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Monday, February 22, 2010

Temple of Edfu




The year is 237 BC and the Temple of Edfu honoured to Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, is designed and ready to be built in Egypt, between the cataract at
Aswan and Luxor.
In 237 BC is in Cleopatra VII's Ptolemaic dynasty. In 57 BC when the Temple of Edfu is completed.
This is a time of great change in Egypt. In 320 BC the city of Alexandria replaces Memphis as the capital of Egypt as the Greeks were shifting the paradigm of Pharoah rule. Alexander the Great had removed the Persians from Egypt rule in 332 BC. He was named Pharoah of Memphis but found the land which became Alexandria more accomodationg to his style of rule. Part of the Greek changes can be seen in the
infrastructure such as the roads and the methods of travel and trade up and down the Nile and through Greek style canals.
The Greek Pharoah of Memphis dies at the age of 38 (323 BC) and his generals split up his Empire amongst them. Ptolemy takes Egypt as his heritage. Thus we get Ptolemy I Soter. Ptolemy I's rule of Egypt was a transition which took a few decades. The next few centuries of Egypt are a mixture of Egyptian ancient beliefs and Greek philosophy and pantheonic influence.
Ptolemy I Soter's Egyptian monicker was Meryamun Setepenre or "Beloved of Amun, Chosen of Re".
The transition to power was a merger between Monarch Hellenistic rule and Pharoanic god-king rule.
Ptolemy I Soter, the saviour, created a new god named Serapis made up of Greek Egyptian deity rituals. The Egyptian rituals he supposedly learned under the advice of Demetrius Phalereus who was head of the Alexandria Library and the mind behind the Mouseion ( the University of Alexandria). The Serapeion of Alexandria was a temple dedicated to the new god. The Serapis cult seems to have taken off with Greeks but not so much with Egyptians.
Meanwhile back in Edfu, or Edfou as the french would have it.
Can we see this Greco influence in the relatively small city of Edfi and in the Horus Temple of Edfu ?
The Temple of Edfu faces North to South and is built above a New Egypt kingdom smaller temple which faced east to west. A much older structure called the Tell Edfu (tell being synonymous to settlement ). Historians believe this settlement contains evidence that this Wedjeset-Hor Tell was a province and capital of the Second Upper Egypt nome. Such influence goes back all the way to predynastic Egypt or eras predating 3100 BC.
Seven small pyramids dating back to Egypt dynasty 3 and attributed to King Huni are situated 5 kms south of Edfu.
The Greco influenced Temple of Edfu is sometimes referred to as the Temple at Apollonopolis Magna (Edfu to the Greco-Roman) dedicated to the chief god Horus-Apollo.
This size of this Egyptian Temple to Horus Apollo at Edfu is second only to another Temple in Karnak.
more on the Temple of Edfu at wikipedia

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