Temple of Ellesija
The Temple of Ellesija is an ancient Egyptian temple from the 15th century BC. BC, which is now in the Museo Egizio in Turin . Originally the king ( Pharaoh ) Thutmose III let him . Not far from the fortress of Qasr Ibrim in Lower Nubia in today's Egypt , about 224 km south of Aswan , on the east bank.
The rock chapel ( Speos ) was cut into the steep rock walls above the Nile. It consisted of a forecourt made from the rock and the chapel with a cult niche. This contains the gods of Horus of Miam, Thutmose III. and the goddess Satis .
Damage from the Amarna period was restored in the time of Ramses II . The left figure (Satis) was transformed into Amun-Re . The restoration work was presumably subordinate to the Nubian viceroy Setau . This is evidenced by a rock stele to the right of the entrance, which was installed by Setau and two further depictions of Setau on the side walls of the niche.
From the 6th century AD, the temple was used as a place of worship by Christians , as evidenced by pentagrams and crosses that were carved over older scenes.
Numerous cultural monuments were threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam . In a UNESCO project in the 1960s, some monuments were moved to higher elevations. Five of the threatened buildings were relocated abroad. Among them the Temple of Ellesija, which was given to Italy in 1966 and rebuilt in the Museo Egizio in Turin.
literature
- Dieter Arnold : The temples of Egypt. Apartments for gods, places of worship, architectural monuments. Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-7608-1073-X , p. 81.
- Silvio Curto, Matilde Borla et al .: Lo speos di Ellesija. Un tempio della Nubia salvato dalle acque del lago Nasser. Scala, Bagno a Ripoli 2010, ISBN 978-88-8117-109-5 .
- Silvio Curto: Il Tempio di Ellesija. Electa, Milano 1999, ISBN 978-88-435-6980-9 .
- Irmgard Hein: The Ramessidic building activity in Nubia (= Göttingen Orient Research. 4th row: Egypt. Volume 22). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 978-3-447-03080-9 , pp. 26-27.
- Kirsten Konrad: The Hemispeos from Ellesija. On the decoration systematics and interpretation of an Egyptian rock temple. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. (SAK) Vol. 30, Hamburg 2002, pp. 229-248.
