Philae: Egypt’s Holy Island

The blog post for this week has been written by Linda Anderson, who has a PhD in biochemistry and is a retired chemistry teacher. She began her love of Ancient Egypt following a trip to Egypt in 1981. She and her sister Merlys have visited Egypt on many occasions since then. Following Merlys’ graduation in Egyptology in 2006, she herself studied for a Certificate in Egyptology in 2011, graduating in 2015.One of her greatest ambitions is to visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Arts and she hopes that maybe the Friends of the Egypt Centre will arrange a trip the one day (hint!).

 

Situated on the First Cataract of the Nile, the beautiful temple complex of Philae is dedicated in the main to Isis and also believed to be one of the burial places of the Ancient Egyptian god Osiris (fig. 1). Temples honouring Isis have existed on the island from at least the sixth century BC and the temple complex is one of Egypt’s most eclectic and fascinating ancient sites. It was originally located on Philae Island, a sacred place with connections to the cult of Isis that dated back thousands of years. The main temple complex was started by Ahmose III and further by the Thirtieth Dynasty pharaoh Nectanebo I—although a kiosk attributed to an earlier pharaoh Psamtek II is also to be found. It was further added to by the rulers of the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods up until the third century AD and was a place of pilgrimage for followers of the cult of Isis long after Christianity arrived in Egypt. In fact, the temples were only closed or repurposed for Christian use in the sixth century AD, making the Philae temple complex one of the country’s last places of pagan worship.

Fig 1: Philae today

 

In 1902, the construction of the Aswan Low Dam caused Philae Island and its temple complex to flood for most of the year. (Fig. 2). Tourists could explore the partially submerged ruins by rowboat and the temple foundations were strengthened to help them withstand the annual flood damage. However, the bricks became encrusted with river silt and the colours of the temple’s fabulous reliefs were washed away (Fig. 3).

Fig 2: Philae in flood

  

When plans for the Aswan High Dam were revealed in 1954, it became clear that Philae Island would soon be fully submerged, its ancient treasures lost forever. As a result, UNESCO launched their campaign to save the monuments in 1960. Plans were made to relocate several of the region’s more important temples, including the Philae temple complex. At Philae, a coffer dam was built to keep the river water at bay while the monuments were cleaned, measured and dismantled. The temple and its accompanying shrines and sanctuaries were moved brick-by-brick to nearby Agilkia Island and painstakingly reconstructed on higher ground. In the name of authenticity, Agilkia was even landscaped to match the temple’s original setting on Philae Island. 

Fig 3: Boat trips at Philae temple by David Roberts

Modern tourists arrive by boat and start their tour at the oldest part of the site, the Kiosk of Nectanebo. The entrance to the main temple is guarded by the First Pylon, an 18-metre-high monumental gateway decorated with incredible reliefs (Figs 4–5). These reliefs are attributed to various pharaohs and include a famous depiction of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos dispatching a band of enemies. Isis, Horus of Edfu, Hathor, and various other members of the Egyptian pantheon also make an appearance here.

Fig 4: First pylon and colonnade

   

After passing through the First Pylon, visitors find themselves in the temple forecourt. Colonnades on either side provide entry to various rooms including the Birth House. This intriguing building was dedicated to Isis in honour of the birth of her son, Horus, and contains reliefs depicting scenes from the falcon-headed god’s childhood. In the past, pharaohs performed rituals here to celebrate the Isis legend (which included their own descent from Horus, thereby legitimizing their divine right to rule). A Second Pylon leads into the vestibule of the inner temple. It features eight magnificent columns, while Coptic crosses carved into the walls show how the temple was transformed into a place of Christian worship during the Byzantine era. Beyond the vestibule lies the sanctuary, where granite shrines once held a gold statue of Isis and the barque in which it travelled. These have since been removed to museums in Paris and Florence.

Fig 5: Lion statue in first pylon colonnade

One notable absentee removed from the front of the First Pylon is the Philae obelisk, one of a pair of twin obelisks erected in the second century BC. It was ‘discovered’ by William Bankes in 1815, who had it brought to Kingston Lacy in Dorset England, where it still stands today (Fig. 6). Like the Rosetta Stone, the Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions on the obelisk played a role in unravelling the hitherto unreadable Egyptian hieroglyphs. Bankes believed that the bilingual inscription would help with the decipherment of hieroglyphs in general. Its transportation, and that of a single, large broken piece of its twin, was carried out by the famous explorer Giovanni Belzoni. The obelisk arrived in London in December 1821, making it the first Egyptian obelisk to be brought to the United Kingdom. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, provided a gun carriage that transported the obelisk to Kingston Lacy in Dorset in 1829 and George IV provided Libyan granite that was used to repair the base of the obelisk’s shaft. The obelisk was set up as a central feature of the gardens in 1830; nineteen horses were required to raise it into position. The broken piece of the twin was set into the lawn nearby as a romantic ruin.

Fig. 6: Kingston Lacy obelisk

 

The obelisk was described as “in effect a second Rosetta Stone” and several lithographs of the obelisk and its inscriptions were produced while it was in London. Bankes distributed these lithographs to various contemporaries interested in deciphering hieroglyphs. In his studies of the Rosetta Stone, the scholar Thomas Young had already realised that cartouches contained the names of a pharaoh and he had identified the name ‘Ptolemy’. Bankes proposed to identify the name ‘Cleopatra’ in cartouches on this inscription. However, further progress was stymied by the fact that the Greek and Egyptian texts were not exact parallels of one another and by Bankes and Young’s incorrect belief that all Egyptian hieroglyphs were logographic, where each symbol represented a whole word.

In France, Champollion had constructed a hypothetical hieroglyphic text for the name 'Cleopatra'. On being sent a copy of the lithograph of the Philae obelisk, he confirmed that his reconstruction was correct and announced the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the Lettre à M. Dacier in 1822. Subsequently Bankes, Young, and their circle responded to this announcement with great hostility, claiming that Champollion had not given them proper credit for the discovery!

Hieroglyphs were still in use in the Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods of Egypt, but the circle of people who used and understood them declined. During this period, only the priests studied the hieroglyphs. However, all this changed when Egyptians converted to Christianity. In the second and third centuries AD, traditional polytheistic religion was replaced with monotheistic Christianity, so Egyptians were forced to incorporate the Greek alphabet into the Egyptian language, and general knowledge of them quickly declined and eventually disappeared. Ironically, as it played a major role in understanding hieroglyphs, the last writing using hieroglyphs was during the rule of Theodosius I in 394 CE, on the island of Philae.

Although the Temple of Isis is the complex’s main attraction, there are a series of other worthwhile monuments. These include the Temple of Hathor, which was built by Ptolemy VI Philometer and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and later added to by the Emperor Augustus. The Gateway of Hadrian features reliefs commissioned by Roman emperors Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus, while the unfinished yet undeniably beautiful ‘Trajan’s Kiosk’ (also known as the Pharaoh’s bed in Arabic) was a favourite subject of Victorian painters. It is attributed to Trajan and was the original entrance to the temple complex and possibly served as a barque station. His depiction as pharaoh is seen on reliefs in its interior. However, the majority of the structure dates to an earlier time, possibly to the reign of Augustus (Fig. 7). Later Christian ruins are also found on the island and include the remains of a monastery and two Coptic churches.

Fig 7: Trajan’s kiosk

Philae temple complex is in my opinion one of the highlights of any Nile cruise and I would urge anyone visiting Egypt to head south from Luxor to Aswan to explore the wonders there and, indeed as we did, even further again to explore not just Philae but the other beautiful temples rescued from the ravages of the rising waters of Lake Nassar.

Bibliography

Belzoni, G. B. (2007) Travels in Egypt and Nubia. White Star Publishers: Italy.

Shafer, B. E. (ed) (2005) Temples of Ancient Egypt. I.B. Taurus: London. New York.

Tripsavvy.com. Egypt, the Temple of Philae. Accessed November 2021. Available from: https://www.tripsavvy.com/egypt.

Wikipedia. Philae Obelisk. Accessed November 2021. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_obelisk.

Wilkinson, R. H. (2000) The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson Ltd: London.