Kiosk of Qertassi

The kiosk of Kertassi is a small ancient Egyptian temple from the Greco- Roman period. Until the construction of the Aswan High Dam, he stood at the entrance to an ancient quarry in which about 30 kilometers south of the dam nearby village Kertassi or Qertassi (Arabic كيرتاسي Kīrtāsī or قرطاسي Qirṭāsī ) on the west bank of the Nile. The place was called in ancient times Tzitzis or Qirtās.

In connection with the construction of the dam and associated flooding of the town by Lake Nasser, the kiosk of Kertassi early 1960s was transferred to the dam of the high dam about a kilometer south-west of the island of New Kalabsha. There he stands today in the immediate vicinity of the offset also Mandulis Temple of Kalabsha, both since 1979 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

Description

As a kiosk is defined as the special design of a small sanctuary in Ancient Egypt in the way of an opened after several pages pavilions. Of the former fourteen columns of the kiosk of Kertassi are still six receive. The Pillars of the long sides with their plant -like composite capitals based on a 25 m² large rectangular ground plan architraves a roof of sandstone slabs. They were connected to each other by Interkolumnienmauern halfway.

Attached to the probably two entrances to the stand, of which a portal is partially preserved, were two columns with capitals that represented the head of the goddess Hathor. This Hathorsäulen are also other temples, such as the Mammisi of Isis Temple of Philae and the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, known. In conjunction with the equation of the goddesses Hathor and Isis since the New Kingdom it is believed that the kiosk of Kertassi was a station for the sacred barque of Isis along for the procession together with the temples of Debod and Dendur.

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