Temple of Dendur

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The Temple of Dendur is a Nubian temple built during the Roman period around 15 BC. It was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the gods Harpocrates and Osiris, as well as two deified sons of a local Nubian chieftain, Pedesi ("he whom Isis has given") and Pihor ("he who belongs to Horus"). The temple was commissioned by Emperor Augustus of Rome and has been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1978.

The Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The temple is constructed from sandstone and measures 25 meters from the gate to the rear as well as 8 meters from the bottom to the highest point. It is decorated with reliefs, the coloring of which has perished: The temple base is decorated with carvings of papyrus and lotus plants growing out of the water of the Nile, which is symbolized by depictions of the god Hapy. Over the temple gate as well as over the entrance to the temple proper, depictions of the sun disk and the wings of the sky god Horus represent the sky. This motif is repeated by the vultures depicted on the ceiling of the entrance porch. On the outer walls, Emperor Augustus is depicted as a pharaoh making offerings to the deities Isis, Osiris, and their son Horus. The subject is repeated in the first room of the temple, where Augustus is shown praying and making offerings. The middle room, which was used for offerings, and the sanctuary of Isis at the rear of the temple are undecorated but for reliefs on the door frame and backwall of the sanctuary. The latter shows Pihor and Pedesi as young gods worshiping Isis and Osiris respectively.

In the 19th century, graffiti was left on the temple walls by visitors from Europe.

The Temple of Dendur in its original location. Drawing by Henry Salt.

The temple was removed from its original site (modern name: Dendur, ancient name: Tutzis, about 80 kilometers south of the town of Aswan) in 1963 in order to save it from being submerged by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. In recognition of the American assistance in saving various other monuments threatened by the dam's construction, the temple was given to the United States of America by Egypt in 1965. The stone blocks of the temple weighed more than 800 tons in total with the largest pieces weighing more than 6.5 tons. They were packed in 661 crates and transported to the United States by the freighter S.S. Concordia Star. In the United States, several institutions made bids for housing the temple, in a competition which was nicknamed the "Dendur Derby" by the press. Alternative plans proposed re-erecting the temple on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. or on the Charles River in Boston. However, these suggestions were dismissed because it was feared that the temple's sandstone would have suffered from the outdoor conditions. On April 27, 1967, the temple was awarded to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was installed in the Sackler Wing in 1978. Inside the Sackler Wing, designed by the architects Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo, and associates, a reflecting pool in front of the temple and a sloping wall behind it, represent the Nile and the cliffs of the original location. The glass on the ceiling and north wall of the Sackler is stippled in order to diffuse the light and mimic the lighting in Nubia.