TEMPLE OF ISIS ON THE ROOF OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF DENDERA.

 

 

THIS beautiful little hypæthral building, which is set like a gem on the roof of the great structure, seems altogether to have escaped the notice of many travellers, as it is not mentioned in their works on Egypt: amidst the splendour and magnitude of the great temple, its beauty may have been overlooked.  It is raised on the south-east angle, and immediately over the adytum, or sanctuary, of the temple of Dendera; and bears some resemblance to the temple called the  bed of Pharaoh at Philæ. It is small, but elegant in form, only twenty-two feet square on the plan, and eighteen feet high. Within it is nearly choked up with rubbish.

    Its entablature is supported by twelve columns, four appearing on each side; their capitals are the heads of Isis, bearing the pronaos in miniature. Each column is four feet ten inches in circumference, and, except a doorway on two opposite sides, enclosed by intercolumniated screens. In every part, within and without, the surface of this beautiful little building is covered with elaborate carving, so delicately and exquisitely wrought that it will bear the closest inspection. To what worship or mystery it was appropriated is now uncertain, though it is called a Temple of Isis. The sand around presents an arid appearance, covering the ancient and populous city, which once flourished amidst scenes of fertility; and desolation now rests on the ruins of Tentyra.

 

                    Roberts’s Journal.