Dendur History

This paper will examine the complex history of the Temple of Dendur and analyze its visual artworks while giving context to the larger history that was happening at the time. It will discuss the impact the Roman Empire had on Egypt while under Roman rule and why the Temple of Dendur is currently located in the Met.

The Temple of Dendur is very interesting that the Egyptian temple that was built while under the rule of the Roman Empire. It is dedicated toward the Egyptian gods instead of the Roman gods. Normally when a nation becomes part of a bigger empire, its unique culture and religion are often destroyed or discriminated by the conquerors. The Temple shows that the Romans were very accepting of the ones that they conquered, which allowed

It was completed around 22~10 BC on the West Bank of the Nile River and the temple was dedicated to two Egyptian gods: Isis, the goddess of Health, Marriage and Wisdom, and Osiris, god of the afterlife, death, life, and resurrection. The primary medium used is Aeolian Sandstone and the Dimensions are 21 by 21 by 41 ft, however there are not much space inside the temple as the space inside is divided with thick walls. The sandstone wall of the temple are decorated with reliefs; the base of the temple shows papyrus and lotus plants growing out of the Nile, which symbolize Hapy, god of the Nile. There are two columns at the gate resemble tall papyrus stalks with lotus blossoms capital that support the entablature on the top. The Entablature above the gate has images of the sun disk flanked by the outspread wings of Horus, the sky god. The outer walls have sunken carved stories depicting the Pharaoh, Caesar Augustus, making offerings to gods that hold scepters and the Ankh, which is the symbol of life. These scenes are also repeated in the horizontal registers. Augustus built many Egyptian temples during his reign and depicted himself in the traditional regalia of the pharaoh.

Inside the temple, the wall of the first room has raised reliefs, which allows the viewers to view the reliefs better in indirect light, shows Augustus praying and offering to the gods. It is also possible to look past the middle room, used for

The Aswan Low Dam was a dam that was built on the Nile River to control the flow of water when the floods came every late summer. If the Nile flooded too much, then most of the crops would be wiped out. If the Nile flooded too little, it would cause a drought in the neighboring areas. The Aswan High Dam is an extension/upgrade of the Aswan Low Dam, which created the Narsser Lake. The creation of the lake meant that people and important archeological sites near the dam had to be relocated. The temple would have been submerged by Lake Narsser if it stayed in its original place, so Egypt presented the temple and the temple gate as gift for their help to save significant sites endangered by the Aswan dam. There were several institutes that wanted to display the temple, but eventually The Metropolitan Museum of Art was awarded with the temple as it had the necessary space inside to display the