Dec 12 - Today coordinate a taxi ride to/from Dendera Temple, north along the Nile about an hour’s drive. Only start the ride at noon, since we have to check out of our room and can do nothing until our flight at 21:40. I had booked a flight in the afternoon, but Egyptair changed it on me, deciding I wanted to be in Cairo airport late at night anyway.
The road north is relatively new and set back from the Nile in the desert, so it bypasses all the traffic going through the small towns. Unsurprisingly, the taxi takes a strange detour onto a dirt road for a while. When I ask he first says he says it is a shortcut, but eventually admits that he wants to avoid a particular police checkpoint where they may make him take a slower road or demand baksheesh. This is a game played all over Egypt and dates back to when I lived here.
The entrance to Dendera. If it were July, this path would have felt like the March of Heat Death. But in December, it is just pleasantly warm.
The complex is surrounded by thick mud-brick walls. Here, they appear to have been reinforced in later times.
The Dendera Temple complex is very unusual. Though there is one remaining building of Pepi I (r. ca. 2250 BCE), much of the construction is from Ptolemaic to Roman times. What is fascinating about it is that all the dedications and art are done in pure Pharaonic style.
Well, there are some exceptions. The above Corinthian columns are obviously Roman style, from this small annex outside the main entrance gate (which is also of the Roman age and dedicated to Trajan).
…and this, a Coptic Christian chapel, stuck to the side of the main entranceway, but inside the mud-brick walls shown above.
Also in front of the main temple is a Roman mammisi, or ‘birth house’, where the divinity of the ruler is explained by his divine birth and ascension to the throne. Here, a number of gods and goddesses bless the future ruler. Note the selective chiseling away of the figures. This may have been done by Coptic monks much later.
The main temple, dedicated to Hathor, goddess of motherhood, joy, dance, and other subjects. This is one of her most important temples in Egypt. Note the heads on the columns, which are distinctly the head of Hathor, though aspects of the faces were chiseled away in later times.
The interior columns and ceiling of the vestibula have retained amazing colors, and, unlike the walls, have suffered almost no censorship by chisels. This part of the temple was constructed under Ptolemy XII Auletes in 54 BCE.
Another view of the columns.
The ceiling above the central walkway through the vestibula is decorated with Nekhbet, a protector god of the king.
Who are these cartouches for? There are whole sections of the temple complex with blank ones. It is because the Ptolemaic rule was so precarious that they saved the dedication until they were sure who it would be for. In this case, apparently no one was able to lay claim.
A depiction of Nut, the sky goddess. She is shown here literally giving birth to the sun.
A view from the temple roof, showing two mud-brick retaining walls.
There were some cramped underground chambers. In one of them was this famous scene called the ‘Dendera Light’. It has been labeled by some as an ancient light bulb, made with super technology that was subsequently lost. However, the text around it describes it as the god Harsomtus, in the form of a snake, emerging from a lotus flower. The flower is supported by a djed pillar, which kind of looks like a power transmission line pylon. Moral of the story: A picture says a thousand words, but if there is a label, you should read it!
Took me a while to figure this one out. It is the cartouche of Ptolemy XII (r. 80-58 and 55-51 BCE). He is the king who commissioned the Temple of Hathor. He was also the father of Cleopatra VII.
Another completed cartouche, this one shows the Roman emperor Nero on the right side, and perhaps some variant of his name on the left (though I cannot confirm that side).
Odette takes us on a walking tour of the stairway leading to the upper chambers.
On the return trip, just leaving Dendera, the police took the taxi driver’s license and escorted us to the turnoff for the desert highway, just at the edge of the town of Qena. Here, they gave it back and told him we had to take the eastern river road, which is an hour longer and would put us on the riverbank opposite our hotel. The driver then drove through some tiny Qena side streets and up a bumpy road through farms, to connect back to the highway we came here on.
The detour turned out good for us, we weren’t in a hurry, and there were some nice rural scenes.
Hang out at our hotel for awhile, talking with a Dutch/Czech couple who also travel a great deal. Then off to the airport.
Odette shares a page of her coloring book with a little girl also flying back to Cairo.
The flight is officially delayed until 22:30, but eventually rolls out of the gate at 23:40. The saga continues tomorrow.
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
