|
Five major cult temples - Edfu, Dendera and Philae, the best preserved cult temples in Egypt, plus Kom Ombo and Esna - were built in Upper Egypt during the Ptolemaic Period (304 - 30 BC), at a time when the country was ruled by a dynasty of kings who were of Macedonian Greek rather than Egyptian origin.
According to tradition, the first stone temple to be built at Edfu was designed around 2660 BC by the illustrious Imhotep, architect of the Step Pyramid at Sakkara, to a plan that “fell from heaven”. It was built during the reigns of six Ptolemies and was dedicated to Horus of Behdet in commemoration of the fact that by this time the local falcon-god Horus had been identified with the Horus of a Delta town called Behdet. Over the years, successive temples were built on the site; and, in 237 BC, Ptolemy II ordered the construction of a new one. The nucleus of this temple was completed by 212 BC, but six years later, civil disorder in the region interrupted proceedings and it was not until 142 BC that the dedication ceremony, performed in person by the reigning king, Ptolemy VIII, was carried out.
Ptolemy VIII granted a further favour to the temple by ordering the
addition of a great hypostyle hall, known in temples of this period as a
Pronaos to the southern end; and twenty-five years later his son ordered
the construction of a courtyard and a pylon-gateway. On the Egyptian
equivalent of 5th
December 57 BC, a massive double-leaved
cedar wood door was hung in the gateway and the great Temple of
Horus was finally completed. The Temple is constructed of sandstone, now
mellowed to a creamy brown, but originally painted in bright, clear,
colours.
After
Karnak, the Temple of Horus is
the 2nd largest temple in Egypt and is said to have been built
on the site of the battle between Horus and Seth. There is a
great deal of information about its construction from reliefs on outer
areas.
From the 3rd century AD, the Temple of Horus at Edfu was
allowed to fall into disuse as the
state religion of Egypt became first Christian and then Islamic.
Gradually, tons of sand and rubble drifted into the building, although not
before religious zealots, both Christian and Muslim, and possibly even
before them pagans afraid of the evil eye, had damaged many reliefs.
The surviving temple has been extremely well preserved because it has
spent many years almost completely submerged beneath the desert. It was
not excavated until 1860. A few
years later the House of Horus stood revealed as the best-preserved temple
in antiquity, its Ptolemaic inscriptions ready to reveal the life of the
Temple to whose who could read them – at that time, no one!
Most of the temple is
still covered, and it contains many of the original pieces. Inside, halls
connect many chambers, and the walls are covered in hieroglyphics. In
many of the rooms, the paint has survived for 2,000 years.
There is a passage surrounding the sanctuary, which serves also to give
access to thirteen small chapels, and another completing the entire
circuit of the enclosing wall. All the inner rooms were completely dark
and windowless. The grand pylons are some 62.6 m (205 ft) across and 30.5
m (100 ft) high.
|
Idfu town, pronounced as
idfoo or edfoo, is an
agricultural trade centre and has paper mills and a sugar refinery.
