The Greco-Roman temples discussed here are a very small sample. Basically much of what has survived are provincial temples built of sandstone in the far south of Egypt and in Nubia. Blocks of temples built in limestone farther north in Egypt were often recycled, and the southern temples have a disproportionate prominence in the evidence.
Dendera was the capital of the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt. Although temples were constructed there from the Old Kingdom onward, the buildings visible there today date to Greco-Roman times (see Figure 10.2). The main temple was built for the cult of the goddess Hathor, with a much smaller temple for (the birth of) Isis to the south.
Flinders Petrie did a survey at Dendera in the late 19th century, and excavations were conducted there 1915 -18 by Clarence Fischer of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. The French Archaeological Institute, Cairo (IFAO) has mapped the temple enclosure and the cemetery, which includes important tombs of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. Auguste Mariette was one of the early scholars to study the temple inscriptions, with systematic publication of the inscriptions in the 20th century by French scholars Emile Chassinat, Francois Daumas, and Sylvie Cauville. Architectural studies of the Hathor temple are being conducted by Pierre Zignani.
The Dendera temple was surrounded by a huge mud-brick wall, entered through a gate on the north side, which was built during the reigns of the Roman emperors Domitian and Trajan. Most Egyptian temples were oriented toward the Nile and the unusual orientation of this temple (facing north) is due to the bend in the river, which flows from east to west there.
The temple’s ground plan is of classic formal design, with outer and inner hypostyle halls leading to an offering hall and sanctuary, which are surrounded by 11 chapels. The courtyard and northern wall are unfinished. To either side of the offering hall are staircases leading to the inner temple’s roof, where there are rooms dedicated to the cult of Osiris. The ceiling of one of these chapels was decorated with the famous “zodiac”
Figure 10.2 Plan of the Greco-Roman temple of Hathor at Dendera. Source: Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 440. By permission of Oxford University Press
Figure 10.3 The Ptolemaic zodiac relief from the ceiling of a small chapel in the Temple of Hathor, Dendera, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris. Musee du Louvre, Paris, France/The Bridgeman Art Library
Relief, removed by Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition and now in the Louvre Museum (see Figure 10.3). Recent research demonstrates that the Dendera priests had a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy: rites inaugurating these chapels took place on December 28, 47 bc, on the day of a full moon at zenith - a conjuncture that only occurs every 1,480 years.
The inner temple was built in late Ptolemaic times. Many cartouches there were never inscribed with kings’ names - reflecting conflicts in the royal family. Decorated “crypts,” rooms and spaces for storing temple equipment and texts, were located in this part of the temple, within the outer wall.
On the temple’s southern exterior wall are reliefs of the last Ptolemaic rulers, Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV Caesarion. The temple’s northern facade, behind which is the outer hypostyle hall, was dedicated during the reign of Tiberius.
To the northwest of the temple are four buildings: a “sanatorium,” two “birth” houses, and a church. The sanatorium was where visitors came to be magically healed, either through bathing in sacred water, or incubation - hopefully dreaming of the goddess’s healing while sleeping there. Birth houses (mammisi), were built within temple precincts to celebrate the divine birth of the deity’s offspring, in this case Hathor’s son Ihy. The earlier birth house at Dendera is Ptolemaic, but was begun during the Late Period. The later one dates to the 1s* century ad, built under Augustus and decorated during Trajan’s reign. The early Coptic church, which is located between the two Dendera birth houses, dates to the 5'h century.
Philae Island at the First Cataract was the site of a very impressive temple complex built mainly in Greco-Roman times (see Plate 10.4). The temples were submerged after construction of the first Aswan Dam, and after the Aswan High Dam was built in the late 1950s plans were made by UNESCO to move the entire Philae complex to higher ground on nearby Agilkyia Island. But even before the temples could be dismantled, the entire complex had to be surrounded by a huge coffer dam and water was pumped out. The rebuilding was finally completed in 1980, and the Philae temples can now be seen in the same relative arrangement as on Philae Island.
One fortuitous aspect of this project is that as the Philae temples were dismantled, earlier structures and reused blocks were revealed, extending back in time what is known about the temple complex. Although the earliest dated monument on Philae was a small 26*h-Dynasty kiosk of Psamtek II, even earlier mud-brick houses on the island’s west side may date to the 25*h Dynasty (Kushite). Another Saite king, Amasis, built a small temple on the island. The last indigenous ruler to build there was the 30*h-Dynasty king Nectanebo I, who erected a monumental gate and a large kiosk, later dismantled and re-erected overlooking the river on the island’s southwestern side.
With the Ptolemaic Dynasty Philae became a great cult center for the goddess Isis. To the north of Amasis’s temple, a new temple was built with scenes and inscriptions of Ptolemy II on the interior. In the temple’s sanctuary, the stand for the goddess’s bark is inscribed with the cartouches of Ptolemy III and his wife Berenike. This king’s name also appears in the oldest parts of the mammisi, similar to that at Dendera, which was erected to the southwest of the Isis temple.
With the dismantling of Amasis’s temple, a space was cleared for a colonnaded area and a pylon, which were added onto the southern side of the Isis temple. The old mud-brick enclosure wall was also removed and the great (first) pylon was built to either side of Nectanebo’s gate by Ptolemy VI. During the reign of Ptolemy VIII the mammisi was enlarged, and decoration of the exterior walls continued into the Roman Period.
Other structures in the Philae complex include temples of Hathor and Horus the Avenger (Harendotes). There is also a Ptolemaic temple for the Nubian deity Arensnuphis (later converted into a church), and a chapel for the deified Imhotep (Asklepios), the 3rd-Dynasty architect of Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Two nilometers were carved in the rock on the western side of the island, to measure the height of the annual Nile flooding there.
During Roman times a considerable amount of building was undertaken at Philae. Under Augustus eastern and western colonnades were built to the south of the first pylon, and a temple was erected on the north side of the island. A gateway to the west of the main temple was built under Hadrian, and a gateway and quay were built on the island’s northeastern side under Diocletian. Perhaps most impressive architecturally is the kiosk of Trajan, with 14 columns between which are screen walls with huge stone architraves above (see Plate 10.5).
Although the Blemmyes and Nobadae were allowed to continue to worship in the Philae Temple of Isis (in an agreement of 451-52), two churches on the northern side of the island co-existed with the temple. In the later 6th century the temple’s columned hall was finally converted into a church.
Sites Outside the Nile Valley
World History
