Temple of Ellesyia | |
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Location | Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy |
Coordinates | 22°37′21″N31°57′46″E / 22.622568°N 31.962662°E |
The Temple of Ellesyia is an ancient Egyptian rock-cut temple originally located near the site of Qasr Ibrim. It was built during the 18th Dynasty by the Pharaoh Thutmosis III. The temple was dedicated to the deities Amun, Horus and Satis. Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE) had a small temple carved into the rock at Ellesiya, not far from Abu Simbel, dedicated to Horus of Miam and Satet. The temple is only accessible from the river. The interior features an inverted T-shaped structure, consisting of a corridor and two side chambers. On the walls, scenes depict offerings made by the king to the Egyptian and Nubian gods. The figures face the back wall, where statues of Horus, Satet, and Tuthmosis III on a throne are carved in half-relief.
During Akhenaten's reign (1352-1336), the decorations were chiseled at various points. Rameses II (1279-1213) later restored it, remodeling the triad in the rear niche with Amon, Horus, and the king. Eventually, it became a Christian place of worship, evident from crosses and five-pointed stars engraved on the entrance portal and interior walls.
Being within the area slated to be submerged by Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the temple of Ellesiya is also part of UNESCO's mission to rescue Nubian temples. Arriving in Turin in 1967, the structure was reconstructed in the museum's wing dedicated to Ernesto Schiaparelli.
During the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the Nubian monument salvage campaign guided by the UNESCO in the 1960s, the temple was moved to the Museo Egizio at Turin in order to save it from being submerged by Lake Nasser.
The four temples donated to countries assisting the relocation are:
Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is located on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Their huge external rock relief figures of Ramesses II have become iconic. His wife, Nefertari, and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Sculptures inside the Great Temple commemorate Ramesses II's heroic leadership at the Battle of Kadesh.
Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before its creation, the project faced opposition from Sudan as it would encroach on land in the northern part of the country, where many Nubian people lived who would have to be resettled. In the end Sudan's land near the area of Lake Nasser was mostly flooded by the lake. The lake has become an important economic resource in Egypt, improving agriculture and touting robust fishing and tourism industries.
Elephantine is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of Upper Egyptian architecture, as part of the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae".
The Museo Egizio or Egyptian Museum is an archaeological museum in Turin, Italy, specializing in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, with more than 30,000 artifacts, and is considered the second most important Egyptological collection in the world, after the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. In 2019, it received 853,320 visitors, making it one of the most visited museums in Italy.
The Philae temple complex is an island-based temple complex in the reservoir of the Aswan Low Dam, downstream of the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser, Egypt.
Philae Island was an island near the expansive First Cataract of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Due to the building of the Aswan Dam, the island is today submerged under Lake Nasser. Prior to the submerging, the Philae temple complex which had been built on the island, was moved to Agilkia Island.
New Kalabsha is a promontory located near Aswan in Egypt.
The Temple of Dendur is a Roman Egyptian religious structure originally located in Tuzis, Nubia about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of modern Aswan. Around 23 BCE, Emperor Augustus commissioned the temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis and deified brothers Pedesi and Pihor from Nubia.
The Temple of Debod is an ancient Nubian temple currently located in Madrid, Spain. The temple was originally erected in the early 2nd century BC at 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Aswan, Egypt. The Egyptian government donated the temple to Spain in 1968 as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. It was dismantled, transported, and rebuilt in the Parque de la Montaña in 1970–1972. It is one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture relocated outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.
The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum, abbreviated SNM, is a two-story building, constructed in 1955 and established as national museum in 1971.
Theban Tomb TT2 is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian official Khabekhnet and his family in Deir el-Medina, part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor.
The Temple of Taffeh is an ancient Roman Egyptian temple currently located in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the Netherlands. The temple was originally built between 25 BCE and 14 CE as part of the Roman fortress known as Taphis, in Egypt. The Egyptian government donated the temple to the Netherlands as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. It is one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture relocated outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in the Netherlands.
The Temple of Kalabsha is an ancient Egyptian temple that was originally located at Bab al-Kalabsha, approximately 50 km south of Aswan.
The temples of Wadi es-Sebua, is a pair of New Kingdom Egyptian temples, including one speos temple constructed by the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II, in Lower Nubia.
The temple of Gerf Hussein was dedicated to pharaoh Ramesses II and built by the Setau, Viceroy of Nubia. Situated on a bank of the Nile some 90 km south of Aswan, it was partly free-standing and partly cut from the rock. It was dedicated to "Ptah, Ptah-Tatenen and Hathor, and associated with Ramesses, 'the Great God.'"
The Temple of Amada, the oldest Egyptian temple in Nubia, was first constructed by Pharaoh Thutmose III of the 18th dynasty and dedicated to Amun and Re-Horakhty. His son and successor, Amenhotep II continued the decoration program for this structure. Amenhotep II's successor, Thutmose IV decided to place a roof over its forecourt and transform it into a pillared or hypostyle hall. During the Amarna period, Akhenaten had the name Amun destroyed throughout the temple but this was later restored by Seti I of Egypt's 19th Dynasty. Various 19th Dynasty kings especially Seti I and Ramesses II also "carried out minor restorations and added to the temple's decoration." The stelas of the Viceroys of Kush Setau, Heqanakht and Messuy and that of Chancellor Bay describe their building activities under Ramesses II, Merneptah and Siptah respectively. In the medieval period the temple was converted into a church.
Aniba was a village in Nubia, about 230 km south of Aswan. The place is today flooded by the Lake Nasser. In ancient times it was an important town and called Miam. The region around the town was one of the most fertile in Lower Nubia.
Silvio Curto was an Italian Egyptologist.
The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the relocation of 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. This was done in order to make way for the building of the Aswan Dam, at the Nile's first cataract which was a necessary infrastructure project following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. This project was undertaken under UNESCO leadership and a coalition of 50 countries. This process led to the creation of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, and thus the system of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Gebel Adda was a mountain and archaeological site on the right bank of the Nubian Nile in what is now southern Egypt. The settlement on its crest was continuously inhabited from the late Meroitic period to the Ottoman period, when it was abandoned by the late 18th century. It reached its greatest prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries, when it seemed to have been the capital of late kingdom of Makuria. The site was superficially excavated by the American Research Center in Egypt just before being flooded by Lake Nasser in the 1960s, with much of the remaining excavated material, now stored in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, remaining unpublished. Unearthed were Meroitic inscriptions, Old Nubian documents, a large amount of leatherwork, two palatial structures and several churches, some of them with their paintings still intact. The nearby ancient Egyptian rock temple of Horemheb, also known as temple of Abu Oda, was rescued and relocated.