Dendera Temple complex ( Part 3 )

19 - The staircase to the west of the offering hall , which was used by the priests to ascend to the roof , ( with the ascending figures of the king and various priests with the shrine of the goddess carved on its right-hand wall ) gave access to the roof of the temple and a chapel , where the goddess stayed overnight before beholding the rising sun in a symbolic union with the solar disc .

20 - The staircase to the east of the roof ( with corresponding scenes of descending figures ) were used for the procession's return .

21 - The roof of the inner temple also has two parallel sets of rooms on its eastern and western sides which functioned as chapels dedicated to the death and resurrection of Osiris , and also contain representations of the goddess Nut and various chthonic deities .

22 - One of these chapels contained a zodiac ( now ; the original in the Louvre and replaced by a copy ) . This chapel was constructed in the late Ptolemaic period , its ledge was added by the emperor Tiberius and it was dedicated to Osiris . The zodiac is a carved map of the sky onto two enormous sandstone blocks and set them into the ceiling of this chapel . On an inner circle, finds constellations containing images and showing signs of the zodiac ( e.g. Ram, Taurus, Scorpio, Libra , Aquarius and Capricorn ) .

23 - The roof of the hypostyle hall was reached by another flight of steps with various gods carved along its wall , and this highest area of the temple was used in antiquity by pious pilgrims who awaited signs and miracles from the goddess .

24 - Gaming boards carved into the stone blocks helped these faithful pass the time during their vigils .

25 - At the very rear of the temple , directly behind the sanctuary , beneath the apotropaic lion-headed there are a rain spout in the shape of a lioness to draining rainwater from the roof .

26 - The exterior wall has scenes showing the massive figures of Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar , Caesarion , who became the great queen's co-regent as Ptolemy XV .

27 - At the centre of the wall , directly behind the sanctuary , there are the large false door with a gigantic emblem of Hathor diminished over the centuries by pilgrims who scraped at it to obtain a little of the sacred stone at the point where they could come closest to Hathor herself .

To be continuous ...............

Part ( 4 ) Coming Sooooooon ......