Philae .. The island of Bigeh .. Part ( 12 )

Immediately to the west of Philae lies the larger island of Bigeh, which, though usually made use of only as a viewpoint from which to see Philae, has remains which are themselves worthy of attention, and which prove the larger island to have had a much more ancient history than its more famous neighbour .

Philae Island .. The other buildings .. Part ( 11 )

Hadrian's Gateway

On the west side of the temple near the second Great Pylon, stands a gateway which leads to a sorely ruined vestibule built by the Emperor Hadrian, rising above the quay wall .

Philae Island .. The Great Temple of Isis .. Part ( 10 )

The eastern chambers of the temple of Isis

Returning to the small court or hall before the vestibule, one should now visit the eastern portion of the building . On the south wall there is a damaged relief of the king offering to Horus .

Philae Island .. The Great Temple of Isis .. Part ( 9 )

The Hypostyle Hall of the temple of Isis

Ascending the stairs from the forecourt one passes through the great doorway . On the two jambs are reliefs showing the king offering to various gods . On the east side is an inscription of Bishop Theodorus ( reign of Justinian, A.D. 527 – 565 ) .

Philae Island .. The Forecourt of the Temple of Isis and The Second Pylon .. Part ( 8 )

The east side of the Forecourt of the temple of Isis

The east side of the forecourt between the two pylons is formed by a colonnade with graceful ten columns in a floral and palm-leaf capital which support a cavetto cornice, bearing a row of uraeus-serpents, from the back of which six doorways lead .

Philae Island .. The First Great Pylon and The Birth-house of Horus .. Part ( 7 )

The First Great Pylon

The north side of the Outer Court at Philae is bounded by the First Great Pylon of the temple . It is an imposing structure, 150 feet in width and 60 feet in height, consisting of two towers with a gate between them . The deep grooves for flag-poles are cut on either side of the portal .

Philae Island .. The Great Temple of Isis ( Outer Court ) .. Part ( 6 )

About The Great Temple of Isis

We now reach the great temple of Isis, which was begun by Ptolemy II, Philadelphus ( 283 – 245 B.C. ), and completed in essentials by Ptolemy III, Euergetes I ( 247 – 221 B.C. ) .

Philae Island .. The Outer Court of the Temple of Isis .. Part ( 5 )

The temple of Nectanebos

We begin our survey of the temples of Philae with the south-western corner of the island from The temple of Nectanebos . The temple of Nectanebos, which is the earliest temple on the island .

Philae Island .. The rescue of Philae .. Part ( 4 )

The rescue project of Philae

When the second Aswan dam was opened in 1971, Philae – dating from Ptolemaic times and regarded as the most beautiful of Egyptian temples – was trapped beneath the waters between the old and the new dam . UNESCO, aided by the Egyptian government, sponsored the rescue of the temples in an enterprise of imagination and skill on a grand scale .

Philae Island .. Isis and Osiris .. Part ( 3 )

The worship and priests of Isis

The worship of Isis at Philae was the culmination of the religion of Ancient Egypt . Two thousand years earlier the Ancient Egyptian believed that in the beginning there was nothing but a waste of darkness and chaos . From this, emerged the sun-god Atum, who came into existence by himself and produced a god, Shu, and a goddess, Tefnut ( Tefnet or Tfenet ) .

Philae Island .. Geographical & Historical informations .. Part ( 2 )

Geographical informations about the Philae area

Philae itself is an island situated at the beginning of the First Cataract, from which the river descends on its way to the Mediterranean Sea . Today a modern road skirts the Cataract and follows the crest of the first Aswan Dam, giving a splendid view of the Cataract and the island of Siheil where traders inscribed their names on the numerous rocks and boulders before continuing on their way to Central Africa, the " Land of Ghosts " .

Philae Island – Historical Notes .. Part ( 1 )

Foreword

It does not often happen that a calamity is reversed, especially in the fields of archaeology and the environment . A barrow ploughed flat by a careless or rapacious farmer can never be reconstituted ; a country house demolished for redevelopment cannot be restored to what it once was, even if it is lovingly rebuilt according to its ancient form ; a countryside ruined by an industrial complex or a motorway can never be quite the same again . Yet a distinction can be made between the destruction of the man-made and the devastation of a landscape ; the former may be thought irrevocable, the latter a change which time will repair . Nature will not restore precisely, but she has the power to rehabilitate, to wipe out the rapacities of man, to replace what has been lost with something perhaps even better .