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The Temple of Horus, Edfu
The Temple of Horus at Edfu, one of the most completely preserved Egyptian temples, is located about 100km north of Aswan and 53km south of the temple at Esna. Although Edfu was a settlement and cemetery site as early as around 3000 BC, the temple you see today is actually Ptolemaic, started by Ptolemy III in 237 BC on the site of an earlier and smaller New Kingdom structure. It took close to three hundred years to complete the temple although much of the earlier construction cannot be found, but signs indicate that the building works done during the “New Egyptian Empire” also had additional work by pharaohs such as Seti I, Ramses II and Ramses III. Egyptians continued adding to the temple as late as the thirtieth dynasty, the time when a sun with a top ending in a pyramided form resembling an obelisk was added.
In conception and design it follows the traditions of pharaonic architecture, with the same general plan, scale, and ornamentation, right down to the Egyptian attire worn by the Greek pharaohs depicted in the temples reliefs.
Excavation of the temple from beneath the sand, rubble and part of the village of Edfu which had been built on its roof was begun by Auguste Mariette in the mid‐19th Century. The impressive entrance to the temple is through a massive 36m‐high pylon (gateway) guarded by two huge and splendid granite falcons.
Beyond this pylon is the great court where offerings were once made to Horus. The walls are decorated with reliefs including the ‘Feast of the Beautiful Meeting’ just inside the entrance depicting Horus of Edfu and Hathor of Dendera. Once a year there was a great festival that commemorated the divine coupling of these gods which consisted of bringing the main statue of veneration of the Goddess Hathor from her principal sanctuary Dendera on a barge up the Nile to have a yearly reunion with her consort Heru.
Inside the entrance of the outer hypostyle hall, to the left and right, are two small chambers; the one on the right was the temple library where the ritual texts were stored on the one on the right was the hall of consecrations, a type of vestry where the priests’ freshly laundered robes and ritual vases were kept. The hall itself has 12 columns and the walls are decorated with reliefs of the temple’s founding.
The inner hypostyle hall also has 12 columns and in the top left part of the room is the temple laboratory where all the necessary perfumes and incense recipes were carefully brewed up and stored. On either side of the hall are doorways which lead into the passage of victory which runs between the temple and its protective enclosure walls. Reliefs here show dramatic reenactments of the battle between Horus and Seth at the annual Festival of Victory.
A central doorway takes you through to the offering chamber, or first antechamber where daily food offerings were once left. The second antechamber gives access to the Sanctuary of horus which still contains the polished granite shrine that once housed the gold cult statue of Horus. All around this sanctuary are smaller shrines of other gods and at the very back, a modern reproduction of the wooden baroque in which Horus’ statue would be taken out of the temple in procession during festive occasions.
On the eastern enclosure wall is the remains of the Nileometer which measured the level of the river and helped predict the coming harvest.