Dendera

Dendera (also Dendara, Dandara, Dendrah; ancient Egyptian Tantarer, Taentem; Greek Τέντυρα Tentyra; Arab دندرة, Dandara DMG ) is a city in Upper Egyptian Governorate Qena with an archeological Temple of Hathor.

Dendera is located just over 55 kilometers north of Luxor on the left bank of the Nile opposite the town of Kena ( Kene ) on the edge of the desert. The ruins of the ancient Egyptian city located near the village at the edge of the desert to a mountain level.

History

Its history began in the pre-dynastic period. This is documented by an ancient cemetery near the walls around the Temple of Hathor.

Dendera was the capital of the sixth nome of Upper Egypt, the local goddess was Hathor. The plan of the main temple dates back to Cheops. Pepi I. restored their temple later.

Until the beginning of the excavations of the temple was lost up to half in the desert sand, which kept many of the frescoes before Iconoclasm and vandalism. The upper rooms were used as stables and dwellings with open fire places, which is why the ceilings are still blackened with soot and the former painting is not reconstructed.

Ruins

Necropolis

Behind the city, in the wilderness, there is an extensive cemetery. Various excavations provided here mainly large mastabas of the late Old Kingdom and the 1st split. This grave were partly richly decorated with inscriptions and are a valuable source for this period. Other grave sites dating from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

Temple of Dendera

Enclosing

Originally there were three surrounding walls in the district of the goddess Hathor, of which only the one is well preserved for the great Temple of Hathor. It is slightly more than 290 m long, 280 m wide, has a base width of between 10 and 12 meters and reaches a height of 10 m.

Temple of Hathor

Especially famous is the one dedicated to Hathor temple, built during the 6th Dynasty and later rebuilt. It is north- south oriented and the Nile. He received his present form, as a copy of the ancient sanctuary, among the last Ptolemaic and early Roman emperors. Construction on the temple began accessible today under the Ptolemies and were completed only under the Romans.

The building, at the completion of 200 years has been working with has admirably preserved and honored by the uniqueness of the architecture as well as by wealth and clean design of the sculptures and hieroglyphs. The walls and pillars are completely covered with fine sculptures. The wall sculptures inside make the victims darbringenden Emperor Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero before in quite ancient Egyptian manner.

Through the portal you get into a program begun under Augustus, completed under Nero imposing hall, which is supported by 24 pillars in four rows and inside is 27.5 m high and 43 m long. This is followed by three rooms of various sizes and one of eleven cells surrounded Adyton. The whole temple has a length of 81 m and is 34 m wide. The exposure of the Hathor temple began in 1875 by John Dümichen.

Sanctuary of Isis and Mammisi

In addition to the western corner of the large building is a small, perfected under Nero sanctuary of Isis, whose pylons a dromos of 170 led step length. 90 step north from the Sanctuary of Isis is the Mammisi ( birthplace ), the dedicated to Hathor, formerly erroneously called Typhonium.

Other systems

To the west of the temple is the Holy See, which is now covered with palm trees. The underground tunnels applied to the Nile is still intact and the water level can be checked in one of the two tunnels entrances, which is why this facility also called nilometer.

Behind the great Temple of Hathor are the Temple of Isis and the Typhonien. The Temple of Isis is very small and is behind the west corner of Hathor Temple. It was built and decorated under Augustus. The second, larger temple is located in the north of the Hathor temple and was built by Trajan. Some representations there date from the time of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius.

So-called " bulbs " of Dendera

→ Main article: Light Bulbs at Dendera

Controversy speculation sparked a mostly designated only as bulbs of Dendera group of unusual depictions of cult objects, which can be seen in the temple of Hathor at several points.

Border Scientific speculations dealt with the question of whether the ancient Egyptians may have known in the form of electric light bulbs. The Egyptology sees in the illustrations, the motif of " God on the flower ."

Zodiacs of Dendera

→ Main article: Astronomy in Ancient Egypt

On the ceiling of the hall of the main temple was found during the expedition of Napoleon beside the gigantic figure of the sky goddess Nut (hence Himmelssaal called ) two famous zodiacs, one of which was in 1820 cut out by a Frenchman and since 1822 in the Egyptian Department of the Louvre in Paris is issued. France can later make a copy for Egypt.

The lion appears as the initial character to the point of intersection of the ecliptic and the Earth's equator on this zodiac. From the location of these intersections but depends on the location of the Solstice ( solstice ), which must always be in the middle of both. In the Zodiac of Denderah it is charted in Cancer. From this deviation from the current position of the sun was believed to be close to the age of this zodiac. There was only a difference depending on whether you looked at that solstice as a winter or a summer solstice.

The dispute over has caused a wide variety of claims, such as Fourier the emergence of the same between 2500 BC and 2100 BC, Lalande in 1300 BC or 1200 BC, Biot not before 716 v. Visconti AD and does not put BC in front of 328. The discoveries of Jean -François Champollion ended this speculation.

According to the Louvre, he is estimated to be 51 BC, when Ptolemy XII. ( Theos Philopator Philadelphus Neos Dionysos ) new put it on, as the crypts of the lower house show. The representations comes in part from the reign of Queen Cleopatra, who is depicted on the outer rear wall of the temple along with her son Caesarion at 4 m tall figure.

The porch of the temple, including the second zodiac, was built 32-37 AD by the inhabitants Tentyras under Emperor Tiberius. The wall sculptures of the temple are the rear of the pronaos under Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero have been made ​​in the reign of Cleopatra and Augustus.