Dendera Temple Complex
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The Dendera Complex is what?
One of ancient Egypt’s most significant religious temples can be found on the west bank of the Nile, across from the city of Qena, 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) southeast of the city of Dendera. The complex houses the Temple of Hathor, one of Egypt’s best-preserved temples dedicated to the goddess of love, music, and fertility, as well as other temples and sanctuaries that were sadly destroyed by the passage of time. A substantial mud brick wall around the 40,000 square meter compound contains the ruins of numerous shrines and temples that date back to the Old Kingdom (2575-2150 BC).
Throughout history, all of the sanctuaries have been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times, but the current temple dates to the Roman-Greco period and was finished by the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14–37 AD) on a fountain that was constructed by Pharaoh Pepi I of the 6th dynasty of the old kingdom. A Coptic church’s ruins can be seen in the complex, along with Mammisi (A birth house associated with the deity’s nativity), a modest shrine to the goddess Isis that depicts the goddess of the sky Nut giving birth and is situated in front of the Pylon.
The Hathor Temple
The grandiose temple of Hathor, which was built in the first century B.C. by Pharaoh Ptolemy VIII and Queen Cleopatra II to worship the goddess Hathor and immortalize their names in history, is the complex’s principal attraction.
The temple featured a great hall with 18 enormously decorated Hathoric columns, hypnotic scenes of Roman emperor offerings on the great hall’s interior walls, and a magical ceiling covered in enchanting astronomical decorations, including a scene of the sky goddess Nut bending toward the earth with the sun disc and a representation of the fabled sun boat of Hathor and her husband Horus being given offerings by Ptolemy VIII.
The Zodiacs
The mysterious Dendera Zodiac signs, which are a map of the stars on a plane projection showing 12 constellations, are one of the temple’s main draws. They can be found in the Osiris chapel at the Hathor temple and feature images of the ram, bull, heavenly twins, crab, lion, virgin, scales, scorpion, archer, goat, watering pots, and fish with glittering tails. The calendar of ancient Egypt was made and arranged using them. French invaders removed it from the temple ceiling in 1820, took it to the Louvre, and replaced it with a replica.
The True Birthplace of Electricity
One of Ancient Egypt’s most contentious fringe theories originated in the temple, according to which the carving of a Djed pillar with a lotus flower spawning a snake inside it is proof that the Egyptians acquired electric lighting devices that resemble lightbulbs attached to advanced electrical systems. However, many archaeologists believe this is just a theory and is untrue; only time will tell.
