Dendera Temple Complex

The Dendera Temple Complex is one of the best-preserved temple complexes in Egypt. The whole complex covers some 40,000 square meters, and a big mud brick-enclosed wall surrounds it. This area was the site of the sixth Nome in ancient Egypt, south of Abydos.

Location of Dendera Temples

The Dendera Temple complex stands 7 km from Qena and is about 2.5 kilometres southeast of Dendera, Qena Governorate, Egypt.

History of the Temples of Dendera

The temple complex displays a scene of the long history of Egypt. This fantastic complex reveals a lot about this history. When studying the history of this complex, we can find the ancient Egyptians developed it throughout different eras. Indeed, the first building dates back to the Ancient Egyptian period, though the Greek and Roman rulers developed the site. There is evidence of temples and other structures that date back to 2500 BCE—Pharaoh Pepi I (Ca.2250 BC). Also, there is evidence that a temple existed from the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca 1500 BC). However, the earliest extant building in this compound dates back to native pharaohs – the Mammisi, which Nectanebo II (360–343 BC) raised.

Ptolemy XII built the main temple, and nearly Queen Cleopatra VII completed it around 54 to 20 BCE. Later, the appearance of Christianity in Egypt influences the Temples of Dendera. Undoubtedly, Christianity banned building such temples. Then, Christians started to use the ancient temples as churches. No wonder there also exists a Coptic church on the premises near the Temple of Birth at one point.

Description of Dendera Temple Complex

The entirety of the complex sprawls across roughly 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a sizable mudbrick wall. Dendera, an oasis on the banks of the Nile, was inhabited by thousands at its peak. Due to its massive size, the structures throughout the complex were constructed over many eras, such as the Middle Kingdom, the Ptolemaic Era, and the period characterized by Roman provincial rule. There is evidence that there was an even earlier building on this site, circa 2250 BCE, which could have begun during the reign of Pepi I and completed during the reign of his son, Merenre Nemtyemsaf I. Evidence of a temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1500 BC) also exists. The compound’s earliest extant (surviving) building today is the mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – the last of the native pharaoh (360–343 BC).

Features

The features of the Dendera Temple Complex include:

• Hathor temple (the main temple)
• Temple of the Birth of Isis
• Sacred Lake (source of water for sacred rituals and everyday use)
• Sanatorium
  • This would have functioned similarly to a Roman bathhouse but strictly for bathing and an overnight stay to manifest healing dreams. The waters at Dendera were sacred and were often used to bless the inscriptions on statues so that they could cure diseases.
• Mammisi of Nectanebo II
• Basilica
• Roman Mammisi
• a Barque shrine. (Def.: Boat; French, “barque”/ Late Latin “barca”) . Used as a resting place for the statues of the gods when outside of the temple during festivals
• Gateways of Domitian and Trajan
• the Roman Kiosk

The Dendera Temple is not to be confused with the Dendera Necropolis, which consists of a series of tombs. The Dendera Necropolis dates back to the Early Dynastic Period and the First Intermediate Period, which pre-dates the Middle Kingdom construction of the Temple of Hathor. The cemetery runs across the eastern edge of the western hill and over the northern plain.

Hathor Temple

The temple that dominates this complex, the structure that commands the attention of those who visit, is the Temple of Hathor. The original temple structure underwent continuous modifications throughout the Middle Kingdom and up until the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan. The existing temple’s structure began construction in 54 BCE, the late Ptolemaic period, under the reign of Ptolemy Auletes. The hypostyle hall was built in the Roman period under Tiberius.

In Egypt, Trajan was quite active in constructing buildings and decorating them. He appears with Domitian in offering scenes on the propylaeum of the Temple of Hathor. His cartouche also appears in the column shafts of the Temple of Khnum at Esna.

Layout elements of the temple are:

• Large Hypostyle Hall
• Small Hypostyle Hall
• Laboratory
• Storage magazine
• Offering entry
• Treasury
• Exit to well
• Access to stairwell
• Offering hall
• Hall of the Ennead
• Great Seat and main sanctuary
• Shrine of the Nome of Dendera
• Shrine of Isis
• Shrine of Sokar
• Shrine of Harsomtus
• Shrine of Hathor’s Sistrum
• Shrine of gods of Lower Egypt
• Shrine of Hathor
• Shrine of the Throne of Rê
• Shrine of Rê
• Shrine of Menat collar
• Shrine of Ihy
• The Pure Place
• Court of the First Feast
• Passage
• Staircase to roof

Depictions of Cleopatra VI, which appear on temple walls, are good examples of Ptolemaic Egyptian art. On the rear of the temple exterior is a carving of Cleopatra VII Philopator (the famous, well-known Cleopatra) and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar (Caesarion), whom Julius Caesar fathered.

There are ten dead deities represented at Dendera, specifically in Hathor’s temple, that can be connected to the nine dead deities at Horus’s temple in Edfu. This would be due to the parental or marital relationship between Hathor and Horus.

Discover

• Temple of Hibis
• Tomb KV55
• Luxor Dendera Tour Hurghada
• Luxor Dendera Excursion Hurghada
• Luxor Dendera Trip Safaga
• Luxor Dendera Tour Safaga
• Luxor Dendera Tour El Gouna