Tabo (Nubia)

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Nubia
Plan of the Temple of Tabo
Colossal figure believed to represent Natakamani , a king of the kingdom of Meroe

Tabo is the modern name of a historic Nubian town. The name comes from a small village of the same name, which is located near the ruins.

Geographical location

Tabo is located a little south of Kerma , around 40 km north of Dunqula , at the southern end of Argo Island in the Nile .

Amun Temple at Tabo

There was an Amun temple here, which apparently was built in the Egyptian 18th dynasty , but was completely rebuilt by Taharqa . The temple is almost identical to those of the same ruler that he built in Kawa and Sanam . The temple is not well preserved. Two seven-meter-high colossi were found lying in front of its entrance, probably representing King Natakamani and drawn by travelers as early as the early 19th century. In 1970 the two colossal statues were brought to Khartoum and placed in front of the National Museum. The excavation evidence shows that the two statues were never erected, possibly because one of them broke trying to do so. During excavations, a gold-plated bronze statue of a Nubian ruler was also found.

The actual temple is 75.60 m long and about 31 m wide. The first pylon is 40 m wide, the second 35.50 m. From the dimensions it is one of the largest Nubian temples. There was a first courtyard with columns and a subsequent columned hall. In the back third was the Holy of Holies. This rear part of the building is severely disturbed by Meroitic alterations. The original plan can therefore no longer be fully reconstructed. In the first courtyard there was a kiosk that was built by an otherwise unknown Meroitic ruler. His name has not been fully preserved. The remains do not match any previously known ruler name.

The temple as a whole is very destroyed today. One reason for this condition is certainly the fact that there are no stones on Argo and the local residents therefore used this temple as a quarry. Stone blocks from the temple can therefore be found in many of the neighboring villages.

literature

  • Helen Jacquet-Gordon, Charles Bonnet, Jean Jacquet: Pnubs and the Temple of Atbo on Argo Island . In: The Journal of Egyptian Archeology . tape 55 , 1969, ISSN  0075-4234 , pp. 103-111 .
  • Friedrich W. Hinkel: Excerpt from Nubia . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich W. Hinkel: Excerpt from Nubia. Pp. 94-103.
  2. ↑ Helen Jacquet-Gordon: The Meroitic Kiosk at Tabo. In: Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. 32, 2005, ISSN  0383-9753 , pp. 95-104.

Coordinates: 19 ° 29 ′ 4.8 ″  N , 30 ° 25 ′ 36.2 ″  E