Temple of Dendur
The Temple of Dendur (Dendoor in the 19th century) is a Roman Egyptian religious structure originally located in Tuzis (later Dendur), Nubia about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of modern Aswan.[1][2] Around 23 BCE, Emperor Augustus commissioned the temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis and deified brothers Pedesi and Pihor from Nubia.[3][4]
Temple of Dendur
10 BCE
Aeolian sandstone
Egyptian religion and mythology
4.9 m × 6.4 m × 13 m (16 ft × 21 ft × 43 ft)
68.154
In 1963, as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, UNESCO helped rescue and relocate the temple from flooding caused by the Aswan High Dam.[5] Egypt gave the temple to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which has exhibited it since 1978.[2]
Damage and graffiti[edit]
When it was along the Nile, visitors to the temple inscribed graffiti on the structure.[14] As early as 10 BCE, a visitor carved an oath on the north wall of the pronaos near the image of Pihor.[14] There is also graffiti on the pylon.[14] In the 19th century, European visitors left graffiti on the temple walls.[14] British naval officer and later Rear Admiral Armar Lowry Corry carved the prominent inscription, "A L Corry RN 1817", on the left side as one enters the temple.[14] Italian Egyptologist Girolamo Segato also left a graffiti inscription.[14]
Some damage was caused in the sixth century when the temple was used as a church.[2] Presbyter Abraham documented the consecration of the building into a Christian church by carving into the walls.[14] The Christians cut a doorway into the north wall in the pronaos, damaging the relief carving of Isis.[2] However, they restored her lost arm by changing its angle at the elbow.[2] They also installed a cross on the temple's roof and covered the reliefs with plaster.[3] When Nubia became Muslim in the 13th century, the Christian Church was deserted.[3]
Many parts of the deserted structure disappeared or were damaged when the local people took stone and bricks for repurposing.[2][3] By the modern era, the mud-brick walls that surrounded the entire temple complex had vanished.[2] Archaeologists learned there were entry gates on the north and south walls because remnants matched the surviving pylon, which was to the east of the temple.[2]
In 1933, Aswan Low Dam was increased in height.[3] As a result, the temple complex was underwater for nine months each year for the next thirty years.[3] During this time, all traces of paint that remained on the temple's carvings were washed away.[3]
When the temple was relocated, the tomb in the rockface behind it was left in place and covered by rising water.[7]
UNESCO assisted in relocating and donating three other temples: