Ancient Egypt and Archaeology Web Site - Temple of Dendur in it's current location within the Metropolitan Museum
The temple was given to the United States by the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1965,
and eventually awarded (on the basis of being able to provide a
suitable environment) to The
Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1967. The temple was stored on
the Island of Elephantine before it was dismantled from its original
location. It was installed into the
purpose built Sackler
Wing in 1978.
On the outer walls between earth and sky are carved scenes of the
king making offerings to deities, who hold sceptres and the symbol
of life. The figures are carved in sunk relief. In the brilliant
Egyptian sunlight, shadows cast along the figures' edges would have
emphasized their outlines. Isis, Osiris, their son Horus, and the
other deities are identified by their crowns and the inscriptions
beside their figures. These scenes are repeated in two horizontal
registers. The king is identified by his regalia and by his names,
which appear close to his head in elongated oval shapes called
cartouches; many of the cartouches simply read "pharaoh." This king
was actually Caesar Augustus of Rome, who, as ruler of Egypt, had
himself depicted in the traditional regalia of the pharaoh. Augustus
had many temples erected in Egyptian style, honouring Egyptian
deities. This small temple, built about 15 BC, honoured the goddess
Isis and, beside her, Pedesi and Pihor, deified sons of a local
Nubian chieftain.
In the first room of the temple, reliefs again show the "pharaoh"
praying and offering to the gods, but the relief here is raised from
the background so that the figures can be seen easily in the more
indirect light. From this room one can look into the temple past the
middle room used for offering ceremonies and into the sanctuary of
the goddess Isis. The only carvings in these two rooms are around
the door frame leading into the sanctuary and on the back wall of
the sanctuary, where a relief depicts Pihor worshiping Isis, and
below – partly destroyed – Pedesi worshiping Osiris.
Egyptian temples were not simply houses for a cult image but also
represented, in their design and decoration, a variety of religious
and mythological concepts. One important symbolic aspect was based
on the understanding of the temple as an image of the natural world
as the Egyptians knew it. Lining the temple base are carvings of
papyrus and lotus plants that seem to grow from water, symbolized by
figures of the Nile god Hapy. The two columns on the porch rise
toward the sky like tall bundles of papyrus stalks with lotus
blossoms bound with them. Above the gate and temple entrance are
images of the sun disk flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, the
sky god. The sky is also represented by the vultures, wings
outspread, that appear on the ceiling of the entrance porch.
