Wadi as-Subu '

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Ascent with sphinxes and pylon of the Amun temple

Wadi as-Subu , also Wadi es-Sebua, ( Arabic وادي السبوع, DMG Wādī as-Subūʿ  'Valley of the Lions', ancient Egyptian: Per-Amun ) was a place in Lower Nubia , about 180 km south of Aswan on the west bank of the Nile .

The Arabic name "Valley of the Lions" is derived from the sphinxes that stand in front of the temple. The place once had an important strategic importance, as a caravan route passed here. It had been settled at least since the Middle Kingdom . Amenhotep III built a small rock chapel here.

The Amun Temple

Ramses II finally designed a spacious temple for the god Amun at this point . The temple was designed as a hemispeos , so that the sanctuary was carved into the rock, but the front temple parts were built free-standing.

Osiris pillar courtyard

The temple once had three pylons . The first two were made of bricks from the Nile , of which only the stone doorway remains. The first pylon is followed by three sphinxes with lions' bodies on the left and right, after the second pylon there are four falcon-headed sphinxes and in front of the third pylon there were once colossal statues of the king, of which only one is upright. The third pylon is decorated with the classic motif of slaying the enemy. An Osiris pillar courtyard follows the pylon. From there a staircase rises into the actual rock temple . It leads into a 12-pillar hall, from which it continues into a cross room that finally leads into three chapels.

The temple is built in the rather rough, Nubian style that characterizes several temples of Ramses the Great.

Conversion as a church

After Christianization , the pillar hall in the rock was converted into a church . The two central pillars on the entrance side were connected to one another by installing a semicircular apse , so that a chancel was created. In the area up to the central pair of pillars, a small transverse rectangular nave was built . The baptistery was a separate room in the southeast corner of the temple hall. The wall paintings are dated to the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century. The redesign of the walls led to a curiosity: a relief was adjusted in such a way that Ramses no longer sacrifices the solar barge of Re-Harachte , but rather Peter with the heavenly key.

Relocation of the temple

Since its former location was threatened by flooding due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam , the temple was dismantled in 1964 by the Egyptian Antiquities Service with American support and rebuilt two kilometers northeast of its old location. The temple stands on the 1979 World Heritage List of UNESCO .

The temples of ad-Dakka and al-Maharraqa were also rebuilt in New Wadi as-Subu ' .

literature

  • Auke A. Tadema, Bob Tadema Sporry: Company Pharaoh . Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1978, ISBN 3-7857-0213-2 .

Web links

Commons : Temple of Wadi es-Sebua  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: New Subūʿ  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Derek A. Welsby : The Mediaval Kingdoms of Nubia. Pagans, Christians and Muslims on the Middle Nile. British Museum Press, London 2002, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4 , p. 143.
  2. ^ Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae - UNESCO World Heritage Center

Coordinates: 22 ° 47 '35 "  N , 32 ° 32' 42.9"  E