Kalabsha Temple, Aswan
Kalabsha Temple: New Kalabsha Island is located south of the Great Aswan Dam. It can be reached by taxi from Aswan and then take a boat to the island’s dock. Another option is to make one of the cruises that sail on Lake Nasser and have this island between their routes.
In New Kalabsha there are several Egyptian temples, saved from being flooded under the waters of Lake Nasser, on the occasion of the construction of the Great Dam, thanks to international cooperation sponsored by UNESCO. The most relevant monument of this open-air museum is the so-called Kalabsha or Mandulis temple.
The temple of Kalabsha or Mandulis was begun in Ptolemaic times, although its construction was completed in the time of Emperor Augustus. Originally it was located 56 km south of Aswan but was dismantled and taken to its present location because of the construction of the dam. It was dedicated to the god’s Isis, Osiris, and Horus – Mandulis, which was the Roman personification of the Nubian sun god. The temple had three chambers, all of them decorated with reliefs in which Augustus is represented, as a pharaoh, making offerings to the gods of the Egyptian pantheon.
Other Egyptian constructions, saved from the flooding of Lake Nasser, were also located on the island of New Kalabsha, thanks to the sponsorship of UNESCO. Among these monuments are the Beit el-Wali, the Gerf Hussein, and the Qertassi kiosk. To be able to visit all these monuments, a path has been created that passes through all of them.
In Beit el-Wali, 50 km south of Aswan, there was a small temple, dug out of the rock, which is now located in the northwest of the island of New Kalabsha. It was built in the time of Ramses II and dedicated to Amon and the local gods of Nubia and Aswan. Inside, we find spectacular wall reliefs with scenes of the victories of Ramses II and his sons in the battles against the Nubian tribes and the tributes brought to the monarch in the form of animals and ivory.
Gerf Hussein’s temple was not rebuilt until today. Surprisingly, the blocks of this Ramses-era temple were left abandoned on the island of New Kalabsha after being rescued in the 1960s from the construction of the dam. The House of Ptah or Per Ptah, as it was called, was built by Setau, regent of Nubia, during the reign of Ramses II. After recent restoration by Egyptian archaeologists, we can see a large columned courtyard dedicated to the cults of Re-Horakthte and Amun-Re.
Inside the temple, six pillars, with colossal statues of the pharaoh, support the ceiling of a large room, which precedes the antechamber and the great central sanctuary, where Ramses II is represented with the gods. We can get an idea of the spectacular nature of this temple thanks to the lithographs by David Roberts, a 19th century Scottish Orientalist painter.
The Qertassi kiosk is located south of the main temple of Kalabsha. It was originally located 30 km south of Aswan. The entrance is flanked by two columns with capitals of the goddess Hathor, while the columns supporting the architrave have papyriform capitals.
Other monuments that we can find in New Kalabsha are a chapel, dedicated to the god Dedwen, built by Thutmosis III, originally located on the island of Uronarti, between the second and third waterfalls of the Nile; a stele, which tells the story of Psamtik II’s expedition to Nubia in 592 BC; another stele that highlights the victories of Seti I; or various prehistoric petroglyphs with recreations of animals, such as elephants, giraffes or gazelles.
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