Tjebu

Tjebu
Tjebu

Location in Egypt

Coordinates: 26°54′N 31°31′E / 26.900°N 31.517°E / 26.900; 31.517
Country  Egypt
Governorate Sohag Governorate
Time zone EST (UTC+2)

Tjebu or Djew-Qa, commonly known as Qau, is an ancient Egyptian city, located on the eastern bank of the Nile, in the modern Sohag governorate. In the Greco-Roman period, its name was Antaeopolis, and its modern name is Qaw el-Kebir.

Several large terraced funerary complexes in Tjebu by officials of the 10th Nome during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties represent the peak of nonroyal funerary architecture of the Middle Kingdom. Cemeteries of different dates were also found in the area. A Ptolemaic temple of Ptolemy IV Philopator, enlarged and restored under Ptolemy VI Philometor and Marcus Aurelius, was destroyed in the first half of the 19th century.

The temple in this town was large, comparatively speaking—an 18-column pronaos, with a twelve-column hypostyle hall preceding the vestibule hall, the inner sanctum, and two flanking chambers of equal size.[1] The edifice was dedicated primarily to Antiwey—a warrior-like deity who represented a sort of fusion or "middle ground," so to speak, in the personalities of Seth and Horus. This deity's name is written with an obscure hieroglyph (G7a or G7b in the standard Gardiner list), which gives no clue as to the pronunciation. In fact, modern Egyptologists read the name as Nemtiwey. Nephthys was the primary goddess who received worship in this temple, or perhaps in an adjunct shrine of her own, as the corresponding female power of Antiwey. A "Prophet of Nephthys" is attested for this town.[2]

To this day, in cliff-side quarries not far from the ancient site, visitors with mettle can forge onward to see notable reliefs of both Antaeus (Antiwey) and Nephthys, the great deities of the ancient community.[3] At the same time, the site has again drawn most of its interest since 19th- and early 20th-century archaeologists have studied the maze of relatively well-preserved tombs in the district.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Description de l'Egypte, pp. 422–425.
  2. ↑ Cf. Lexikon der A, E. Graefe, Nephthys, Chicago Stele.
  3. ↑ Cf. Baedeker, 1902, etc.
  4. ↑ Cf. Petrie, Flinders, Antaeopolis the Tombs of Qau (Egypt), London, Quaritch 1930.

Coordinates: 26°54′N 31°31′E / 26.900°N 31.517°E / 26.900; 31.517

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