Dendera Temple complex

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Coordinates: 26°8′30″N, 32°40′13″E

Dendera Temple complex, (Ancient Egyptian: Iunet or Tantere). located about 2.5 km south-east of Dendera, Egypt. It is one of the best, if not the best, preserved complex in all Egypt. The area was used as the sixth Nome of Upper Egypt, south of Abydos.

Contents 1 Description 1.1 Hathor temple 1.2 The Dendera zodiac 1.3 Necropolis and crypts 1.4 The Dendera light 2 Tourism 3 Gallery 3.1 Hathor temple 3.2 Dendera Zodiac 3.3 Dendera Light 4 See also 5 External articles and references

[edit] Description

The whole complex covers some 40.000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mud brick enclosed wall. Dendera was a site for chapels or shrines from the beginning of history of ancient Egypt. It seems that pharaoh Pepi I (ca. 2250 BC) built on this site and evidence exists of a temple in the eighteenth dynasty (ca 1500 BC). But the earliest extant building in the compound today is the Mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – last of the native pharaohs (360-343 BC). The features in the complex include:

• Hathor temple (the main temple),
• Temple of the birth of Isis,
• Sacred Lake,
• Sanatorium,
• Mammisi of Nectanebo II,
• Christian Basilica,
• Roman Mammisi,
• a Bark shine,
• Gateways of Domitian & Trajan and
• the Roman Kiosk

[edit] Hathor temple

The all overshadowing building in the Complex is the main temple, namely Hathor temple (historically, called the Temple of Tentyra). The temple has been modified on the same site dating as far back as the Middle Kingdom, having modification done it up to the Roman emperor Trajan. ^[1] The temple construction date around estimated as beng around the 1st century BC. The existing structure was built no later than the late Ptolemaic period. The temple is one of the best, if not the best, preserved temple in all Egypt. The temple is dedicated to Hathor. Subsequent additions were added in the Roman times.

Layout elements of the Temple

1. Large Hypostyle Hall
2. Small Hypostyle Hall
3. Laboratory
4. Storage Magazine
5. Offering Entry
6. Treasury
7. Exit to Well
8. Access to Stairwell
9. Offering Hall
10. Hall of the Ennead
11. Great Seat and Main Sanctuary
12. Shrine of the Nome of Dendera
13. Shrine of Isis
14. Shrine of Sokar
15. Shrine of Harsomtus
16. Shrine of Hathor's Sistrum
17. Shrine of Gods of Lower Egypt
18. Shrine of Heathor
19. Shrine of the Throne of Re
20. Shrine of Re
21. Shrine of Menat Collar
22. Shrine of Ihy
23. The Pure Place
24. Court of the First Feast
25. Passage
26. Staircase to Roof

There are deptions of Cleopatra VI which appears on the walls of Dendera is a good specimen of the conventionality which pervades Ptolemaic Egyptian art.^[2] There is also a work of Cleopatra and her Son, Caesarion. ^[3] On the rear of the temple exterior, the carving exists of Cleopatra VII Philopator and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, fathered by Julius Caesar. Scottish painter David Roberts visited the partially excavated temple in 1838.

[edit] The Dendera zodiac

The sculptured Dendera zodiac (or Denderah zodiac) is a widely known Egyptian artefact, containing images of Taurus (the bull) and the Libra (the balance). The relief, which was on the ceiling of the pronaos (or portico) of Hathor temple, has been conjectured to be the basis onwhich later astronomy systems were based on. ^[4] During the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, Vivant Denon drew the circular zodiac, the more widely known one, and the rectangular zodiacs. In 1802, Denon distributed, after the the Napoleonic expedition, pictures of the temple ceiling. There existed a controversy as to how old the zodiac was, ranging from tens of thousands to a thousand years to a few hundred, and if the zodiac was a planisphere or a astrological chart. ^[5]

In 1820, Sébastien-Louis Saulnier commissioned Jean Baptiste Leloraine, a master mason, with the job to remove the circular zodiac with saws, jacks, and scissors constructed for the job. The zodiac ceiling was moved in 1821 to Restoration Paris and, by 1822, was installed by Louis XVIII in the Royal Library. In 1919, the zodiac moved to the Louvre .

The controversy around the zodiac, called the "Dendera Affair", involved people of the likes of Joseph Fourier (who estimated that the age was 2500 BC^[6]), Thomas Young, Jean-François Champollion, and M. Biot^[7]. Johann Karl Burckhardt and Jean-Baptiste Coraboeuf held that, after analysis of the zodiac, the ancient Egyptians understood the precession of the equinoxes. Champollion, among others, believed that it was a religious zodiac. Champollion deciphered the names of Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and Domitian on the ceiling of Dendera's temple and placed the zodiac in the era of Rome's rule over Egypt. ^[8]

[edit] Necropolis and crypts

The Dendera necropolis are series of mastaba tombs. The necropolis dates from the Early Dynastic Period of the Old Kingdom to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt. ^[9] The necropolis runs the eastern eadge of the western hill and over the northern plain. The subterranean Hathor temple tombs total 12 chambers. Some reliefs are dated to as late as Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos reign. The crypts reportedly were used for storing vessels and divine iconography. A opening in the "Flame Room" floor leads to a narrow chamber with representations on the walls of the objects which were kept in them. In the second chamber, a relief depicts Phiops of the Sixth Dynasty. He holds a statuette of the Ihi to four images of Hathor. In the crypt reached from the "Throne room", Ptolemy XII has jewelry and offerings for the gods.

[edit] The Dendera light

Hathor Temple has a controversial relief known as the Dendera light. The Dendera light images comprises three stone reliefs (one single and a double representation) in the Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex located in Egypt. The image is thought to be, by traditional egyptologists, of a mythological religious nature. These scholars state that this is a lotus flower, spawning a snake within, representing aspects of Egyptian mythology.^[10] It has been stated that ,

[...the] splendid but enigmatic reliefs of the crypt are cosmogonical and depict the serpent (dualizing principle underlying all creation: In Genesis the separation of heaven and earth) borne aloft by the lotus, the symbol of creation as a manifestation of consciousness.^[11]

Other egyptologists believe a alternative theory in which it is a representation of ancient technology. Controversy arose when the main object in the images was interpreted by some as electric lamps based on comparison to modern devices. Some have suggested that the egyptians had some form of understanding of the electric phenomena ^[12][13], from observing lightning and interacting with electric fish (such as the Malapterurus electricus) or other animals (such as electric eels), and that there were electric lights used in Ancient Egypt.^[14] Engineers have constructed a working model based on the relief and some authors (such as Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck) have produced a basic theory of the device's operation.^[15]

[edit] Tourism

The Dendera complex has long been one of the most tourist-explorable ancient Egyptian places of Worship. It used to be possible to visit virtually every part of the complex, from the crypts to the top most roof of Hathor temple, to every other monument located in the complex. This has changed in recent years. The top most part of the roof of Hathor temple has been closed for some years now. The last time it was open default was in 2003. The second stage of the roof was closed in November 2004, after a tourist got too close to the edge and fell to her death on the bedrock below.

[edit] Gallery

[edit] Hathor temple

Hathor Temple		Hypostyle Hall
	Temple of Hathor, Dendera	Bes at the Temple of Hathor, Dendera

[edit] Dendera Zodiac

Denderah Zodiac

[edit] Dendera Light

Crypt Ornamentation

Double representation on the right wall.

Double representation on the right wall.

[edit] See also

• Esne temple (in Esne)
• Baghdad Battery
• Antikythera mechanism
• Egyptian mythology
• List of Ancient Egyptian sites

[edit] External articles and references

Citations and notes

1. ^ Barbara Ann Kipfer, "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology". Page 153
2. ^ Sir John Pentland Mahaffy, "A History of Egypt Under the Ptolemaic Dynasty". Methuen & Co., 1899. 261 pages. Page 237 and 248.
3. ^ Mahaffy, Page 251.
4. ^ Zodiac of Dendera, epitome. (Exhib., Leic. square). J. haddon, 1825.
5. ^ Zodiac of Dendera, epitome. (Exhib., Leic. square). J. haddon, 1825.
6. ^ Francis Lister Hawks, "The Monuments of Egypt: Or, Egypt a Witness for the Bible". John Murray, 1850. 256 pages. Page 158.
7. ^ M. Biot, "Recherches sur plusieurs points de 1'Astronomie Egyptienne, appliquees aux monumens astronomiques trouves en Egypte". Paris, 1893. 8 Volumes.
8. ^ J. G. Honoré Greppo, "Essay on the Hieroglyphic System of M. Champollion, Jun., and on the Advantages which it Offers To Sacred Criticism". Saxton & Miles, 1842. 276 pages.
9. ^ Barbara Ann Kipfer, "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology".
10. ^ "Dendera Temple Crypt". iafrica.com.
11. ^ John Anthony West, "The Traveler's Key to Ancient Egypt". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Page 402.
12. ^ Bruno Kolbe, Francis ed Legge, Joseph Skellon, tr., "An Introduction to Electricity". Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908. 429 pages. Page 391. (cf., "[...] high poles covered with copper plates and with gilded tops were erected 'to break the stones coming from on high'. J. Dümichen, Baugeschichte des Dendera-Tempels, Strassburg, 1877")
13. ^ Heinrich Karl Brugsch-Bey and Henry Danby Seymour, "A History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs". J. Murray, 1881. Page 422. (cf., [... the symbol of a] 'serpent' is rather a fish, which still serves, in the Coptic language, to designate the electric fish [...])
14. ^ J. Norman Lockyer, "Dawn of Astronomy". Kessinger Publishing, 1992. 448 pages. ISBN 1564591123 Page 180. (cf., "[...] possibility that the electric light was known to the Ancient Egyptians.)"
15. ^ Krassa, P., and R. Habeck, "Das Licht der Pharaonen.". ISBN 3-548-35657-5 (Tr. The Light of the Pharaohs)

General Information

• Sicard, Charles Jacques Poncet, "Description de l'Égypte". Librairie d'éducation de Perisse frères, 1845. 378 pages
• Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain), "Library of Useful Knowledge". G. & C. Carvill, 1834. Page 16.
• "The Gentleman's Magazine". s.n., 1862. (Specifically, Page 135 to 136; ed., some vols. are reprints for Machell Stace, bookseller, 1806.)
• Jed Z. Buchwald, "Egyptian Stars under Paris Skies". pr.caltech.edu.
• R. A. Parker, "Ancient Egyptian Astronomy". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 276, No. 1257, The Place of Astronomy in the Ancient World (May 2, 1974), pp. 51-65
• Anatoly Fomenko, "History: Fiction or Science? Chronology". Mithec. ISBN 2913621074
• Marshall Clagett, "Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book". DIANE, 1989. ISBN 0871692147
• William Henry and Davenport Adams "Egypt Past and Present: Described and Illustrated". T. Nelson and Sons, 1885. 380 pages. Page 218 - 226
• The Dendera Reliefs, Catchpenny Mysteries.
• Frank Dörnenburg, Electric lights in Egypt?. 2004. (ed. An analysis of how the Egyptians didn't have electricity).
• Electricity in ancient times. WUFOC and NÄRKONTAKT.
• Mariette, Auguste, Dendérah , Bookshop A. Franck, Paris, 1875.
• Fischer, H.G., Dendera in the third millennium B.C. down to the theban domination of upper Egypt, J.J. Augustin publisher, New York, 1968.
• David Hatcher Childress, "Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients". Kempton, Ill. : Adventures Unlimited Press, 2000. ISBN 0932813739

Websites

• Dendera : Temple of Hathor, LexicOrient. 2005.
• L'intérieur du temple d'Hathor à Dendera (French; Interior of the temple of Hathor with Dendera)
• Dendera (French)
• The Temple of Dendera. touregypt.net.
• Dendera and the Temple of Hathor
• Christopher P. Dunn, "Advanced Machines in Ancient Egypt". The global education project.org.
• "Modern Past - Ancient Hi Tech Evidences". bibliotecapleyades.net. (ed., Batteries and electricity)
• "Dendera Temple, Dedicated to the Goddess Hathor". eriding.net.
• Shepherd Simpson, "Dendera Zodiacs". Galactic Astrologer.