Another day, another temple. This morning, it was the temple of Dendara, which dates back to the Ptolemaic period. To reach the site of the temple, we drove north about 40 miles from Luxor to the city of Qena. Qena is an important industrial city and the surrounding area is known for sugar production. With three large sugar factories, it’s no wonder sugar cane syrup is so popular with Egyptians.
It was a journey of approximately two hours, and along the way, I got a good look at local life in this part of Egypt. If there are helmet laws for motorcyclists, they’re routinely ignored. Although there were areas of agriculture and settlement, there were still large stretches of barren land.
I also learned more about contemporary Egypt from Hussein. For example, there is compulsory military service for men. With regard to the political system, Egypt is a republic. The 515 elected members of the parliament serve four-year terms. The president is also elected for a four-year term and is limited to two terms. However, a special amendment has allowed President el-Sisi to run as long as he wants. Hmmm. The 27 provincial governors of the different regions of the country are appointed directly by the president. There are no municipal elections. We didn’t discuss certain topics, such as government censorship or oversight of the media and private communications.
We drove through the heart of the city around half past eight in the morning. It looked nothing like Cairo.
When we crossed over to the other side of the Nile, the landscape gradually became more suburban looking.
We reached the Dendara archaeological site around 9am. One of the first things I noticed is that the whole complex was surrounded by massive walls.
The main temple in the complex is dedicated to the goddess Hathor. It was built on a site that was sacred as far back as the Old Kingdom (c. 2250 BCE). Construction of the temple began in the late Ptolemaic period and was completed about 100 years later in the early Roman period (between the mid-1st century BCE and the mid-first century CE).
Hussein told us that the temple had been covered with sand for several centuries. Part of the temple was transformed into a Coptic church and that explained the defaced carvings and the sooty surfaces. Fortunately, parts of the temple were recently cleaned and Dendara’s main temple is now considered the most colorful temple in Egypt.
Only the pharaoh and the high priest had access to the temple’s sanctuary, which contained a golden statue of Hathor. Every morning, the priest would take the statue of the goddess upstairs to a roofless area of the temple where it would be exposed to the sun.
This is what remains of the temple’s hypostyle hall.
One of the best-known features of the temple is an astronomical scene known as the Dendara Zodiac, a circular bas-relief on the ceiling of one of the temple’s chapels. It was created around 50 BCE and depicts the 12 signs of the zodiac in a star map. Seeing the zodiac got us thinking about the calendar used by the ancient Egyptians. They actually used several different calendars. According to Hussein, the zodiac relief is based on the calendar that used 10-day weeks known as decans. A 30-day month consisted of three of these weeks and a 360-day year contained 36 weeks plus an additional 5 festival days. I did a little research and learned that the workweek typically lasted for nine days followed by one day of rest.
Hussein told us that we were actually looking at a plaster replica of the original artifact, which was removed (using explosives) in 1821 by a French collector of antiquities. The original is now at the Louvre Museum in Paris and there’s a campaign underway in Egypt to have it returned for display in the Grand Egyptian Museum. The replica at Dendara is covered with such a thick layer of soot from candles and torches that it was nearly impossible to appreciate the designs.
However, in other areas of the temple, we were able to admire the beautiful scenes painted on the ceilings.
The sky goddess Nut is shown with outstretched wings to protect the cosmos.
An usual feature of the temple is its multi-chambered underground crypt. Archaeologists believe this was used for storage of religious objects.
The complex includes 2 birth houses (mammisis). The purpose of the birth house was two-fold. First of all, it celebrated the divine birth of a god or goddess. Secondly, it reinforced the idea that the pharaoh, as the son of the god, had a divine right to rule. The older birth house in Dendara is from the 4th century BCE and the newer one, called the Roman mammisis, dates back to the early 2nd century CE.
A small chamber in the Roman birth house features a picture of the god handing the baby to the mother and a series of images showing the goddess nursing her baby for seven days.
Outside the birth house, I recognized the dwarf god Bes, protector of pregnant women and childbirth. He was also the god of fun. (childbirth and fun? a strange combination)
Notable carvings on the façade of the main include this relief carving of Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion. She hoped Caesarion would succeed her on the throne of Egypt.
As we walked around the site, I was fascinated by a series of carvings showing male and female figures making offerings to the gods. In Hellenistic art, women’s bodies are much more exposed than during earlier times. Look carefully, and you'll see the variety of hair styles and decorative details in the clothing. Each figure was endowed with a certain sense of individuality. This is quite a break from more traditional ancient Egyptian art.
These carvings were located in a “waiting area” just behind the temple. When average Egyptians wanted to make a request of the god or goddess, they had to line up outside the main temple in order to convey their requests to the priest. Of course, there was a fee involved for this service, and this is one of the ways that the temple generated money.
In the bottom row of this carving, you can clearly see the crown of the North (Lower Egypt) on the left, the crown of the South (Upper Egypt) in the middle, and the combined crown of unified Egypt on the right.
Hussein was excited to point out an elephant (imported from India) carved onto the wall of the temple. He said this is the only place he’s ever seen an elephant portrayed.
I enjoyed meeting a group of school girls who were visiting the site with their class. They were eager to try out their English and to take selfies with members of our group.
After lunch on the Nefertiti, I had time to take a walk around Luxor on my own. Of course, most of the shops on the level of the dock were catering to tourists looking for souvenirs.
In fact, found myself right beside Luxor Temple. So I got a little daylight preview of the temple we’d be visiting later, after dark.
The sun sets early in December, and it was already dark when we set out around 5pm to see Luxor Temple complex. The pharaoh Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankhamen, built the original temple around 1400 BCE. At that time, the city was known as Thebes. The temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra (king of the gods), Mut (his consort), and Khonsu (their son, the moon god).
Ramses II expanded the temple and raised two obelisks in front of it. But you’ll notice that there’s only one obelisk in front of the temple now. That because back in the 1830s, Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, gifted one of them to King Louis Philippe of France. It now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. I doubt if the French would be willing to return it to Egypt.
Ramses II also built the massive entrance gateway which is decorated with scenes from the battle he fought against the Hittites in Kadesh. Two colossal seated statues of Ramses II flank the gateway. With the dramatic illumination by flood lights, the temple was truly a sight to behold. The only problem was the crowd of people who were constantly blocking my view.
The temple in Luxor is connected to the larger temple in Karnak by a 2.7 kilometer (1.2 mile) processional avenue lined with sphinxes. The avenue is currently being restored. During the annual multi-day Opet festival, priests carried statues of Amun-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu from Karnak Temple along the processional route to Luxor Temple where rituals were performed to symbolically confirm the pharaoh’s divinity and royal authority.
The 32 columns of the hypostyle hall tower over the visitors.
This cartouche contains the coronation name of Ramses II.
Hapi, the hermaphroditic god of the Nile, also appears in reliefs at Luxor. He is shown as a pair of identical figures, both wearing a headdress of aquatic plants – the lotus for Upper Egypt or the papyrus for Lower Egypt. They appear to be tying together the plants of the two lands, which is symbolic of the unification of Egypt. (5773)
The holy of holies, i.e. the sanctuary, was rebuilt by Alexander the Great. In the innermost sanctuary, Hussein pointed out a small cartouche that contained Alexander’s name.
The Romans used part of the temple as a Roman temple for its soldiers. Then, in 395 CE, a Coptic church was established within the temple. After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640 CE, the church was converted into a mosque. In the 13th century CE, the Abu Haggag Mosque was built on the site. It remains an active place of worship to this day. The minaret of the mosque is visible in the photo below.
While I was at the Luxor temple complex, I found some very useful information for visitors: the cartouches for many of the pharaohs. I wish I had known this sooner. There are two cartouches for each pharaoh. One is the pharaoh’s personal name, which was given at birth. The second was the pharaoh’s coronation or throne name. This was their official public name. For example, here are the two cartouches for Hatshepsut. Her throne name is the longer name on the left.
And for those of you who are history-obsessed like I am, here are the cartouches of a few more familiar pharaohs:
By the end of the visit to Luxor temple, my brain was overloaded with facts and images. I was looking forward to a good night’s restorative sleep so I’d be ready for the following day. As much as I love seeing ancient temples, I was thrilled when I checked the agenda for tomorrow and saw that there were no temple visits scheduled!
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