The Red Pyramid of Sneferu

Red Pyramid of Sneferu

Red Pyramid of Sneferu is the second biggest pyramid  722 feet per side  in Egypt. However, it is leaning much less (43 degrees 22 ) and shorter at 343 feet. Fourth tightest pyramid built, with 160 layers of stone. First prosperous true pyramid (not established around steps, etc) in Egypt and is the root of the Giza pyramids.

Built by Khufus father, Sneferu, who built three pyramids (at least). Also referred to as the Shining Pyramid or Northwest Pyramid. Layers of white limestone were laid for the foot, and tura limestone was used as casing. Nearly of the casing stones had letterings on the back in red paint appointment crews and cartouches. There are no identifying in scrfiptions in side the pyramid. Some of the stones are dated  giving us an idea of how long it read to build the pyramid and the episode of work. Around 30 pct of the pyramid had been completed and the entire pyramid was bright in 17 years. A mortuary temple remains to the east, and a pyramid was got and reconstructed. Not much continues of the temple, but it showed in the east-west preference of later temples. Entrance in the north side, leads to a 206 foot down passage (27 degrees) to the first chamber with a corbelled ceiling about 40 tall. All chambers have a corbelled ceiling, with between 11 and 14 layers in each. This is a very strong ceiling design. A transition on the south side results to the second chamber (whatever of the ehse are at ground level) and a third chamber (entered by a staircase) is last up in the pyarmid.

Inside the red pyramid of Sneferu
The second chamber is durectly under the peak of the pyarmid  one of the alone pyramids to have this layout. The entry to the third chamber is about 25 feet above with a modern staircase, leading to a 23 foot passage. This is probably the inhumation chamber with a 50 ceiling. The floor has been unearthed in an seek to find other passages. The severe structural probles seen while building the Bent Pyramid at Dashur South, led Sneferu to build yet other pyramid, at a small length to the North. White from its limestone casing, this new pyramid is has a redish colour, therefore its modern-day name, the Red Pyramid. Its Ancient Egyptian name was  xa, The Shining One. An lettering learned at the base of this pyramid has indicated that work had started during the year of the 15th cattle count of Sneferu's reign. Since the cattle counts were held at strong intervals during this reign, this refers to somewhere between Sneferu's 15th and 30th year. Interestingly, a second dedication was found 30 runs of stones higher. it is dated 2 to 4 years later than the lettering found at the base. This gives an idea about the speed at which the Egyptians were able to build a memorial like this pyramid.

The work on this pyramid plausibly started when functional problems found when ramping up the Bent Pyramid affected the builders to temporarily break this project. The Red Pyramid was built with a slope of only 4322'. Its base length is 220 metres, that is 32 metres more than the Bent Pyramid. Its height is the very as the Bent Pyramid in its final state: 105 metres. The broader base and lower slope were meant to better spread the mass of this pyramid and therefore avoid the structural jobs that had temporarily blocked works on the Bent Pyramid. The national structure of this pyramid is a further continuation of the pyramid at Meidum and the Bent Pyramid. Contrary to this latter monument, however, there is only one internal structure, making it a lot more smooth. The entering is located high up in the Northern face of the pyramid. A descending passage leads down for 62.63 ms to a short level corridor. This is followed by two about identical antechambers with corbelled roofs. Both antechambers measure 3.65 by 8.36 meters and are 12.31 metres high. The burying chamber can only be reached via a short passage which opens high up in the wall of the second lobby. The burial chamber measures 4.18 by 8.55 ms. Its corbelled roof goes up to a peak of 14.67 meters. It is located well above groundlevel, in the effect of the pyramid.
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The Bent Pyramid of Sneferu

Bent Pyramid of Sneferu
The following pyramid usually associated with Sneferu is the Bent Pyramid. Some it and the Red Pyramid are placed at Dashur between Saqqara and the Meidum Pyramid. Whatever pyramids are near two thirds the height of the Great Pyramid. The Bent Pyramid is 101 ms high while the  Red  Pyramid  is  104  metres  high  which  is  about  the  height  of  a  30  story  building.

The  lower  part  of  the  pyramid  rises  from  the  desert  at  a  54-degree  lean,  but  the  top segment is built at the shallower angle of 43 points, lending the pyramid its very plain "bent" visual aspect. Archaeologists  now  believe  that  the  Bent Pyramid  being  a  transitional  form between  step-sided  and  smooth-sided pyramids. It has been indicated that due to the  steepness  of  the  particular  angle  of leaning  the  construction  may  have  got to  show  signs  of  instability  during construction, forcing the builders to adopt a  shallower  angle  to  avert  the  social system's collapse.  This  theory  comes out  to  be  borne out  by  the  fact  that  the  adjacent  Red Pyramid,  built  immediately  afterwards  by the  same  Pharaoh,  was  constructed  at  an angle of 43 degrees from its base. 

View in the lower main chamber of bent pyramid
This fact also belies the theory that at the original angle the construction would take too long because  Sneferu's  dying  was  nearing,  so  the  builders  transferred  the  angle  to  complete  the expression in time. In 1974 Kurt Mendelssohn indicated the change of the angle to have been made  as  a  protection  precaution  in  reaction  to  a  bad  collapse  of  the Meidum Pyramid while it was still under construction.

It is also unique amongst the or so ninety pyramids to be found in Egypt, in that its original processed limestone outer in case remains for the Nearly part intact. British functional engineer Peter James  attributes  this  to  larger  clearances  between  the  parts  of  the  casing  than  used  in  later pyramids;  these  imperfections  would  work  as  expansion  joints  and  preclude  the  successive wipe-out of the outer in case by thermal expansion.
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The Meidum Pyramid of Sneferu

The Meidum Pyramid of Sneferu
The Meidum Pyramid of Sneferu locate near the Faiyum area processed as a royal necropolis for the 3rd and 4th  Dynasties. A step pyramid at Meidum was likely started by Huni (r. 2599-2575  B.C.E.)  and  completed  by  Sneferu  (r. 2575-2551  B.C.E.). This  pyramid  was  erected  on  an earthen  platform  and  was  composed  originally  of  eight layers. The construction collapsed some time later, possibly as  late  as  the  New  Kingdom  (1550-1070  B.C.E.).  The external casing, however, was hurt and collapsed during  construction.  The  mummies  of  different  individuals were discovered in the leaving debris. Interior passages and  chambers  led  to  a  vertical  shaft  and  a  burying  room, which  was  lined  with  limestone.  The  remains  of  a wooden coffin were discovered in this corbeled chamber, and a mortuary temple was also found on the east side of the pyramid, checking two rounded stelae. A causeway besides led to a valley temple.

A serial of Fourth Dynasty (2575-2465 B.C.E.) Mastaba tombs surroundings the pyramid, some  bearing spectacular reliefs and statuary. The famous Meidum geese paintings  were  part  of  the  reliefs  in  the  grave  of  Nefermaat and  his  wife  Atet.  Near,  the  mastaba  of  Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret disciplined a unique portrait title statue group. The pictures and statues are in the  Egyptian  Museum  in  Cairo.  A  Fifth  Dynasty (2465-2323 B.C.E.) mummy was also observed in Meidum.
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King Sneferu (2575-2551)

Statue of Sneferu
King Sneferu was the first Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty (about 2600-2450). Identified as the first king for whom a true pyramid was manufactured as burial place. The cult of king Sneferu flourished in the Middle Kingdom, and in that period some people were identified after the king: the Middle Egyptian literary writing known as the Prophecy of Neferty is set in his reign. The first king of the 4th Dynasty was an active martial leader. His campaigns against the Nubians and the Libyans are shown on the Palermo Stone. He began trade with the Mediterranean nations and pioneered a series of construction projects throughout Egypt. To supply Egypt with timber, he sent a fleet of 40 ships to Lebanon. While there, he erected repositories to commemorate the effect. He built his mortuary complex at Dashur, accepting the Maidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid. The bent pyramid is opinion to be an architectural link between the Step Pyramid and the true pyramids. Sneferu was deify by the kings of the 12th Dynasty. Many of the rulers of that time made their own mortuary complexes beside his. 

Sneferu, the first pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, likely was the son of his precursor Huni and Meresankh I, one of Hunis secondary married women. His marriage to his half-sister, Hetepheres I, comes out to have legitimised his exact to the throne. Although the kings of the 4th Dynasty are thus descendents of the kings of the 3rd Dynasty, Manetho justifies his placing them in a separate dynasty because Sneferu come from a different line in the royal family. Next to Hetepheres, Sneferu was tied to at least two other but unknown queens, with whom he had different children. A first queen bore him 4 youngsters: one whose discover isanonymous, Nefermaat, Rahotep and Ranofer. Hetepheres only seems to have born him one child, Kheops. With his third wife, Sneferu may have had one or two children: Kanefer and perhaps Ankh-haf. Nefermaat and Rahotep were forgot at the cemetery of Meidum, near the pyramid often incorrectly credited Huni. This looks to suggest that they were an older genesis of Sneferu's young, from before he moved to the newer inhumation grounds of Dashur, some 45 kilometers to the North. According to Manetho, the first king of the 4th Dynasty ruled for 29 years, but Turin King-list column 3, line 9 only notes 24 years. The Palermo Stone mentions a 6th to 8th cattle count, but is unfortunately half at this point. It does point, however, that the cattle counts during Sneferu's rule were not always held at 2-year intervals, making it difficult to cans how long this king very ruled.

According to the said Palermo Stone, Sneferu closed an expedition to Lebanon to hold the high quality true cedar wood needed for the constructing of ships, holy barks and doors of palaces. He besides ordered one or more military expeditions into Nubia, bringing back a large quantity of people and cattle and is believed to be the founder of the fortress Buhen, near the 2nd cataract in Nubia. Although his bearing in the Sinai is no more different as that of his predecessors, he would later be precious as a god in this region. His private policy seems to have been aimed at maintaining royalty and the grand family. Most, but not all, of the high-placed officials and nobles at his court were members of his family. He was also responsible for rearranging the land ownership among his nobles, probably to forbid them from proper too powerful but also to stimulate the cultivation of marshes. It is generally believed that Sneferu was true for the completion of his precursors pyramid at Meidum, although there is no evidence of Huni's engagement in the building of that pyramid. It is therefor possible that Sneferu constructed the pyramid at Meidum, as well two pyramids at Dashur. It is unknown why Sneferu moved the location of the inhumation reasons to Dashur and not back to the more traditional Sakkara. The angle of the sides of the south pyramid at Dashur, believed by some to be the oldest of the two, was changed from 5431 to 4321 somewhere halfway the establishing, leading in the special shape of this so-called "Bent Pyramid". It has been argued that the angle was decreased in order to decrease the mass of the pyramid, fearing it would crumble otherwise, or in order to decrease the workload. The northern pyramid is the first "true" pyramid, with angles of 4336. It is called the "Red Pyramid" because of the colour its stones shine at sunset. The fact that it has nearly the same angle as the top of the Bent Pyramid, has constant the belief that the Bent Pyramid was the latest of the two.

Sneferu besides became somewhat of a popular form after his death. His monuments are observed in the Middle Kingdom story of Sinuhe and he himself is identified as a wise and kind ruler in the story on the Westcar Papyrus. The first king of the 4th Dynasty was an open military leader. His campaigns against the Nubians and the Libyans are qualified on the Palermo Stone. He began trade with the Mediterranean nations and initiated a series of building projects throughout Egypt. To supply Egypt with timber, he sent a fleet of forty ships to Lebanon. While there, he put up monuments to commemorate the event. He developed his mortuary complex at Dashur, taking on the Maidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid. The bent pyramid is thought to be an architectural link between the Step Pyramid and the true pyramids. Sneferu was deify by the kings of the 12th Dynasty. Many of the swayer of that time improved their hold mortuary complexes beside his. Sneferu was the break of the 4th dynasty and Nearly likely the son of his herald king Huni and one of his secondary wives - Meresankh I. By marrying one of his half-sister Hetepheres I, Sneferu became the pharaoh over the two countries. His queen appears to have given him but one lasting child - Khufu, but with two secondary checks he had: Nefermaat, Rahotep, Ranofer, Kanofer and Ankh-haf plus one whose name is stranger. The first two were swallowed at Meidum.

His internal policy seems to have been focused on keeping centralised power and keep it to spread among high-placed officials and noblesses. He therefore rearranged the land- ownership nation wide, belike to prevent these families from becoming too powerful. Sneferu completed the big pyramid at Meidum, a monument presumed to have been built by his father Huni. Then he for some strange reason, moved the position of the royal inhumation grounds from the remote southern Meidum to Dashur a trip of 90 km to the north just 10 km south of the old royal burying ground of the capital at Sakkara. At his new founded cemetery he erected two great pyramids.
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Famous Monuments in Luxtor

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Temple of Khnum at Esna



Temple of Khnum at Esna

The Temple of Khnum at Esna,  or  Isna,  was  constructed about  50  Kilometres  south  of  ancient Thebes,  better  knew  today  as  Luxor. The temple was devoted to the ram-headed deity Kum or Khnum, a female counterpart,  the  goddess  Neith,  and their son, leaving in a triad construction similar to Edfu.

It  has  3  precept  entrance doors and, as strange as it sounds, with some Inca  style  construction  of  unadorned design,  as  in  earlier  Egyptian  times  at the  Koricancha  temple  in  Cuzco,  Peru. Although there are older sophistications, most of the temple was primitively built during the (Greco - Roman) period, the Greek penchant for this place likely was to do with the fact that Greeks concerned the Egyptian goddess Neith with their goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

Dedicated to Khnum, the creator god who fashioned human-kind on  his  potter’s  wheel  using  Nile  clay,  the  temple  was  began  by Ptolemy  VI  Philometor  (180-145  BC)  and  built  over  the  ruins  of previous temples.  The hypostyle Hall, as it stands today, was constructed by Romans.  Parts of the ornaments date from as late as the 3 rd  Century  AD.  

In  the  design  of  this  temple  there  were  great  astrological imports as Khnum in a way is also a god of the universe on account  that  occasionally  he  is  was  as  a  ram  with  4 heads.  The ram in hieroglyphs acts spirit and as such each head is thought to represent the spirit of a several Egyptian god, Ra, Shu, Seb and Osiris as the four elements: "fire, air, earth and water",  all  of  which  make  the  easy  universe  or  Zodiac.  Khnum was  also  strongly  tied  to  Osiris  as  both  were  river  gods  that finally  got  the  Nile,  these  gods  were  eventually  merged and  worshiped  in  a  various  way.

The columns at the entry represent lotus flowers, a mythological symbolism of the birth of Ra, the Sun  god  that  supposedly  sprang  from  one  of  these  flowers  at  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  the universe.  Likewise in the walls of this temple are engraved a great number of calendars, and in the cap appears  a  great  Zodiac  agency  with  Egyptian  and  Roman  symbols.

Two pictures of the goddess Hathor at each face of the ceiling look giving birth to the sun, and the 37 men navigating in a boat representing the Dekans are depicted at her belly.  Inside of the Dekans (sky divisions) are the 12 Zodiacal symbols very similar to how they are known today.

On the temple’s eastward wall are colourful scenes  showing  the  pharaoh  catching  fish with the deities Horus and Khnum.  Some of the  royal  enemies  are  trapped  in  the  net with  the  fish.    Next  to  this  the  pharaoh  is shown confronting the temple to Khnum. Reliefs on the outside walls have scenes of the  pharaoh  taking  captives  by  the  hair, terrible  to  strike  them.    The  branches  of prisoners  are  shown  being  fed  to  lions. Whole that has been excavated of the Temple of  Khnum  is  the  hypostyle  hall,  which  sits rather incongruously in its big excavation pit among the houses and narrow alleys in the center of town.
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Temple of Horus at Edfu



Temple of Horus at Edfu

Temple of Horus at Edfu, devoted to Horus, the falcon headed god, it was established during the reigns of six Ptolemies. We have a great address of information about its construction from reliefs on outer areas. It was begun in 237 BC by Ptolemy III Euergetes I and was broken in 57 BC. Most of the work extended throughout this period with a brief interlude of 20 years while there was unrest during the point of Ptolemy IV and Ptolemy V Epiphanes.

This is not unique the best maintained ancient temple in Egypt, but the second biggest after Karnak. It was believed that the temple was constructed on the site of the great battle between Horus and Seth. Hence, the current temple was but the dying in a long serials of temples shape on this positioning. It is said that the original structure housing a statue of Horus was a grass hut built in prehistoric times. At any rate, there is an earlier and smaller pylon of Ramses II which models in a 90 degree angle to the current constructing.

The central building, which includes a great  Hypostyle Hall , was uncovered by Mariette in the 1860s. There are numerous reliefs, taking a depiction of the Feast of the Beautiful Meeting, the annual reunion between Horus and his wife Hathor. The reliefs are generally located on the inside of the first pylon, and spiritually associate this temple with Hathor’s Temple at the Dendera complex. During the 3rd month of summer, the priests at the Dendera complex would direct the statue of Hathor on her barque (a ceremonial barge) and would thus bring the statue to the Edfu Temple, where it was considered that Horus and Hathor shared a connubial visit. Each night, the god and goddess would recede to the mamissi, or mooring house. There is still an entrance colonnade to the mamissi, and reliefs with significant remaining color just out the main temple. These images portray the ritual of the birth of Harsomtus, son of Horus and Hathor.

The power pylons of the main Temple are about 118 ft high with typical settings of the pharaoh in battle with his enemies. Within the pylons is the colonnaded courtyard with distinctive, pared columns, which leads into the great hypostyle hall. But on either side of the courtyard there are gates which lead to an area behind the temple and inside the bounding walls. Here, there are dedications recording contributions of land which were credibly removed from demotic documents. There are also proud images depicting the frustration of Seth by Horus. There was an annual ritual addressed the known as the Triumph of Horus (10 harpoons) which ended in the slaying of a hippo, the symbol of Seth.

The frontage of the first hypostyle hall has images observing Horus and Hathor, and there is an immaculate ten foot tall giants of Horus as the falcon god here (a according colossi is was finished). As you enter the great hall, you will begin to notice the use of light Even though the temple was figure over hundreds of years, it is very harmonious, and ebbs and flow of lighting was certainly pregnant, portraying a looks of mystery. Just alone the hall are 2 close rooms, a robing room on the west and a library to the east where the priest would obtain the religious clubs of the day. Within this hall are scenes of offer including the temple foundation ceremonies.

Beyond the great hypostyle hall is a second, little hypostyle hall which takes to a well called the Chamber of the Nile where the Priests held pure sacred water. This is a similar arrangement as discovered at Dendera. On the west side of the room are doorways that lead to a small research lab with recipes engraved on the walls for ointments and perfumes which where used daily to anoint the statue of Horus, and to a treasure room where offerings were put in.

Beyond the second hypostyle hall is the offering hall, followed by the vestibule and last the sanctuary. There is a granite naos here dedicated by Nectanebo II, making it the oldest relic in the temple. It is probable that a golden gilded wooden statue of Horus about 60 centimeter tall would have occupied on the naos. This statue would have been handled for by the priests in a human manner, being washed, treated, anointed, fed and encouraged.
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Kom Ombo Temple



Kom Ombo Temple

Kom Ombo Temple is the give temple is magnificently located on elevated rock, but the Nile has more lately changed its course and many of the temple’s outer edifices have been clean away  or  seriously  denuded.  These  include  the  so-called  mammisi (birth house), which was begun during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Evergetes II (170–163 BC and again 143–116 BC), and parts of the mudbrick envelopment wall. The construction of the modern quay where tour boats moor has cut the risk of further erosion of the river bank. Past wrong has been conglomerate by the recent earthquake. 

Despite these problems, the temple of Kom Ombo still continues several distinctive features. Front among these is its base plan, which reveals that the temple is really divided into two halves down its central axis. Such a “double temple” is rare in Egyptian architecture. The north half of the temple is gave to the god Harwer (“Horus the Elder”) and his associate Tasentnefert (“the beautiful sister”), who is placed with the goddess  Tefnut,  and  their  offspring,  the  child  god,  Panebtawy  (“the  lord  of  the  two lands”). Panebtawy shares some of the features of Sobek, to whom the southern half of the temple is dedicated. Sobek, the crocodile god, is likewise a member of a triad of  deities  comprising  his  consort,  Hathor,  and  their  offspring,  Khonsu.  A  careful examination of the temple dedications and their location reveals that primacy is agreed to Harwer. This is particularly plain in the arrangement of the hieroglyphs on the outer hypostyle  hall’s  double  architrave,  beneath  which  are  twin  entrances  leading  to  each parallel half of the temple. Passing through the outer, central and inner vestibules, one eventually comes to the sanctuary, divided in half by a hollow central wall, perhaps to give approach to the now broken roof from which extended observations could be made. Some scholars maintain, however, that this passage was intended to hide a priest who would be the voice of an oracle in the name of either deity. Within each sanctuary is a  black  granite  stone,  incorrectly  called  an  altar.  These  were  originally  the  stands  on which rested the sacred barks of Harwer and Sobek, which were used in processions. A series of underground crypts, of versatile function but perhaps used to store worthy ritual objects, and a suite of symmetrically arranged rooms are discovered at the rear of the temple.

The temple itself is included on three faces by a corridor formed by extending the outer  walls  of  the  first  hypostyle  hall.  This  is  again  another  unusual  hold  of  the temple’s  architectural  design,  and  one  which  is  without  parallel  in  other  temples of Ptolemaic and Roman date. 

Other structures include a small chapel dedicated exclusively to the god Sobek in the northwest  of  the  temple  precinct,  bounded  by  the  enclosure  wall.  To  the  west  of  this structure is a curious pit, cut into the living rock and drawn with blocks of stone. This have has sometimes been named as a water tank, but some scholars, mentioning the analogy of the precinct of the Apis Bull at Memphis, have indicated that it was a devoted precinct where a keep crocodile, thematerialization of the god Sobek, was housed. In the southeast is the lateral gateway of the temple’s enclosure wall. This gateway was built by Ptolemy XII (80–57 BC and once again 55 BC) and is now the great entry to the temple. In the vicinity of this gateway and almost edging the enclosure wall is a small chapel to the goddess Hathor. The chapel has been regenerate into a museum which houses a choice of mummified crocodiles located in the vicinity of the temple.

Some of the temple reliefs are extraordinarily crafted and reveal a sensitivity to spatial concerns that is indebted to advances already abused in the reliefs of the temple of Seti I (19th Dynasty) at Abydos. One significant example is a scene on the west wall of the inside hypostyle hall where Ptolemy VIII Evergetes II is showed with his wife, Cleopatra II, and his daughter, Cleopatra III. The queens, each bearing the characteristically tightly right  sheaths  and  holding  floral  scepters,  form  the  left  hand  side  of  a  harmonious composition. The  contours  of  their  floral  crowns  are  harmoniously  balanced  by  the arrangement of their cartouches introductory their heads. Next comes Ptolemy VIII Evergetes II, who takes in his close hand a scepter shaped like the hieroglyph w3s and continues his far hand toward Harwer in a gesture of adoration. Ptolemy here wears a festive, light apparel which reveals the contours of his legs beneath. Delicate as these refers are, they should not unknown the fact that the imbrications of the properties held by Harwer in the far right of the composition thinks the arrangement of the properties held by Seti I and the deities he adores at Abydos. The three notched palm fronds held by the near hand of Harwer device in space and go beneath his spread far arm, which offers the scimitar to  Ptolemy  VIII  Evergetes  II.  This  contemporaries  of  space  is  a  masterful  induction  of pharaonic artistic tenets. 

The west wall of the Kom Ombo temple as well contains a rare, cultic relief, identified on the  important  axis  of  the  temple,  which  is  dated  by  its  accompanying  letterings  to  the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (AD 98–117). A winged sun-disc hovers over images of the wadjet eye (a protective symbol) and an array of charitable animal-form deities. The  center  of  the  relief  contains  a  hollowed-out  shrine,  flanked by pictures of ears, while images of Sobek, left, and Harwer, right, serve as vigilant pickets. In the lowest register are representations of bound prisoners. It has been suggested that this relief was created to meet the spiritual needs of lower status individuals who were unable to gain admission to the temple proper. They would make their supplications to an image of Ma’at, the  goddess  of  truth,  which  was  originally  placed  within  the  niche.  The  depicted  ears were there to guarantee that she would indeed hark to their prayers, and in so doing would  serve  them  in  wallowing  over  hardship  (in  the  form  of  the  bound  captives below). The entire scene may have been framed by a system of shutters which could be open  as  needed  by  specially  appointed  priests,  who  may  also  have  engaged  a balustrade to keep the petitioners at some length from the relief and the see of Ma’at.
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Temple of Hathor at Dendera



Temple of Hathor, Dendera

The  great  temple,  devoted  to  Hathor,  dates  to  the reign of King Khufu (Cheops, 2551–2528B.C.E.), and other from  the  Eleventh  Dynasty  (2134–1991  B.C.E.)  was  discovered near a sacred lake at Dendereh. The main temple was fashioned out of a stone platform on a sand base  with  a  mud-brick  enclosure  wall.  A  propylon entrance  leads  to  a  transverse  hypostyle  hall  with  24 columns.  A  second  hall  has  six  columns  and  a  short ramp. Also included in the temple are the Hall of Offerings, an inner lobby, and the Hall of the Cycle of the Gods. Several chapels are also in the complex, the Per-Ur, dedicated to the start of the new year; Per-Nu, honoring the journey of the goddess to Edfu; Per-Neser, devoted to the goddess as a lioness. Below, there are 32 treasure crypts. The essential temple backups at Dendereh also mention Pepi I (r. 2289–2255 B.C.E.), Tuthmosis III (r. 1479–1425 B.C.E.), and Ptolemy XII Auletes (r. 88–58, 55–51 B.C.E.). This structure also had a “Dendereh Zodiac” relief and a sanitarium where Egyptians were reportedly cured of illness through Hathor’s intercessions.

Hathor temple  inscriptions  were  studied  by  Dümichen  (1865–75),  Mariette  (circa 1879), and Heinrich Brugsch (circa 1880); systematic publication of the inscriptions was undertaken by Émile Chassinat, observed by François Daumas (1934–87) and is being kept  by  Sylvie  Cauville.  The  mammisi  were  studied  and  published  by  François Daumas (1959). The publication of the temple of Isis is in advance and will be surveyed by that of the north gate and the repositories situated outside the inclosure wall (i.e. the temple  of  Ptolemy  VI  Philopater  and  the  gateway  of  Horus).  Architectural  studies are being undertaken by Zignani of the Hathor temple and by Boutros of the basilica.

A structure  whose  axis  is  adjusted  with  the  heliacal  rising  of  the  star  Sirius  was made during the reign of Ramses II, so out the building of Ptolemy XII  by  great  1,200  years.  Astronomical  research  has  demonstrated  that  the  famous Dendera  zodiac  relief  was  conceived during  the  summer  of  50  BC;  it reveals  that Egyptian priests had a more advanced knowledge of astronomy than had antecedently been known. The ribbon of the Osiris chapels took place over 3 years, from 50–48 BC, and their startup took place on December 28, 47 BC (the 26 th day of Khoiak), the day of a zenithal wide moon, a alignment that takes direct only once every 1,480 years.

Temple of Hathor does not take issue appreciably from the project of the Edfu temple, the most  complete  cultic  memorial  of  the  Graeco-Roman  period.  This  plan  lies  of  a sanctuary, chapels and great liturgical halls alongside cult rooms to store the equipment and  offerings  required  for  the  daily  ritual  or  various  festivals.  The  architectural originality  of  the  temple  of  Hathor  domiciliate  in  the  majestic  crypts  contrived  in  the thickness of the walls and on three levels. The underground crypts helped as a sort of foundation  for  the  temple.  Inside  these  secret  spaces  were  stored  about  160  statues, which ranged from 22.5 to 210.0 centimeter in height. The best statues, made of wood, were sunk in an most inacessible crypt.
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