The temple of Montu at Tod dates back to the reign of Userkaf in Dynasty 5. It was enlarged during Dynasties 11 and 12. Thutmose III (c. 1479-1425 BC) built a bark shrine for Montu, and restoration work continued in Dynasties 18, 19, and 20. Ptolemy VIII (170-163 & 145-116 BC) built another temple and a sacred lake.
Tod, ancient Djerty, and during the Graeco-Roman Period, Tuphium, is a small village built around an ancient mound (Kom) on the eastern bank of the Nile about 20 kilometres south of Luxor, ancient Thebes. It sits just across the Nile from Armant (ancient Hermonthis). Jean-Francois Champollion was one of the first investigators of the ancient ruins. He visited what was left of a high crypt that emerged from the temple that remained buried beneath the village.
Location of Temple of Montu at Tod
The temple of Montu stands on the eastern bank of the Nile about 20 kilometres south of Luxor, ancient Thebes.
Excavation
In 1934, Fernand Bisson de la Roque cleared the ruins of the first two halls, which could be dated to the Ptolemaic Period. The first was a hypostyle hall, and the high crypt dominated the other. The back of the temple on the far end revealed traces of a church built directly on the limestone paving of the pharaonic sanctuary. The sandstone eaves of Ptolemaic date surround an ancient limestone wall and are linked to this paving. They carry a lengthy historical inscription from the Middle Kingdom King, Senusret I, and were part of an earlier temple of that king.
The hypostyle hall) which was probably begun during the reign of Ptolemy VIII and had various chambers, including a hidden treasure room above the chapel on the south side.
Below the paving slaps were unearthed blocks from previous construction phases of the temple dating back to the early Middle Kingdom kings, Montuhotep II and III, dating to the 11th Dynasty and Amenemhet I, who is credited with founding the 12th Dynasty. However, some blocks were even discovered dating back to the 5th Dynasty reign of Userkaf. These blocks and some Middle Kingdom material can be seen in the small open magazine at the site.
In the foundation sand of the Middle Kingdom structure, beneath a narrowed eave, were found four copper chests in the name of King Amenemhet II. Known as the “Tod Treasure”, these were filled with lapis lazuli, silver and some gold objects. These items are now in the Egyptian Antiquity Museum in Cairo and the Louvre in Paris. The lapis lazuli was either raw, uncut pieces, fragments of beads or cylinder seals from various origins in the Near East dating back to the third and the beginning of the second millennium BC. The silver consisted of flattened ingots, ingot chains and coiled cups. The origins of these remain disputed among archaeologists, but the most consistent hypothesis is that they were of Minoan or Syrian creation, for the most part, representing foreign tribute. Some items came as far as a field as Afghanistan lapis lazuli).
Tod Treasure
Somewhat above, the Tod Treasure was also found as a relatively ordinary and unremarkable find of Saite (26th Dynasty) bronze figures of Osiris.
Between 1981 and 1991, the site was again excavated by Musee du Louvre, focusing on the temple’s surroundings. This work unearthed a terrace built at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. There, the excavators discovered private chapels that survived until the New Kingdom. There was no western entrance to the temple until the dromos (an avenue or entranceway) was created in the third century BC, probably by Ptolemy IV, who probably also built the two Ptolemaic halls as replacements for those dating back to the time of Tuthmosis III. The dromos was never finished, and the platform overlooking the pier was redesigned in the second or first century BC to include a monumental door, which was also never completed.
Before the Ptolemaic Period, the temple was accessed only from the north, as indicated by the placement of a wayside park chapel begun by Tuthmosis III and completed by Amenhotep II. Talatats, standard-sized blocks used in construction during the reign of Amenhotep IV, were most likely brought from Karnak and were possibly used to complete the upper sections of the temple at the end of the Ptolemaic Period or even as late as the Roman Period. Decorations are mainly attributed to Ptolemy VIII, Euergetes II and Ptolemy XII, though the most recent reliefs are dated to the Roman Period during the reign of Antonius Pius.
The Middle Kingdom temple complex mainly was dedicated to the cult of the significant Egyptian god, Montu, who has several other temples in this region dedicated to him. The surviving monuments today are of the New Kingdom and later dates. They include the partially preserved barque shrine of Montu built by Tuthmosis III and restored by Amenhotep II, Seti I, Amenmesse, and Ramesses III and IV. It stands before the chambers constructed during the Ptolemaic Period. Only the front wall of Senusret I’s structure remains, though it has good examples of later usurpation and reworking.
A Roman kiosk was located near the Ptolemaic temple. North of the two Ptolemaic halls was a lake dug out, either while or shortly after the halls were built. To the south, another Kom (small community living on the top of a hill) indicates different urban growth stages and not some other temple.
