Agilkia Island

Philae temple on Agilkia Island as seen from the Nile

Agilkia Island (also called Agilika; Arabic: أجيليكا) is an island in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam along the Nile River in southern Egypt; it is the present site of the relocated Ancient Egyptian temple complex of Philae. Partially to completely flooded by the old dam's construction in 1902,[1][2] the Philae complex was dismantled and relocated to Agilkia island, as part of a wider UNESCO project[3] related to the 1960s construction of the Aswan High Dam and the eventual flooding of many sites posed by its large reservoir upstream.[4][5]

Agilkia, like the island, was the name chosen for the planned landing site on a comet by the Rosetta spacecraft mission's Philae lander.[6][7] Upon initial touchdown however, the lander took a large bounce followed by a smaller one before finally coming to rest perhaps a kilometer away from Agilkia, named Abydos.

References

  1. Frederic Courtland Penfield, Harnessing the Nile, Century Magazine, (February, 1899)
  2. Sidney Peel, The Binding of the Nile and the New Soudan, Oxford 1904 , p.76
  3. Monuments of Nubia-International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia World Heritage Committee, UNESCO
  4. The Rescue of Nubian Monuments and Sites, UNESCO
  5. Murray, Tim (2007). Milestones in Archaeology: a Chronological Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 464. ISBN 1-57607-186-3.
  6. Platt, Jane (6 November 2014). "Rosetta Races Toward Comet Touchdown". NASA. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  7. Knapton, Sarah (4 November 2014). "Historic Comet Landing Site Has a New Name: Agilkia". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 November 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Philae, Temple of Isis in Philae, Trajan's Kiosk (Philae).

Coordinates: 24°01′31″N 32°53′03″E / 24.02528°N 32.88417°E / 24.02528; 32.88417

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