within a low mud wall. 

On the northwest end of the lake is a building on a symmetrical plan along a east-west axis with an entrance through a long passage between two screen walls on its western side. Its ground plan consisted of three adjacent courts divided by two transverse walls. In the first court are two rows of three columns. It may have contained a throne and a painting of the Aten on its back wall. The balusters were decorated with colored stripes. In the southern section of this court stretched a long room and at the rear of it was an alcove which may have functioned as a bedroom where the pharaoh might withdraw while worshipping his god, Aten. In the north part of this first court were three contiguous rooms with brick floors and whitewashed walls. 

The second court of this structure was the largest. It had two rows of columns along two series of four contiguous lateral rooms. A brick coping less then a quarter of a meter high was built against the column bases and enclosing the central part of this court, which was left open to the sky. From the west a central alley flanked by two smaller columns led to two mud compartments The walls were decorated with painted patterns of grapes and pomegranate designs. There were also two staircases that led up to a roof terrace.

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The third court of this structure has a central hall with three rooms, each of which have four columns. They are flanked by two series of three lateral rooms, probably used as cellars, evidenced by the quantities of broken wine jars found in their ruins. The walls of this area are plastered with cement and painted in tempera with vine patterns and pomegranate designs.

It has been suggested that this building may have been a temple palace, which would have typically been laid out in front of the funerary temple in the New Kingdom at Thebes.

To the northeast of the lake, and running along its eastern side was the largest and probably the most important grouping of elements, consisting of buildings (a temple and a kiosk on an island, flower beds and a water court. This was most likely a maru which was a religious building that would have served as a "viewing place" of the solar god so that members of the royal family might be rejuvenated by the sun's rays.

The front temple was situated on a north-south axis with the remainder of this complex, and on a east-west axis of the large lake. This temple is in the typical Amarna style, with an outer court with four column. The lower part of these columns were made from alabaster, while the upper sections were sandstone. There was also a pronaos with four columns and a sanctuary open to the sky, including a central altar exposed to the sun flanked by two columns along each side wall. It has been suggested that a window of appearance opened in the east rear wall of this sanctuary just above the altar so that the Aten could be seen and adored as it rose in the morning. 

This sanctuary was probably very richly adorned. The shafts of the columns are carved with wreaths of grapes and ducks while the capitals had lotus carvings. The lintels were made of alabaster and the walls were adorned with inlaid reliefs and inscriptions. 

This building's connection with the lake is clearly indicated by the west-east axis that is common to both. The quay on the other side of the lake would have formed the parallel element to view the Aten in the morning across the lake, and the sun disk could have been viewed at sunset from the temple as it went down over the lake. It is possible that the lake was symbolic of the Nile River, which is said in the solar hymns of Akhenaten to have been created by the sun.

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A kiosk forms the central element of this eastern complex. It seems to be a chapel surrounded on all sides by columns and raised on a platform accessed by a stairway. Four columns with reed style shafts connected by high screen walls form the sides of the pavilion. In the middle rose a dais for an altar or throne. The outside of these walls were adorned with naturalistic designs of plants and animals. According to some scholars, the kiosk would have served as a "sunshade" which was mentioned in a number of inscriptions. 

Cross section of the Kiosk Island

The kiosk stood amidst an artificial moat so that it formed a small, square island. The approach to the kiosk was flanked by two houses that were similar in design and decoration. Each had a pavilion with an open front facade on two pillars flanking the doorway. These structures were carefully made, with reeded doorjambs, screens that were perhaps in the shape of inlaid quartzite or alabaster stelae, floors of alabaster and internal walls lined with faience. 

It has been suggested that this kiosk might have functioned as a temple where the initial monthly festival of the Aten, called "Birth of Aten" (mswt-ltn), was celebrated. It may have been connected with the eleven tanks in the northern most water court, which could have symbolized the remaining eleven monthly festivals. The flower beds flanking the pathway between the kiosk and the water court would then symbolize the beneficial action of the sun upon plants. One of the solar hymns of Amarna read, "Thy rays nourish every garden". 

The water court itself was a long rectangular space with a central row of thirteen square piers in the midst of a series of contiguous T-shaped shallow tanks. The design of these tanks is interesting. The T-shaped elements alternate in plan and are separated by ridges that are triangular in section and plastered with mud. The sloping sides of the tanks were adorned with designs of water plants above the water level, and below were painted white. The floor of the passage that bordered the tanks was also decorated with motifs such as fowl and heifers. The rich colors were probably symbolic of the flora and fauna of each month, and calls to mind the treatment of the pavement in the Northern Palace. The artwork shows a good sense of composition and technical ability with a mixture of details and impressionistic treatment.

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In the initial phase of construction of this water court, the whole area of the tanks was excavated and cross walls were built in brick as were the floors. Two of the pillars were reinforced with timber beams laid crosswise in superimposed layers. It should be noted that the tanks were laid out asymmetrically about the alley and the axis of the kiosk. This may be explained if we accept the assumption that each tank symbolized a specific month with its particular flora and served the celebration of the monthly "Birth of Aten".

However, we must point out an alternate theory. Some scholars believe that the complex was a miniature representation of the cosmos for the celebration of the birth of the Aten, with the eleven tanks representing the eleven stretches of water that the sun god had to cross during the nightly journey, while the Kiosk would form the island emerging out of the waters to form the primeval mound. 

On the southeast corner of the lake are the remains of an unusual square structure with two wings flanking a central core and a tank. In the wings, cellars formed the lower story, perhaps surmounted by a loggia, while the central element consisted of various rooms of uncertain distribution.

With the exception of the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos, the Maru-Aten is probably the most elaborate symbolic layout in religious architecture built during the New Kingdom. It would have represented by means of architectural elements and layout the various aspects of Aten in his potentiality as Creator. However, we must also point out that a number of scholars may point out that, due to the limited remains of this structure, its real purpose could differ. Most of the excavated pavement remains from this temple are now located in the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.

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A final notation: It would seem that a number of sites on the internet describing Maru-Aten confuse this site with the Northern Palace. They are two very distinct sites located almost as distantly from each other as two complexes could be in the valley at Amarna, though there may be some similarities in their design and even in their function. Certainly one reason for this is that both seem to, from all accounts, have had inscriptions originally engraved for the King's consort, Kiya, that were apparently usurped by his daughter Meritaten. However, it is likely that the Maru-Aten never served as a principal palace for his daughter or Kiya, as possible did the Northern Palace.

Medinet Madi (Madinat Madi) in the Fayoum of Egypt
by Joerg Reid

It is likely that the typical tourist to Egypt will not, on their first visit, tour the Fayoum region, though for those interested in nature, or fossils, perhaps they should. However, for the antiquities enthusiast, there is simply too many other, perhaps somewhat more convenient sights to see, and the Fayoum is not particularly well promoted by tour operators. Yet, the Fayoum does offer many important historical monuments. Many of these date from the Graeco-Roman Period, though others are much older, including Medinet Madi, which many consider to be one of the most important temples in the Fayoum. 

An overview of some of the ruins at Medinet Madi in the Fayoum of Egypt

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Situated about 30 kilometers southwest of Medinet el-Fayoum, Medinet Madi, which means "City of the Past", was during the Graeco-Roman Period known as Narmouthis (City of Renenutet). It was first recorded in modern times by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. Grenfell and Hunt were aware of its existence but did no excavations. Early in the 20th century, Jouguet investigated the site and he was the first to suggest that it consisted of two distinct towns, one measuring forty thousand square meters situated on an eastern kom, and another, some three or four times as large, on a western kom. German archaeologists began work there in 1910, but the war interrupted those efforts and the concession was later taken over by the University of Milan.

During the first season of excavation under the Milan team directed by A. Vogliano, the remains of a temple dedicated to Isis Hermouthis, the Greek version of Renenutet was unearthed. Though later transferred to the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, pilasters incorporated into the temple structure were inscribed with Greek hymns to this goddess. However, one line in one of the hymns also referred to an earlier Middle Kingdom temple on the site dedicated by Amenemhet III. That now famous temple was later unearthed in the second excavation campaign. Also uncovered from the sand was a second Ptolemaic temple, back to back with the Middle Kingdom one. However, this series of excavations only lasted for two additional seasons. Afterwards, it was not until 1966, under the direction of Dr. Edda Bresciani that excavations resumed.

Today, the most interesting structure is of course the southern facing Middle Kingdom temple with its Ptolemaic addition, located just over a mound beyond the Italians' old dig house. Though there is little left of this building, and though everywhere there is debris, what does remain of the temple is fairly well preserved. Every so often, the antiquity authorities must come along and clean out the sand, but typically one can see, from the top of the mound, the processional way which is part of the Ptolemaic construct, flanked by sphinxes and lions and these days, a considerable amount of other Ptolemaic Period construction. The human headed ones probably portray the facial features of one of the Ptolemaic kings. On the right side of the entrance portal is a smiling lion with crossed paws, while the inner left wall is engraved with the relief of a goddess, probably Hermouthis, suckling her son.

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This part of the temple is in fact rather small, with a columned hall, or probably more precisely, a two Papyrus columned portico leading into a sanctuary with three shrines (niches really) occupying the rear. The two large papyriform columns in the first room have identical inscriptions to Renenutet, except that the column on the left bears the two names of Amenemhet III, while that on the right belong to Amenemhet IV.

On the wall on the left side of this room is a relief depicting the purification of the king. Here, the god Sobek, recognizable by his crocodile snout, stands before the king while Anubis stands behind the king. The two gods pour purifying water over the king's head. As we see in other such reliefs, the drops of water take the form of the ankh, the hieroglyphic symbol of life. The inscription here is still legible, and can be translated as, "You will be purified, and your "ka" purified, with the water of life."

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There is a small corridor that leads to the second and last room. The walls of the corridor are inscribed with a dedicatory formula to the goddess Renenutet. Very interestingly, just inside this inner chamber, on both sides of the doorway, is another dedicatory inscription to the goddess Renenutet, though here, for reasons rather unknown, the name of Amenemhat inside the cartouche has been defaced.

This inner chamber of the oldest part of the temple complex is dominated by the three large niches recessed into the back wall. The niche on the left (west) contains a scene depicting the pharaoh offering unguent molded into a conical shape to the goddess Renenutet. In this rendition of Renenutet, one can clearly see her serpent's head. Far from appearing grotesque, the image is quite graceful with the cobra hood adorning her shoulders like a coiffure. On the opposing wall is a scene of him making offerings to Sobek. Similar offering scenes adorn the walls of the other niches, which were meant to hold statue groups representing Renenutet flanked by the two kings. Indeed, in the largest, center niche are the remains of such a group.

Notably, the probable wife of Amenemhet III and mother of Amenemhet IV, Hetepti, is so far only known from this temple. The temple was restored during the 19th Dynasty. To the east of the temple there are also mudbrick storerooms and other foundations.

The small, Ptolemaic temple that lies back to back with the Middle Kingdom temple is its more modern counterpart. It was probably Ptolemy IX Soter II who added the two courtyards that lead to the central chapel containing an altar and flanking it are two smaller chapels. Here, we find stone doorways and lintels. The Greek inscriptions are badly worn and for the most part unreadable. The best preserved relief is found on the outer left wall as one enters the interior courtyard. Here, a delightful, grinning Sobek is depicted with a frightful set of teeth.

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The Ptolemaic expansion of the temple included the processional way to the south with its lions and sphinxes (in both Egyptian and Greek style), which passed through a columned kiosk which eventually leads to the older two columned portico. A kiosk with eight columns once existed along the processional route.

The Processional Way leading up to the Entrance of the Middle Kingdom Temple at Medinet Madi

Very recently in 1995, the Italian team from Pisa and Messina University that has been excavating this site since 1966 also discovered a Ptolemaic gate to the east of the temple and on further investigation another temple dedicated to Sobek was discovered beneath the rubble. This second temple was built of mudbrick with stone doorways and lintels, with its axis at right-angles to the older temple. Tablets and papyri were also found in the debris, including an important oracular document written in demotic script. Apparently, in 1930, a number of texts of some importance (known as AManichaean Psalm-Book, Part II) were also discovered in this general location by Carl Schmidt which are thought to date from about 340 AD.

The team has also recently excavated a vaulted structure on the north side of the new temple, but the remains are poorly preserved. On the north side of the temple court, a crocodile nursery was discovered with dozens of eggs in different stages of maturation.

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The Italian team, which is working to construct a three dimensional model of the monuments in the area in order to explore the chronological development of the site from the Middle Kingdom through the Greek and Roman periods, has also uncovered a large Roman town and ten Christian churches of the sixth and seventh century, indicating that the site saw activity perhaps well at least through Roman times. . 

This most prominent ancient town is located on a small hill commanding a strategic position guarding the southwestern entrance to the Fayoum, and was probably occupied even as early as the prehistoric period. 

We do not know what happened to spell the end of ancient Medinet Madi. It seems to have simply been abandoned, even though it clearly had a presence up into the Christian era and beyond. A medieval romance poem known as the "Story of Abu Zayd", which was often told in coffee shops throughout the Middle East even outside of Egypt, relates that Medinet Madi was destroyed by a popular semi-fictional war hero named Abu Zeid. It is said that he led his tribes from the desert of Nejd through Egypt on his way to Tunisia in the eleventh century AD. On their way, they passed through the ancient town located at Medinet Madi and asked the ruler, King Madi, for food and shelter. Unfortunately for Madi, he refused, so Abu Zed razed the town, killed the king and all of his subjects, and took what food and shelter he needed.

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In many respects, Mentuhotep II's mortuary temple complex had important historical overtures, so it is not surprising that various teams have investigated the site.  It was the first temple in Western Thebes to house a cult to the goddess Hathor, and foreshadowed a new theological concept of the "Temples of Millions of Years" that would gain popularity during the New Kingdom. While it was Lord Dufferin who discovered the temple complex in the later half of the 19th century, Henri Edouard Naville and Henry Hall may have been the first modern scholars to examine the site between 1903 and 1907. They were supported by the Egypt Exploration Fund. Between 1911 and 1931, the site was further investigated by a team from the Metropolitan Museum of New York directed by Herbert Winlock. However, neither of these groups completed their excavations, so the site was not fully investigated until the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, under the direction of Dieter Arnold, excavated it between 1968 and 1971.

Mentuhotep II selected a site on a rocky hillside at modern Deir el-Bahari where some of his predecessors of the First Intermediate Period built their saff tombs. Saff is an Arabic term meaning "row", and these tombs were so named for their row of pillars along their facades. Most Egyptologists agree that the ground plan of Mentuhotep II's complex combined architectural elements of both the staff tomb and the pyramid complex, though few seem to agree on the original appearance of his tomb. 

The complex consisted of a valley temple, the ruins of which lie under the fields at the edge of the Nile valley and probably also under the ruins of Ramesses IV's valley temple, a causeway, a stepped, terraced mortuary temple that is partially cut into the rock cliff face, and a subterranean burial chamber. Winlock believed that the temple went through three construction phases, while Arnold thought there were four phases. The complex is generally oriented east-west, but bends slightly to the north.

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Ground Plan of the Mortuary Temple Complex of Mentuhotep II

While not much is known of the Valley Temple, the causeway, unlike most of its counterparts in the Old Kingdom, was open, and had Osirian statues of the king located along its sides at irregular intervals. It terminated at the main temple complex in a large courtyard surrounded by a limestone wall. 

At the back of the courtyard (western end) stood the massive, terraced mortuary temple. The facade of the lower, pillared hall consisted of a portico built of limestone blocks. This portico, which had two rows of pillars, was divided in half by a ramp leading to the second terrace. Originally, the portico walls were decorated with scenes of battle.

Like later temples located here, the main second level was accessed by a broad ramp of limestone blocks with a grove of parallel sycamores and tamarisks planted to either side. This terrace may be divided into three sections, consisting of an outer pillared portico hall surrounding an ambulatory on the north, south and east sides, with a core at the center of the ambulatory. 

The outer portico section of this level, like the lower level, consisted of two rows of limestone pillars. It is often referred to as the "upper pillared hall". The front of these pillars were decorated with scenes depicting Mentuhotep II and various gods, and were inscribed with text in low relief. The rear limestone walls of the pillared hall around the inner ambulatory were slightly inclined and decorated both inside and out, suggesting that it once composed the outer facade of the ambulatory. This, and other evidence, has led Egyptologists to believe that the pillared hall itself was built at a later date.

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An entrance on the east wing of the pillared portico hall, located on the main axis of the complex as a whole, lead to the inner ambulatory. An ambulatory can, at least in terms of ancient Egyptian architecture, be defined as a partial roof that ran around the edges of a structure, and was supported by pillars. Most often we find ambulatories surrounding an open courtyard but in this case it surrounds an inner core. Within this ambulatory stood 140 octagonal pillars arranged in two rows on the west (rear) side, and three rows on each of the other sides. The ambulatory was dimly illuminated by shafts in the exterior wall near the outer portico. 

Inside of the ambulatory was a central core that Egyptologists believe was a symbolic version of the primeval mound. We believe it was made of hard clay shaped roughly into a cube, and probably surrounded with limestone slabs.  It may have extended into the upper or top terrace through the ambulatory. It is the object of considerable debate. 

Naville, the first investigator of the temple, believed this core to be a pyramid built upon the rock subsoil. A number of different views contradict his assumption. For example, Arnold rejected Naville's argument mostly because there was simply no evidence to support it. There are no ruins of a pyramid's inclined walls and no casing, so he sees this structure as a more or less a rectangular flat roof terrace with a stylized representation of the primeval mound. Stadelmann offers us a variation on Arnold's prospective with a sand hill planted with trees. This would combine Osirian beliefs with that of the primeval mound. 

Debate on these issues is not only influenced by the lack of any ruins of this upper terrace structure, but also by conflicting documentary sources. For example, the Abbott papyrus definitely refers to the structure as a pyramid. Arnold also came across two fragments of inscriptions that contain the structure's name and seem to elude to it being a pyramid. We also find other similar references to its name elsewhere. American Egyptologist L. Bull saw the name as a "truncated obelisk or pyramid, projected above another structure. The obelisk appears to be a sun-disk from which Bull tells us that there, "usually extend two rays of light on each side". In an inscription on the 12th Dynasty stele of Tutu, the temple is actually represented by the hieroglyphic sign for a pyramid. Nearby the temple was found New Kingdom graffiti that refers to the tomb more as a terrace with an obelisk that terminated in a pyramidion.

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Despite all of this, most Egyptologists seem to believe that the top superstructure did not take the form of a pyramid. For example, in the Abbott papyrus, other tombs that are clearly not pyramids were also designated as pyramids. Therefore, Egyptologists believe that the ruins of the tomb either took on the look of a funeral mound or pyramid, or more likely, the tradition of monumental royal tombs was so strongly associated with the pyramid at this time that the hieroglyph of a pyramid was used to represent all such tombs. Yet it is important for us to point out that this debate is far from over. Perhaps new archaeological discoveries will someday put it to rest. 

On the west side of the second level terrace were discovered a row of six shaft tombs cut into the rock. These tombs were apparently integrated into the temple when an expansion project to the west was inaugurated. Their subterranean sections were built of limestone blocks, with false doors and cult statues. Apparently woman of the royal family were buried in these tombs. Interestingly, all of these women died young, the eldest at about twenty-two, and the youngest at only five. Egyptologists speculate that they may have all died at about the same time, due to some accident or epidemic. Only four of them bore the title of Royal Consort. Arnold believes that others may have been priestesses of the goddess Hathor, though Callender contends that they were diplomatic marriages arranged for Mentuhotep II in order to stabilize and unify the country after the chaotic years of the First Intermediate Period.

Among the consort, two are especially notable. One, a Nubian whose obvious importance is evidenced by her decorated wooden coffin, was named Aashait (Ashait). The other, Kauit (Kawit), had a large limestone sarcophagus with fine reliefs, now located in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

The expansion to the west was made some time after the initial construction of the mortuary temple. This expansion included an open, pillared courtyard, Egypt's first grand  hypostyle hall, a chapel to various gods, and a rock hewn temple, referred to as a Speos. Sandstone was used in the construction of the courtyard that was surrounded on the south, east and north sides by octagonal pillars. There were also 82 pillars in the hypostyle hall. The hypostyle hall had a limestone floor with walls built of sandstone.

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The Speos at the far west end of the complex is a long, vaulted room with a statue niche in the very rear. Here, the paving is sandstone while the walls are made of limestone. There was a low ramp that led to a limestone altar at its rear (western most part) that set in front the niche and the oversized statue of the king.. This altar seems to have been the center of the entire temple complex, according to Mark Lehner. This room originally also had a false door. Among other cult objects found in the Speos, a seated statue of the god Amun was discovered. However, a small chapel situated off the eastern corner of the western addition's courtyard served the worship of several important gods including Amun, Mont, Osiris and Hathor, of whom a statue was discovered that now resides in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.

On the axis of the pillared courtyard's pavement in this western addition is a vaulted, descending corridor, first clad in limestone that abruptly ends with its remaining length consisting of rough bedrock walls. It leads down to what is referred to as the king's burial chamber. Naville investigated the corridor and burial chamber in 1906, and Arnold again studied it in 1971. Niches along the corridor walls held some six hundred wooden figurines that were once part of the models of workshops, bakeries and boats. The burial chamber is located about 12 meters down the entrance corridor. It was made of granite and had a saddle ceiling. Actually the room is divided into two sections, with an alabaster chapel topped by a single, gigantic, granite slab, entered by way of a double wooden door, taking up the larger part. Naville concluded that this room was for the symbolic burial of the king's "ka", or soul, because no sarcophagus was found here, but most Egyptologists now disagree with his findings. They now believe that the alabaster chamber probably held the king's sarcophagus.

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One reason for this is that in 1899, the well known discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb, Howard Carter, or rather his horse, literally stumbled onto a new riddle in Mentuhotep II's complex. While riding across the initial courtyard in front of the complex, his horse stumbled. He dismounted to see if his horse was injured, and discovered the entrance to an underground part of the tomb complex. Because of the manner in which the discovery was made, not unlike more than one future find in Egypt, Carter's crew named the substructure Bab el-Hussan, meaning "horse door, or gate".

The entrance started out as an open trench that soon turned into a vaulted corridor. Some seventeen meters deep, Carter discovered a door sealed by a four meter thick mudbrick wall. Behind this simple barrier, the corridor continued westward before finally turning north.  At this point, the excavators found a shaft in the floor. Though it was only two meters deep, in it were found the remains of a wooden chest inscribed with the ruler's name. Further down the corridor a second shaft opened into an actual burial chamber.

Here, Carter's team discovered the ruins of an empty, uninscribed wooden coffin, ceramics and the bones of sacrificial animals. However, the most important discovery was a now famous polychrome statue of Mentuhotep II made of sandstone, wrapped in fine linen, and bearing the crown of Lower Egypt on its head. This item too is now in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Perhaps because of this statue, Arnold believes this subterranean section was symbolic (a cenotaph) perhaps connected with the Sed-festivals of Mentuhotep II.  Apparently, Arnold and now many others believes that the burial chamber in the upper part of the temple is really that of this king.

Left: Merenptah's Mortuary temple before restoration

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During these excavations and restorations, the archaeological team made a number of discoveries, including blocks from a monumental gateway, fragments of a colossal limestone sphinx and parts of nine jackal-headed sphinxes. We are told by the project director, Horst Jaritz, that some of these objects were stunning. For example, he notes the find of astonishingly well preserved polychrome reliefs of Amenhotep III, which may be the finest examples known from Egyptian history. 

The New Museum

The structure, which reused considerable material (including statuary) from other monuments (including those of Hatshepsut and Akhenaten), especially those of Amenhotep III mortuary temple, was excavated by Petrie. However, it should be noted that Amenhotep III's mortuary temple was almost completely destroyed prior to Merenptah's quarrying of its stone. Petrie discovered the famous Israel Stele here in 1896. However, this stele too was originally made for Amenhotep III. But it was Merenptah, a 19th Dynasty King, that had the text recarved on its reverse side to describe his victories over the Libyans and other foreign people, including the earliest known historical reference to Israel. 

Plan of the Mortuary Temple of Merenptah

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Interestingly, the original destruction of Merenptah's temple complex resulted from the same forces that took Amenhotep III's structure. Built not far away from the more ancient temple of Amenhotep III, a Nile flood first swept away the two pylons leading into the temple, along with the first hypostyle hall, its side chambers, the second hypostyle hall and even the cult chapels. Soon the rest of the building also collapsed. This was not unlike the destruction of Amenhotep III's complex, though the earlier king's mortuary temple was built so close to the flood plan that a flood was not required for its demise. 

Right: an Osiride Statue of Merenptah

The temple, though much smaller than his fathers (just over half as large), nevertheless copies much of the Ramesseum's design. It is basically the same, only scaled down in size. Like his father's monument, this mortuary temple featured a forecourt with columns along its sides, and a palace adjoining the southern wall. Also, the second court featured Osiride pillars at least on its inner side, and may have also had Osiride statues of the king. After the second court was a twelve columned hypostyle hall, in turn followed by an eight columned and then an inner sanctuary with related chapels. Here was also found a court with a large sun altar.

There we mudbrick buildings along the sides of the temple including a complex of storage annexes to the north where a "treasury" was found. A small sacred lake lay to the south within an extension of the complex. The complex as a whole was then surrounded by a mudbrick enclosure wall.

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While there was a Middle Kingdom temple built to the god, and possibly even an earlier structure, it was destroyed. That temple was mainly built by Senusret III, with perhaps additions by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. Kings of the late Middle Kingdom and 2nd Intermediate Period continued to build there, including Amenemhet VII, Sebekhotep II and Sebekhotep III of the 13th Dynasty, and Sebekemzaf I of the 17th Dynasty. We may also see some scattered remains of the New Kingdom and Late Period. However, a ruined temple of the Graeco-Roman period survives, which together with the war like god, Montu, is also dedicated to Rattawy (the female counterpart of Re who is often depicted like Hathor as a cow with a sun disk surmounting her head) and Harpocrates (Horus the Child). It is possible it may have been built on the site of the older temple. 

The main portal entrance was built by Tiberius, but its facade consists of an unusual triple portal formed by three kiosks of Ptolemy XII. In the southern kiosk, the screen walls were decorated with reliefs of singers and musicians along with a dancing goddess, Bes. The portal leads through the facade to a large peristyle courtyard, with an altar,  which was embellished by Antoninus Pius. It in tern leads to a hypostyle hall built by Ptolemy VIII. Regrettably, only a few large columns, of various types, in the peristyle court built by Ptolemy VII and the outer part of the hypostyle hall are all that survive today. However, a granite doorway depicting Amenhotep II before Montu-re has also been preserved.

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Behind the main sanctuary dedicated to Montu, his consort Rattawy and Harpocrates, is the smaller sanctuary of the sacred bull of Montu, with only a small section of exterior wall remaining. However, on one of these walls, a scene depicting the king (Trajan) worshipping the bull at the point were oracles were delivered is still visible. This small sanctuary probably included rooms for the living animal. Some of the walls within the main temple and the smaller Montu sanctuary show to have been decorated by the emperors Domitian and Trajan. 

This temple is surrounded by an brick enclosure wall, also built by Tiberius, and within the wall was a sacred lake, a well and granaries. There once also stood a Ptolemaic chapel, built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Ptolemy III Euergetes I, and Ptolemy IV Phiopator, at the southwest corner of the wall, and processional way lined with sphinxes ran from the main temple entrance to a quay which stood on a canal linking this temple to the temple of Montu in the Karnak precinct. The temple's axis at Karnak faces this temple. 

To the east of the temple precinct was a cemetery. A block field on the southern side of the temple is worth investigating as it contains many interesting fragmentary reliefs including a lintel of Ramesses III and the lower portion of a seated statue of Senusert I. However, much of this material did not come from this particular temple.

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It should also be noted that a Christian church, perhaps dating as early as the 4th century was built within this temple. Its ruins are still traceable, and the remains of its pillars can still be seen. Unfortunately, these early Christians caused considerable damage to the temple reliefs, often carving out the faces of kings and deities alike.

(ancient Thebes). It sits just across the Nile from Armant (ancient Hermonthis). Jean-Francois Champollion was one of the first investigators of the ancient ruins. He visited what was left of a high crypt that emerged from the temple that remained buried beneath the village. 

Then, in 1934, Fernand Bisson de la Roque cleared the ruins of the first two halls, both of which could be dated to the Ptolemaic period. The first was a hypostyle hall, and the other was dominated by the high crypt. At the back of the temple on the far end were revealed traces of a church, built directly on the limestone paving of the pharaonic sanctuary. Made of sandstone, the eaves of Ptolemaic date surround an ancient limestone wall and are linked to this paving. They carry a lengthy historical inscription from the Middle Kingdom King, Senusret I, and were part of an earlier temple of that king. 

The columned court (hypostyle hall), which was probably begun during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, had various chambers including a hidden treasury room above the chapel on the south  side.

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Below the paving slaps were unearthed blocks from previous construction phases of the temple dating back to the very early Middle Kingdom kings, Montuhotep II and III, dating to the 11th Dynasty and to Amenemhet I who is credited with founding the 12th Dynasty. However, some blocks were even discovered that date back to the 5th Dynasty reign of Userkaf. These blocks and some of the Middle Kingdom material can be seen in the small open magazine at the site.

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Somewhat above the "Tod Treasure" was also found a rather common and unremarkable find of Saite (26th Dynasty) bronze figures of Osiris. 

Between 1981 and 1991, the site was again excavated, this time by Musee du Louvre focusing on the temple's surroundings. This work unearthed a terrace built at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. There, the excavators discovered private chapels that survived until the New Kingdom. There was no western entrance to the temple until the dromos (an avenue or entranceway) was created in the third century BC, probably by Ptolemy IV, who probably also built the two Ptolemaic halls as replacements for those dating back to the time of Tuthmosis III. The dromos was never finished and the platform overlooking the pier was redesigned in the second or first century BC to include a monumental door, which was also never completed. Here, there are also the remains of an avenue of sphinxes. 

Prior to the Ptolemaic period, the temple was accessed only from the north, as indicated by the placement of a wayside park chapel begun by Tuthmosis III, and completed by Amenhotep II. Talatats, which were standard sized blocks used in construction during the reign of Amenhotep IV, were most likely brought from Karnak, and were possibly used to complete the upper sections of the temple at the end of the Ptolemaic period, or even as late as the Roman Period. Decorations are mostly attributed to Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and Ptolemy XII, though the most recent reliefs are dated to the Roman Period during the reign of Antonius Pius.

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The Middle Kingdom temple complex was mostly dedicated to the cult of the important Egyptian god, Montu, who has a number of other temples in this region dedicated to him. 

The surviving monuments today are of New Kingdom and later date. They include the partially preserved barque shrine of Montu built by Tuthmosis III and restored by Amenhotep II, Seti I, Amenmesse, and Ramesses III and IV. It stands before the chambers built during the Ptolemaic period. Only the front wall of Senusret I's structure remains, though it has good examples of later usurpation and reworking.

A Roman kiosk was located near the Ptolemaic temple. North of the two Ptolemaic halls there was a lake dug out, either while or shortly after the halls were built. To the south, another kom indicates different stages of urban growth, and not of some other temple.

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Interestingly, two sketched plans of this tomb are known, the most famous and complete of which is contained within the a papyrus in Turin.  

One unusual aspect of the tomb is that there is very little decline as one travels from the first part of the tomb through to its rear.  The entrance begins with a split stairways to either side of a ramp, opening into a first, second and third corridors. The final corridor leads to a smallish antechamber, and then to the burial chamber.  To the rear of the burial chamber are some small annexes, but otherwise the tomb contains no lateral annexes.  The corridors are unusual for their width and height, some measuring three meters (10 feet) wide and four meters (15 feet high).

The facade of the tomb is decorated with scenes of the king's coronation, as well as a scene depicting Isis and Nephthys venerating the sun disk.  Within the first two corridors are scenes and text from the Litany of Ra, proceeded by a typical painting of the king worshipping the falcon headed sun god, Re-Horakhthy.  On the ceilings are vultures, falcons and winged scarabs with spread wings.  

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In the third corridor we find the first and second parts of the Book of Caverns, with simple ceilings decorated with stars, but which later becomes vaulted. From this corridor, a ramp leads through the antechamber into the burial chamber.  The antechamber is decorated with scenes from the Book of the Dead, mostly chapter 125 which deals with the judgement of the dead. The burial chamber, which is not large, is almost filled by the still resident sarcophagus.  However, this sarcophagus is unusually large. The burial chamber is decorated with the second, third and fourth hours from the Book of Gates.  The ceiling is uniquely decorated with two large figures representing Nut, rather then the usual stellar constellations.  There are also scenes from the Book of Nut, and the Book of the Night.  The annexes behind the burial chamber contain text from the first part of the Book of Caverns.  Other parts of this annex are painted with burial offerings such as beds, shrines and canopic jars.  

Note the complete absence of pillars within this tomb, as well as the lack of the Amduat within its decorative program.

Little funerary equipment is known to have been found within the tomb itself.  The sarcophagus was broken into at one end during antiquity and the lid displaced.  The king's mummy was eventually found in KV 35. There were a total of nine foundation deposits discovered, including five by Howard Carter.  Edward Ayrton and Carter also found considerable funerary material that was thrown out of the tomb, probably during antiquity.  These included ostraca, shabtis figures in wood, calcite and faience, fragments of faience, glass and potsherds.

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It is probable that a simple temple structure was present at el-Kab from the Early Dynastic Period, and certainly Middle Kingdom rulers built here, but the current remains date from the New Kingdom on. The largest part of the main temple complex at el-Kab was dedicated to Nekhbet but this temple was attached to an older temple of Thoth. Many reused blocks from the Middle and New Kingdom can be seen in both temples. These structures are on the typical plan of the New Kingdom cult temple, with an open courtyard including a portico, a hypostyle hall, pronaos and three contiguous sanctuaries. Surrounding them are various subsidiary structures, including a Roman era temple.

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The longer temple, dedicated to Nekhebet, adjoining the temple of Thoth on the northeast was also completed in stages, mostly during the Late Period's 29th and 30th Dynasties reigns of Hakoris and Nectanebo I and II, though it was probably initiated during the 25th Dynasty by Tahraqa with Psammetichus I adding to it in the 26th Dynasty upon even earlier remains. In this temple the walls of the forecourt were originally in line with those of the hypostyle hall in the adjacent temple of Thoth, but when this temple was enlarged eastward, it assumed an unsymmetrical plan.

In order to reach the courtyard, one passes through a set of small pylons. Within, there is actually an inner and outer courtyard, with the inner having two columns. Through a pylon with an interesting drainage system, this smaller, original courtyard gives access to an unsymmetrical hypostyle hall with two rows of four columns to the west, and four rows of four columns to the east. This hall was apparently built by Hakoris. Further east are two small chambers and one very small chamber. To the north of the hypostyle hall, a center entrance leads to the pronaos while to the left and right, entrances give way to a number of other annexes, some with columns. The pronaos itself has two pillars, and beyond this room, three doors lead to the triple sanctuaries, of which the center extends deeper than those to the left and right. A small space behind the left and right sanctuaries separated by the extended length of the central sanctuary are referred to as the "crypts of Psammetichus I. 

Just to the east of the Temple of Nekhbet there is a small sacred lake.

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Thoth Hill is the site of two temples, an archaic temple that may date to around 3,000 BC and would be the oldest temple built on the West Bank at Luxor, and built upon it, a later temple built by an 11th Dynasty pharaoh known as Sankhkare Mentuhotep. 

This site became known to modern explorers relatively late. The ruins were only discovered in 1904 by George Sweinfurth. It was later examined by Petrie in 1909, but not very thoroughly and only for a few days. Not until a Hungarian expedition led by Gyozo Voros for Eotvos Lorand University between 1995 and 1998 was the site systematically investigated. The older temple was unknown until this expedition's work. The newer temple was investigated first, during the seasons 1995-1996 and the older temple during the season of 1996-1997.

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The area is somewhat difficult to reach. The hill is surrounded by desert ravines and the ancient route leading up to the temple is difficult to ascend. 

The Archaic Temple

Beneath the Middle Kingdom structure of Sankhkare Mentuhotep, the oldest known temple in the Theban region was only recently discovered. Made of stone, it was very small and had a similar plant to the later temple built upon it, though it probably only had a single chambered sanctuary. Interestingly, the older temple appears to have had a pylon entrance, just as the newer temple. However, considering the age of this temple, this would be most unusual. Also like the later temple the earlier site was surrounded by an enclosure wall, and had a free standing inner sanctuary, though the older temple has only a single room within the sanctuary while the newer temple had three.

This older temple was slightly offset in its axial alignment (by about 2 degrees towards the south). It was built upon an artificial terrace, as was the newer temple. Egyptologists believe that the older temple was oriented towards the helical rising of Sirus, and have determined that the older temple's orientation would have been correct in about 3000 BC, at the very beginning of Egypt's dynastic period. The star Sirius was worshipped as the god Horus, and apparently because the later temple was probably dedicated to Horus, Egyptologists believe the older structure was as well.

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The Horus Temple of Sankhkare Mentuhotep

The newer temple, first investigated by Petrie, was thought by him to be a Sed-festivalchapel. There is a Sed-festival building within the area to the west but he was wrong about Sankhkare Mentuhotep's temple. Investigation by the Hungarians revealed that it was instead a small temple of Horus. However, they also apparently investigated the Sed-festival temple as well, which revealed roofing beams and columns made of imported tropical sycamore wood. 

The 11th Dynasty temple is made of  mudbrick and consisted of an entry pylon and walls surrounding a free standing inner sanctuary with three rooms at the rear (northwest). The floors of the newer temple were covered in plaster. This temple was more closely aligned with the modern helical rising of Sirus. Found among the ruins were foundation deposits and fragments of the foundation text and dedicatory inscriptions form the fine limestone door jambs. The dedication reads:

"Horus Sankh-towi-ef [Who Causes his Two Lands to Live], 
He of the Two Goddesses 'Who Causes his Two Lands to Live,' 
The Peaceful Golden Horus, 
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt Sankh-ka-Ra [Who Causes the Soul of Re to Live], 
Son of Re Montuhotep [The Peaceful Montu], 
Living Eternally. 
He made this as his monument to Horus, 
may he make to him given-life, 
like Re eternally."

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The foundation deposits were located at each of the complex's four corners. Within the foundation deposits were terra-cotta animal figurines, portions of animal sacrifices, alabaster vessels and shallow offering saucers. There were also parts of a lintel, decorated with a winged sun-disk and inscribed with hieratic graffiti that indicate the older temple may have been badly damaged by an earthquake before the end of the 11th Dynasty.

Artifacts

Restoration work has also apparently been completed on the artifacts found at Thoth Hill, including ceramics recovered form the new temple and pottery from the older stone temple. Items from the older temple included cylindrical jars and rectangular basins also thought to be of archaic date. The fragmentary baboons that provided the site with its name were also restored and are believed to date from the 11th Dynasty.

The Tomb of Ramesses VI, Valley of the Kings, Egypt
by Mark Andrews

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However, as it turns out, Ramesses VI was not much of a tomb builder, for this tomb was originally build by his predecessor, Ramesses V.  It was only enlarged by Ramesses VI.  Why Ramesses VI did not build his own tomb, as was certainly the tradition, is unknown to us. However, the inscriptions for Ramesses V found in the first parts of the tomb were not usurped, and it is clear that the brothers probably shared a common theology. 

The tomb has been known of since antiquity, attested to by numerous graffiti.  It was known to the Romans as the tomb of Memnon, and to the scholars of the Napoleonic Expedition as La Tombe de la Metempsychose. It was cleared of debris by George Daressy in 1888. 

The tomb itself is somewhat simplistic, with no true stairways, but otherwise similar to other 20th Dynasty tombs.  There are three corridors that lead to the ritual shaft, and then to a four pillared hall.  This is followed by by two more corridors, a vestibule and then the burial chamber with its single annex at the rear. The last corridor (number 5) is unique, as the floor is sloping while the roof is horizontal.  This was done to avoid part of tomb KV 12.

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In this tomb, astronomical ceilings are found in each passage. The walls of the first through third corridors are painted with images from the Book of Gates and the Book of Caverns, a theme which is continued on into the vestibule. Note the lack of the Litany of Re, found in earlier tombs. The beginning of the first corridor has a scene of the king making offerings to Ra-Horakhty followed by Osiris, now shown on both sides of the corridor. But rather then the Litany of Ra, the Book of Gates follows on the south wall and the Book of Caverns on the north.  In the fourth and fifth corridors there are also passages from the Book of Amduat, and in the vestibule passages from the Book of the Dead.  The walls of the burial chamber, where there is to be found a broken sarcophagus, are painted with illustrations from the Book of the Earth, while the astronomical ceiling have decorations from the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night. While the decorations are well colored with sunk reliefs, stylistically the art is inferior to most of the 19th Dynasty tombs. 

It should be noted that the mummy of Ramesses VI was not found in his tomb, but rather that of Amenophis II. This tomb is also included in the subject of the well known Papyrus Mayer B, which records the robbery of the tomb during antiquity, probably before Year 9 of Ramesses IX.

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General Site Information

• Structure: KV 9

• Location: Valley of the Kings, East Valley, Thebes West Bank, Thebes

• Owner: Rameses V and Rameses VI

• Other designations: 15 [Hay], 9 [Lepsius], E, plan C [Pococke], H [Burton], IVe
  Tombeau � l'ouest [Description], Tomb of Memnon [Romans], Tombe de la
  M�tempsychose [Description]

• Site type: Tomb

Orientation

• Axis in degrees: 290.33

• Axis orientation: West

Site Location

• Latitude: 25.44 N

• Longitude: 32.36 E

• Elevation: 174.306 msl

• North: 99,568.532

• East: 94,062.336

• JOG map reference: NG 36-10

• Modern governorate: Qena (Qina)

• Ancient nome: 4th Upper Egypt

• Surveyed by TMP: Yes

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Measurements

• Maximum height: 6.92 m

• Minimum width: 2.48 m

• Maximum width: 13.03 m

• Total length: 116.84 m

• Total area: 510.07 m�

• Total volume: 1572.26 m�

Additional Tomb Information

• Entrance location: Base of sloping hill

• Owner type: King

• Entrance type: Ramp

• Interior layout: Corridors and chambers

• Axis type: Straight

Decoration

• Graffiti 

• Painting 

• Sunk relief 

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