Dendur
Dendur was a place in Lower Nubia , 75 km south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile , which today is sunk in Lake Nasser . A small temple stood here, which was built by the Roman governor Petronius in the name of Emperor Augustus around 15 BC. In the Egyptian style. The temple was dedicated to the god Osiris , his wife Isis , their son Hor-pa-chered and the sons of a well-known Nubian chief Pe-Hor and Pede-ese.
The temple
The sandstone building was relatively small. From the pylon one came into a small courtyard and then to the actual temple building (6.55 × 13 m). A first room had two fluted columns with papyrus capitals at the entrance. Behind it were two more rooms, the latter of which was the holy of holies. The temple was rededicated as a church by King Eiparnome in the 6th century . The Coptic inscription, with which Eiparnome announced the order to transform the temple, is on the southern door of the pronaos . The date can be interpreted as 544, 559, or 574 AD.
The temple threatened to sink into Lake Nasser in 1962. The Egyptian government donated the temple to the Americans as a thank you for their contribution to the international campaign to save the Nubian monuments - especially the Abu Simbel temple. It was therefore dismantled and rebuilt in 1978 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York .
The Masonic Lodge in Boston, Lincolnshire , United Kingdom , built 1860–1863, is a replica of the Temple of Dendur and is inscribed in hieroglyphics : “In the 23rd year of Her Majesty's reign, the royal daughter, Victoria , the most gracious Woman, was this building built ”.
literature
- Dendur. In: Hans Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , p. 156f.
- Dieter Arnold : Temples of the last Pharaohs. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1999, ISBN 0-19-512633-5 , pp. 244-246.
Web links
- Website of the MMA New York (engl.)
- Egyptology Forum
- William H. Rocket: A Temple at the Met. Saudi Aramco World, May / June 1980
Coordinates: 23 ° 22 ′ 59 ″ N , 32 ° 57 ′ 0 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegfried G. Richter : Studies on the Christianization of Nubia. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-89500-311-5 , pp. 164-172.
- ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art
- ↑ James Stevens Curl: The Egyptian Revival. Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West . Routledge, Abington 2005. ISBN 9-78-0-415-36119-4, pp. 326f.