Egypt’s Dendera Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Included are the following topics:

  •  Dandara Highlights
  •  Dandara History
  •  Dandara Temples
  •  Mammisi (Pharaohs’ birth chapel)

Dandara’s Most Impressive Moments, Dandara Highlights

Dendera The Temple of Luxor, formerly known as Tetris, was one of the most prominent religious institutions in ancient Egypt and remains one of the city’s most popular attractions.

It is located on the west bank of the Nile, south of the Egyptian city of Qena.

Trinitarian shrines were established at Luxor, including three temples dedicated to Horus, the sky god and protector of the pharaohs, the Sanctuary of Ihy, Horus’ little son who played the sistrum, and the Sanctuary of Hathor.

Just the latter has remained almost completely intact, with only a few remains of the other two still visible in their original locations.

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Dandara’s historical background

Dendera must have had a sanctuary from the beginning of time, which was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times throughout the centuries; nonetheless, the current complex dates from the late Ptolemaic and Roman eras.

Thus, a magnificently scenic style predominated, which was less severe than that of the earliest Egyptian temples, as can be seen in this lithograph of the interior of the first hypostyle room, a magnificent chamber over 80 feet deep, with 18 huge columns covered in bas-reliefs and a plethora of other features.

The temples of Dendera do not have the typical pylon seen in holy Egyptian architecture; instead, the front of the edifice is constructed by a gigantic structure measuring 139 feet wide by 60 feet high, with six columns supporting an outstanding cornice on the façade.

The intercolumniations are occupied by panels with hieroglyphic texts and bas-reliefs up to the halfway point, while the entrance opens in the center, forming a high space that is wider than the adjacent ones.

The entrance opens in the center, forming a high space that is wider than the adjacent ones.

Inside, 18 additional columns are arranged in three rows, with all of the capitals depicting the aspects of the goddess who is the patroness of the city.

Because it is elevated above the remainder of the temple, this hypostyle chamber, which was constructed under Tiberius, serves as a substitute for the lost Pylon.

the Temples of Dandara, for example

The temple of Dendera, built by Ptolemy IX SoterII, is situated in the middle of a vast area bordered by a wall of air-dried bricks that is almost destroyed and has sides that are between 925 and 990 feet long; on the north and east sides of the wall are two magnificent portals that were built during the period of Roman rule.

Aside from the magnificent sanctuary, the holy area is home to several noteworthy monuments.

The highly damaged ruins of a modest shrine devoted to the birth of Isis can be seen not far from the back façade of the large temple; the remaining reliefs depict Nut, goddess of the sky, giving birth while seated on a stool, in line with an old local tradition.

The only thing that remains of the holy lake, which was characteristic of all Egyptian sanctuaries and where the priests were required to conduct their ceremonial ablutions multiple times a day, is a deep rectangular hole surrounded by a boundary wall; this is all that is left of the sacred lake.

Several of the most notable ruins, including a well, an ancient sanatorium from the Roman period, a Coptic church, and two mammisi, one Ptolemaic and the other Roman, may be found along the western wall of the temple and in the northwest corner of the temple of Hathor.

Mammisi (the birth chapel of the pharaohs)

In Egyptian, mammisi (which translates as “birth chapel”) refers to miniature temples that were common during the Early Period, when the pharaohs’ offspring were honored under the guise of honoring the gods’ births.

All of their offspring, who were regarded to be on a par with live deities, was conceived and born solely inside the holy confines of the temple complex.

It was Nectanebo I who constructed the first of these structures at Dendera between 378 and 360 BC, and Augustus who constructed the second, which stands close to the first.

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