Hathor temple
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Hathor Temple is the main temple in the Dendera Temple complex.
The temple construction date is suggested as around the 1st century BC. The temple was rebuilt from another temple on the same site dating from the Middle Kingdom. 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.
Hathor Temple has a controversial stone relief known as the Dendera light. The image is thought to be, by traditional egytoplogists, of a mythological religious nature. These scholars state that this is a lotus flower, spawning a snake within. Other egytoplogists believe that it is an electric lamp. 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 .
On the rear of the temple exterior, it's possible to see a carving of Cleopatra VII Philopator and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar (Caesarion), fathered by Julius Caesar.
Contents |
[edit] Gallery
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 Hypostyle Hall |
 Crypt Ornamentation |
 Denderah Zodiac |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- 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.
[edit] External links
- Alan Winston, The Dendera Temple Complex
- 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 Dendera Reliefs, Catchpenny Mysteries.
