Philae Temple

The splendid Philae Temple (temple of Isis), set on an island surrounded by the blue waters of Lake Nasser, is one of Egypt’s most romantic sights, especially as you arrive by boat. For more than 800 years, until AD 550, this temple to Isis and Osiris was one of the most important Egyptian cult centers.

Ptolemaic and Roman rulers, keen to identify them selves with this powerful ancient Egyptian cult, all added their mark, making for an interesting blend of styles. The worship of Isis as the Mother of the Gods eventually spread all over the Roman Empire, and early Coptic art clearly associates the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus with Isis suckling her infant son Horus.

 

 The temple of Isis from Philae 

Originally the temple of Isis was built on the island of Philae facing Bigah Island, which was believed to be one of the burial sites of Osiris. But Bigah was accessible only to priests, so all the religious festivities took place on Philae. With the building of the first Aswan Dam the temple was submerged for half the year. In the 1970s when the High Dam threatened to submerge it completely, UNESCO and the Egyptian Antiquities organizations painstakingly moved the entire complex to nearby Agilkia Island, which had been landscaped to resemble Philae.

 

Philae. Columns

First Pylon and Columnade, Philae

Philae, Trajan's Kiosk

 

 

Trajan's Pavilion

 

 

 

 

Temple hieroglyphs on stone at Philae

 

Boats land near the oldest structure on the island, the Vestibule of Nectanebo I, beyond which lies a large court flanked by two elegant colonnades and the impressive first pylon of the temple of Isis. The small door to the left leads into a 3rd century BC Birth House, whose outside back wall shows some lovely scenes of Isis nursing Horus in the marshes. The main gate with two granite lions, leads to the second pylon, opening up to a Hypostyle Hall. The inner temple lost most of its decoration when it was converted into a church around AD 553, but the Sanctuary still contains Isis’s sacred barque, has a wonderful relief of the gods playing Kiosk of Tranhan, with its superb views across the lake.

Boat trip to Philae Temple:

The boat trip from the marina to Agilkia Island is short, but filled with picturesque scenery.  As  the  boat  ripples  through  the  tranquil  waters  of  the  Nile,  small  waves crash  into  even  smaller  islets  made  up  of  formations  of  titanic  round  rocks  that decorate the path towards the island. Eventually, Philae Temple appears gloriously on the horizon.

Around  the  small  marina  on  Agilkia,  Nubian  merchants  sell  colourful hand-made jewellery,  wooden  Nubian  miniature  dolls  and  animals,  straw  hats  and  pottery pots. Speaking  multiple  languages, merchants  approach  visitors  to present  their  wares.  However, visitors  can  hastily  climb  up  the gradient  to  meet  face  to  face with the temple.

Entering the open-court of pillars, the  temple  is  vast  and  epic. Philae  was  built  during  the Greco-Roman  era  under  the Ptolemaic dynasty.  The temple’s construction  lasted  over  600 years  and  was  dedicated  to worshiping  the  goddess  of motherhood and love, Isis, who was a deity for the Romans in Egypt. Unlike most temples in Egypt, each pillar at Philae in the open-court is topped with a lotus flower, some flowers open while others are closed. This  inconsistency was intentional to mimic and also differentiate between the style of the Pharaohs and that  of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty.  Ceremonial  processions,  enthroning  or  reaping occasions once took place in this court.

 

Trajan's Kiosk

Moving on to the pylon (the second structure in Egyptian temples), the number of entrances  to  the  temple  indicated  how  many  gods  or  goddesses  to  which  the temple was dedicated. This is why Philae has one gate devoted for Isis. The walls of the pylon have inscriptions of the Ptolemaic kings giving offerings to goddess Isis. The  third  part  of  the  temple  is  a  closed  hall  of  pillars  which  contains  the  room where  Horus,  son  of  Isis  is  said  to  have  been  born.  It  is  worth  noting  that  the inscriptions  on  pillars  of  the  temple  were  a  mixture  of  Pharaonic  and  Greek languages. This leads to the most scared part of the temple, the sanctuary where sacrifices and offerings were kept.

Medinet Hebu

Location of Medinet Hebu:

The  west  bank  at  Luxor  is  one  of  the  most important  archaeological  sites  in the  world. Thebes,  located  opposite  of  today’s  city  of Luxor,  was  the  capital of  Egypt  during  the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. With the  temples and  palaces  at  Karnak  and  Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and  the  Valley  of  the  Queens,  Thebes  is  testimony to Egyptian civilization at its height.

Temple of Medinet Hebu:

Medinet Hebu was both a temple and a complex of temples dating from the New Kingdom. The  area  was  one  of  the  earliest  places  within the  Theban  region to  be  associated  with  the worship of Amun. Hatshepsut and Tutmosis III built a small temple to Amun on the site of an the  site  of  an  earlier  structure.  Next  to their temple, Ramesses III built his mortuary temple, Medinet  Hebu’s  most conspicuous  standing monument.  Medinet  Hebu  was  erected  and enclosed with  massive  mud  brick-built  walls and became the focus of the administrative and economic life of the whole of Thebes. The  area  included  storehouses, workshops, administrative offices, and residences of priests and  officials.  The site  was  inhabited  well  into the Middle Ages (9 th  century A.D.). The original temple  underwent  many  alterations  and enlargements  in  the  following  1500 years. These considerably extended its plan by adding a columned hall, two pylons, and a court at the front.

Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III - sky view

 

The temple at Medinet Hebu of Ramesses III at Qurna

 Ramessid columns in the peristyle court

Ceiling decoration in the peristyle hall

Zone of decolourisation in court of mortuary temple of Ramesses III

The Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III

The  mortuary  temple  used  to  be  connected with the Nile by a canal, and a landing quay was built outside the enclosure wall. The entrance to the  temple enclosure  was  through  one  of  two fortified  gates,  of  which  only  the  eastern so-called "Pavilion" now remains. South of the last court  stood  the  brick-built palace,  now  badly damaged. Two building phases of the structure can  be recognized.  The  interior  of  the  palace was originally decorated with exquisite faience tiles.  The  "window  of  appearances"  connected the palace with the temple.


The Coptic Fresco of Saint Menas at Medinet Hebu:
Saint Menas has received his due share of attention  in religious literature, both in connection with  incidents  of  his  life  and  the  miracles which  he  performed, and  thus  it  is  surprising  to  find that none of the scenes at Medinet Hebu seem to portray incidents common to the literary record. The fact that such a concordance could not be established in a preliminary analysis has  necessitated  a detailed  study  of  the  documentary  material  concerning  the saint. Earlier studies of Menas have settled  neither the problem of where the saint was born and where he lived, nor the problems regarding the relations between his appearance on objects of art and the material of the literary legends.  The results of an investigation of these questions must  be given before the paintings can be considered in detail.

Ricostruzione dell’affresco di Medinet Hebu

Akhenaten's Hymn to Aten

Worship (Re-Horakhty who Rejoices in the Horizon) (In his Name as the Shu who is in the Aten Living forever and ever, the  Living Aten, the Great One who is in Jubilee, Master of all that the Aten encircles, Master of Heaven, Master of the Earth, Master of the Per-Aten in Akhet-Aten; and the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the one Living on Maat, Master of Regalia (Akhenaten), the long Lived; and the Foremost Wife of the King, whom he loves, the Mistress of Two Lands (Nefernefru- Aten Nefertiti), living, well, and young forever and ever. He says:

The praise of the sun-god Thou appearest beautiful in the horizon of the sky, O living Disk, beginning of life! When thou risest in the eastern horizon, Thou fillest every land with thy beauty. Thou art beautiful, great, Resplendent and exalted over every land. Thy rays encompass the lands To the extent of all things which thou hast made; (Since) thou art Re, thou bringest then all, Thou subjectest them to thy beloved son (though) thou art afar, thy rays are on earth; Thou art on their faces (and thus they feel?) thy steps.

(When) thou goest to rest in the western horizon, The earth is in darkenss, in the condition of death. (Men) lie in their chambers with their heads wrapped up; One eye seeth not the other. Their belongings are stolen (even when) lying under their heads, And they notice it not. Every lion cometh from his den, All serpents bite, Darkness (is their protection?) The earth (resteth) in slience (While) he who made them is in his horizon.

The earth is bright when thou risest on the horizon, Resplendent as the sun disk in day-time. Thou removest darkness (When) thou sendest thy rays. Both lands are in festival joy, Awakening and standing on (their) feet; Thou hast raised them up. Their limbs being bathed, they take (their) clothing; their arms are (lifted) in worship at they rising; (Thereupon) all the land perform their toil. All cattle rejoice in their grass; Trees and herbs are greening The birds are flying from their nests (seshu) Their wings are (lifted) in worship to thy being; All (wild) animals skip on their feet; the birds and all things fluttering (Feel) alive when thou hast arisen for them. The ships sail (on) the stream up and down alike; Every way is open when thou arisest. The fish in the rivers leap before thee; Thy rays are in the innermost of the great ocean.

Creator of issue in women, Maker of seed in men, who preserveth alive the son in his mother's womb And keepeth him quiet that he weep not, A nurse (for him even) in the (maternal) womb. Who giveth breath to keep alive all that he maketh; (When) it descendeth from the womb on the day of its birth; Thou openest its mouth, giving it voice; Thou makest what it doth need.

The young bird crieth in the shell (Because) thou givest it breath within to preserve its life. When thou hast given it strength to open the egg, It cometh from the egg to cry with full strength. It runneth on its feet When it cometh forth from it.

How manifold are (the things) which thou hast made! They are mysteries before Thou only god, whose place none else can take!

Thou hast created the earth according to thy heart Thou being alone Men, flocks, and all animals, Whasoever is on earth, Going on feet, Whatsoever is high in the air, flying with its wings, The foreign lands, Syria and Ethiopia, (And) the land of Egypt.

Thou assignest every man to his place, Thou makest what they need. Each one hath his food, and his lifetime is counted. The tongues are distinguished in speech; their forms and their skins are differentiated; (Thus) thou didst distinguish the strange nations.

Thou madest the Nile in the lower world. Thou bringest him according to thy liking. For furnishing life to mankind, As thou hast made them for thyself, Thou, their lord, (lord) of them all, Resting among them, Thou lord of every land Who ariseth for them, O sun-disk of the day, great of power!

All foreign countries, the remote, thou makest life for them; (Because) thou has placed a Nile in the sky, It descendeth for them; It maketh waves on the mountain like the great ocean, irrigating their fields in their towns.

How excellent are thy plans, O lord of eternity! Thou (hast established) the Nile in the sky for the foreign lands and for the wild beasts of every mountain country wandering on their feet; (But) the Nile cometh from the underworld for Egypt.

Thy rays nourish every green spot; (When) thou risest, they live and they grow for thee.

Thou hast made the seasons To produce all that thou makest; The winter to cool them, The (season of) heat (when) they (really) taste thee. Thou didst make the sky far away to rise in it and to behold all that thou makest.

Thou art alone, rising in thy forms as a living disk, appearing, shining, departing, and (again) drawing nigh. Thou makest millions of forms from thyself alone, Cities, villages, and tribes, Highways and rivers; every eye beholdeth thee before them (When) thou art the disk of day-tiem above (them). "Thou art in my heart. None other is there who knoweth thee except thy son, Akh-en-aten; Thou hast made him wise in thy plans and in thy power.

The (whole) earth is at thy command as thou hast made them. When thou hast risen, they (feel) alive. When thou hast set, they (feel) deed. (Thus) in thyself thou art lifetime; People live from thee; (All) eyes (are fixed) on they beauty until thou settest; All work is stopped (when) thou settest in the west.

Arising, thou makest (everything good) grow for the king Who hath been a servant following thee for thou hast founded the earth And raised it up for thy son, the one who came forth from thy limbs, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt,  Living in truth, lord of both countries,

Nefer-khepru-re (The Best of the Forms of the Sun) Ua-n-re (The Only One of the Sun) Son of the sun, living in truth, the lord of diadems, Akh-en-aten. Long (be) his life, And the chief royal wife, beloved of him, The mistress of both countries, Nefer-nefru-aten, Nefert-iti, Who liveth and flourisheth for ever and for eternity.