EDFU A TEMPLE IN EGYPT

TEMPLE OF EDFU
(Egypt)

(View of the temple at Edfu, from the top of the pylon)



A town of Upper Egypt. Is situated on the left bank of the Nile. It contains the remains of two temples, the larger of which is the best preserved monuments of its kind in Egypt. It was founded by Ptolemy IV Philapator rather more than two centuries before Christ, and added to by his successor down to Ptolemy XIII Dionysus, a period of 170 years. The general plan of the temple resembles that of Dendera.

 Its length is 451 feet, the breadth of its facade is 250  feet. Its entrance is by a gateway 50 feet high, between two immense truncated pylons, 37 feet wide at the base, and 115 feet high, the whole surface covered with sculptures and inscriptions in low relief. This splendid facade is visible from a great distance, and is one of the most commanding sights in the Nile valley. Passing through this entrance , a court is reached; it is 161 feet long, and 140 feet wide, enclosed by a splendid colonnade of 32 columns of every variety of capital, surrounded by walls, between which and the pillars there is a stone roof, forming a covered portico. The interior of this court was to a great extent filled up with rubbish, and occupied by wretched dwellings, many of which also were built upon the roof of the temple; but these were all cleared away by Mariette in the Khediviate of Ismail, and now the effect of the whole is grand and imposing , impressing the mind with the harmony and the beauty of the design.


From this court opens a hypostyle hall of 18 columns, joined by an intercolumnal screen, through which access is obtained to an inner hall of 12 columns, leading to the sanctuary , where a great monolith of gray granite was evidently intended  to encage the hawk, the sacred emblem of Hor-Hud, the local Horus, to whom the temple was dedicated




(source:CE v4 196(A))

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