Kertassi kiosk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kertassi kiosk

The Kertassi kiosk is a small ancient Egyptian temple from Greco-Roman times . Until the construction of the Aswan High Dam , it stood at the entrance of an ancient quarry in the village of Kertassi or Qertassi ( Arabic كيرتاسي Kīrtāsī or قرطاسي Qirṭāsī ) on the west bank of the Nile, about 30 kilometers south of the dam . The place was called Tzitzis or Qirtās in ancient times.

In connection with the construction of the dam and the associated flooding of the place by Lake Nasser , the Kertassi kiosk was dismantled in 1960 and moved to the island of Neu-Kalabsha about one kilometer southwest of the dam wall in 1963. He is now in the immediate vicinity of the also offset Mandulis Temple of Kalabsha , both since 1979 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO .

description

Approximate coordinates of the original location: 23 ° 42 ′ 10 ″ N, 32 ° 53 ′ 29 ″ E

Hathor columns of the entrance

A kiosk is the special design of a small sanctuary in ancient Egypt in the form of a pavilion open on several sides . Of the former fourteen columns of the 8.3 × 8.3 meter kiosk in Kertassi, six are still preserved today. The columns on the long sides with their plant- shaped composite capitals supported a roof made of sandstone slabs with covings on the edges on a 25 m² rectangular floor plan over architraves . They were by Interkolumnienmauern connected to halfway up. The north-western column is the only one with an unfinished relief that shows an anonymous king before Isis and Harpocrates and which is dated to the Ptolemaic period by the style .

At the small side entrance that breaks through the west wall, presumably two entrances to the kiosk, one of which has been partially preserved, each had two columns with capitals depicting the head of the goddess Hathor . These Hathor columns are also known from other temple buildings, for example the Mammisi of the Isis temple in Philae or the Hathor temple near Dendera . The goddess Hathor was the patron saint of the quarry and mine workers, which corresponds to the former location of the kiosk on the northern edge of a quarry area. In connection with the equation of the goddesses Hathor and Isis since the New Kingdom, it is assumed that the kiosk of Kertassi, together with the temples of Debod and Dendur, was a station for the holy barque of Isis along a processional path .

literature

  • Günther Roeder , Friedrich Zucker : Debod to Bab Kalabsche. 3 volumes (= Les temples immergés de la Nubie. ). Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale et al., Cairo 1911–1912, esp. Vol. 1, pp. 146–160 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Kertassi kiosk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Joachim Willeitner : Abu Simbel and the temples of Lake Nasser. The archaeological guide . von Zabern , Darmstadt / Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-8053-4457-9 , p. 33-35 .
  2. ↑ Kalabsha in new splendor - Nubian temples are reopened after restoration. From: www.aegyptologie.com , accessed March 20, 2011 .
  3. ^ A b Alberto Siliotti: Abu Simbel and the temples of Nubia . Egypt Pocket Guide. 2nd Edition. Geodia, Verona 2005, ISBN 977-424-745-0 , p. 29 (Italian: Abu Simbel ei Templi della Nubia . Translated by Iris Kühtreiber).
  4. ↑ Marco Zecchi: Abu Simbel - Aswan and the Nubian Temples . Art and archeology. White Star Publishers, Vercelli 2004, ISBN 88-540-0070-1 , pp. 126 .

Coordinates: 23 ° 57 '36.5 "  N , 32 ° 52' 3.4"  E