It’s really no wonders you to definitely Wally and i like temples and you will went to up to i maybe you certainly will while in the our amount of time in Egypt. Our favorites had been the fresh new quicker-busy of these, as well as the Temple regarding Horus on Edfu dropped towards the this category.
Wally and you may Duke leased a drivers and guide to simply take them from Aswan in order to Luxor, ending during the Kom Ombo and Edfu on your way right up.
The city of Edfu and its own Ptolemaic-period temple was about a-two-time drive about Forehead out of Kom Ombo and you can is for the the west Bank of your own Nile.
Intimate Edfu Temple
? Brand new evil god Seth was revealed in the way of an effective hippopotamus, his diminutive dimensions leaving your quicker intimidating.
During the antiquity, Edfu was called Behdet, together with region are known as Wetjeset-Hrw, “The place where Horus Was Extolled.” Regional lore hypothesized that this try the site of intense and last battle ranging from Horus, a falcon-on course jesus of your own sky, along with his sinful bro, Seth, good jackal-going god regarding in pretty bad shape which murdered Horus’ father Osiris. The current Arabic name, Edfu, arises from the brand new ancient Egyptian identity Djeba, or Etbo within the Coptic. Djeba form Retribution Town, it becoming where the opposition out of Horus have been delivered to justice.
Structure toward Temple away from Horus was been from the Ptolemy III from inside the 237 BCE, adopting the history local Egyptian pharaoh governed. Its concept brings together traditional Egyptian architectural issue which have Greco-Roman influences. Run new forehead are seem to stalled because of insurrection – this new Egyptians despised their new Ptolemaic rulers. They ultimately got half dozen consecutive guidelines doing, from inside the 57 BCE.
Brand new mammisi in front of the chief temple at Edfu celebrates Harsomptus, the son off Horus and you will Hathor. The brand new courtyard in front of faster design are the site out of a yearly event away from vocal and dancing.
Ainsi que Tu, Edfu?
The website is among the better-preserved pharaonic monuments, using are nearly totally hidden in sand up to French archaeologist Auguste Mariette came across them and you can began excavating brand new ruins within the 1860. At that time, new wasteland had ingested this new forehead to its lintels, and you can locals had based mud-brick dwellings on top of the hypostyle hall.
Later years regarding Coptic Christians had a detrimental practice of defiling pictures of one’s gods, which they viewed as blasphemous.
The focal point of your own temple outside is the access door. Monumental within the scale, brand new twin pylons scale a remarkable 118 feet extreme. The brand new incised reliefs represent Ptolemy XII smiting his opposition before Horus. Since this an element of the build try visually noticeable to all round societal, and you can literacy levels have been literally nonexistent – simply an elite couples you can expect to comprehend and you will build hieroglyphics – artwork such as this was used as the propaganda so you can stress the you’ll and you may validity of the rulers.
Imagery with the pylon gates would have been visually noticeable to the societal and you may served as propaganda in order to legitimize the fresh new Ptolemaic dynasty.
Wally stands that have one of several large falcon statues aside side. They portray the goodness Horus, and short person these are generally securing are the one and only Caesarion, this new man off Cleopatra and you may Julius Caesar.
Outside the pylon is the courtroom off choices, a huge paved terrace encircled to the about three sides of the an effective 32-columned arcade the spot where the people perform give its choices toward sculpture of Horus.
Adorning brand new wall space is actually reliefs portraying the new Banquet of Stunning Fulfilling, the yearly reunion between Horus and his awesome girlfriend, Hathor. The fresh new festival survived 15 days regarding arrival of your sacred cult picture of new goddess, which journeyed because of the sacred barge from Dendera to help you Edfu. The newest statues of gods was in fact reunited in forehead retreat, in which Hathor was symbolically impregnated because of the Horus and you can gone back to Dendera so you can sustain the boy Harsomptus.