The Edfu Temple is extensively considered to be the most impressive of all of the Nile- side temples along the trip between Luxor and Aswan. It’s a must stop by all of the cruise ships that make the trip, also stopping at Esna and Kom Ombo.
Like at Esna, the temple at Edfu is a late construction. It was constructed during the Ptolemaic Period, but the builders painstakingly saved the form of Egypt’s true dictators. As a result, a visit to Edfu allows you to see what all of the other ruined temples around Egypt might have looked like had they been constructed 2000 years after.
Where Is Edfu Temple?
The Temple of Edfu is located in the center of the city of Edfu, in Aswan, By the 19th century, the vill extended into the temple with some houses actually standing on the roof of the sand- filled temple. Now the structures have been cleared down, but the excavation is still veritably apparent since the girding structures look down into the temple complex, which is several measures below the ultramodern ground position.
The temple is veritably complete, including a pylon that was constructed by Cleopatra’s father in the first century BC, which leads into a terrace court and also a hypostyle hall that precedes the sanctuary of Horus, the ultimate and most important part of the temple. All of this replicates the standard layout of a New Kingdom pylon temple, the remains of which can be seen at numerous other sights around Luxor and along the Nile Valley. The Temple of Horus at Edfu is by far the most complete illustration of this architectural style.
Take A Tour Inside Edfu Temple
Beyond the Roman mammisi( birth house), with some colourful carvings, the massive 36m-high pylon( gateway) is guarded by two huge but splendid determinedness statues of Horus as a falcon. The walls are decorated with colossal reliefs of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos, who’s holding his adversaries by their hair before Horus and is about to smash their craniums ; this is the classic propaganda disguise of the almighty pharaoh.
Beyond this pylon, the court of immolations is girdled on three sides by 32 columns, each with different flowery capitals. The walls are decorated with reliefs, including the ‘ Feast of the Beautiful Meeting ’ just inside the entrance, the meeting being that of Horus of Edfu and Hathor of Dendara, who visited each other’s temples each year and, after two weeks of great fertility festivities, were magically united.
A second set of Horus falcon statues in black determinedness once adjoined the entrance to the temple’s first or external hypostyle hall, but moment only one remains. Inside the entrance of the external hypostyle hall, to the left and right, are two small chambers the bone
on the right was the temple library where the ritual textbooks were stored; the chamber on the left wing was the hall of blessings, a sacristy where lately cleaned blankets and ritual vases were kept.
The hall itself has 12 columns, and the walls are decorated with reliefs of the temple’s founding.
The inner hypostyle hall also has 12 columns, and in the top left part of the hall is maybe this temple’s most intriguing room the temple laboratory. Then, all the necessary scents and incense fashions were precisely brewed and stored, their constituents listed on the walls.
Exit the inner hypostyle hall through the large central doorway to enter the immolation chamber, or first portal, which has an altar where diurnal immolations of fruit, flowers, wine, milk and other foods were left. On the west side, 242 way lead up to the rooftop and its fantastic view of the Nile and the girding fields.( The roof is closed to visitors.)
The second anteroom gives access to the sanctuary of Horus, which contains the polished- determinedness sanctum that formerly housed the gold cult statue of Horus.
Created during the reign of Nectanebo II( 360 – 343 BC), this sanctum, or house of the god, was reused by the Ptolemies in their newer temple. In front of it stands a replica of the rustic dinghy( boat) in which Horus ’ statue would be taken out of the temple in procession during gleeful occasions the original is now in the Louvre, Paris.
On the eastern quadrangle wall, look for the remains of the Nilometer, which measured the level of the river and helped prognosticate the coming crop.
Discover the Secret of ancient Egypt by booking one of our tours during your Egypt vacation.
