 The hill of ruins of Bahbīt el-Ḥigāra | ||
| Bahbīt el-Ḥigāra · بهبيت الحجارة | ||
| Governorate | Gharbīya | |
|---|---|---|
| Residents | 9.829 (2006) | |
| height | 12 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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Bahbit el-Higara (also Behbit el-Higara, Behbeit el-Hagar, Behbīt / Behbeit el-Hegara, Behbeit el-Hagara, Arabic:بهبيت الحجارة, Bahbīt / Bahbait al-Ḥiǧāra), the ancient Iseum (Greek Ίσεῖον, Iseion) or Per-Hebit (altäg.), is a village and an archaeological site in the Nile Delta about 10 kilometers northeast of Samannūd and southwest of el-Manṣūra in the egyptian Governorate el-Gharbīya. In 2006, 9,829 people lived here.[1] The local temple is probably one of the most important ancient legacies in the Nile Delta that archaeologists or Egyptologists might be interested in.
background
Naming
Today's Surname derives from ancient Egyptian Per-Ḥebit (et) ("House [of the god] of Ḥebit" or "festival hall"), which around the Arabic el-Ḥigāra (Arabic:الحجارة, „the stones“) Was added. The name Per-Hebit (et) has been mentioned in texts since the New Kingdom, but is used for several places with the same name. The earliest mention comes from the time of Amenhotep III. In Coptic times the place was Naisi (Coptic: Ⲛⲁⲏⲥⲓ) called.
The Isis Temple was the most important sanctuary of this goddess (Isis of Hebit) in Lower Egypt, hence the name Iseum or Isidis oppidum for this site.[2] Other venerated gods were Osiris, Horus, Anubis and Min of Koptos.
history
Little is known about the history of the place. It does not begin until the String Age (26th Dynasty). It is believed that Amasis may have had a predecessor to the Temple of Isis, which was replaced by the later Iseum of the 30th Dynasty.[3] The later construction of quartzite, red and gray granite and basalt began under the kings Nectanebos I and Nectanebos II, whose names can be read on one or three stone blocks.
The construction work continued under the Ptolemies Ptolemy II. Philadelphus I and Ptolemy III. Euergetes I., from which most of the inscriptions come. Thus, the building extended from about 360 to 221 BC. Chr.
The place was initially part of the 12th Lower Egyptian Gaus, but became the capital of an independent Gaus in Ptolemaic times.
The temple must have collapsed as a result of an earthquake or under its own weight in ancient times and has been looted since then. Already in the first century AD, probably between 43 and the reign of Emperor Domitian, a block was made to Rome for a local temple of Isis and Serapis.[4]
Research history
One of the first modern descriptions of the temple comes from the scientists of the French Napoleon expedition,[5] the one in the temple is a scaled-down image of the Temple of Hathor Dendera saw. Among other things, they found parts of columns over 10 meters high and 1.5 meters thick. Further descriptions are from Günther Roeder (1881-1966) and Campbell Cowan Edgar (1870-1938).[6] The finds up to the 1930s are documented in the bibliography of Porter and Moss.[7]
A probing Dig found only in the late 1940s and early 1950s under the direction of a French Egyptologist Pierre Montet (1885–1966) took place.[8] Sufficient research is still pending, so that not even a secure floor plan of the temple can be given. The investigations by the French Egyptologist Christine Favard-Meeks were based only on the material available to date, including the Montets archive, and a photographic exploration carried out in 1977 without having to dig again.
getting there
The archaeological site of Bahbīt el-Higāra, the 1 Isis temple(31 ° 1 ′ 39 ″ N.31 ° 17 ′ 21 ″ E), is located in the east of the village of the same name.
One leaves 1 Samannūd(30 ° 58 ′ 2 ″ N.31 ° 14 ′ 48 ″ E) in the north, drives towards Ṭalchā (Arabic:طلخا, North of el-Manṣūra) on the left (east) side of the canal and branches off at 2 31 ° 1 ′ 2 ″ N.31 ° 18 ′ 3 ″ E to the northwest. One reaches the village of Bahbīt el-Higāra in the east. Immediately before reaching the village, one passes the archaeological site in the south. At 3 31 ° 1 '37 "N.31 ° 17 ′ 16 ″ E one branches off to the north to the archaeological site.
The village can be reached from Samannūd by minnibus. The stop in Samannūd is located in a side street of Mīdān Muṣṭafā en-Nuḥās Bāschā northwest of the Samannūd Bridge. The fare to Bahbīt el-Higāra was 50 piasters in 2008.
An arrival from el-Maḥalla el-Kubrā and el-Manṣūra is possible in a similar way.
mobility
The terrain has to be explored on foot.
Tourist Attractions
The excavation site of the Iseum is not officially open to tourists! However, there is an inspector on site, so it is not hopeless to visit the site during his working hours (Sunday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.). It makes sense to arrange the visit with the antiquities inspector for pharaonic antiquities in Samannūd. If you want to take photos, you definitely need a permit (subject to a fee) from the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo.
You enter the area in the south. To the south is the inspector's quarters, Mr. Ihāb.
The temple area is surrounded by a 241 × 362 meter brick wall (almost 9 hectares) that is almost 20 meters thick. The wall is still visible on three sides (except on the east side).
A sphinx Nektanebos ’II was set up not far from the inspector's quarters.
In the center is the rubble mound with the impressive remains of the temple.
The Isis Temple had the dimensions of 55 × 80 meters (these are also the dimensions of today's rubble mound) and its structure roughly corresponded to the shape of the Hathor Temple of Dendera. The entrance to the temple was in the west, to which an avenue of sphinxes Nektanebos ’II in the form of a dromos (corridor) led. Perhaps there was another columned courtyard in front of the temple, to which a pronaos (vestibule) could have been attached.
This is followed by one or more halls in which ten 15 meter high Hathor capital columns Ptolemy ’II were made of red granite. Such Hathor supports, the remains of which can still be found, are only used in temples for female deities. To the right (to the south) stairs made of black granite blocks led to the roof. At the eastern end was the approximately 25 meters wide, 40 meters long and about 6 meters high sanctuary (Holy of Holies) Nektanebos ’II. One of the earliest hymns to Isis is recorded in the shrine. To the east of the sanctuary, behind the gallery, there were three chapels for Osiris-Andjerty, which deal with the rebirth of Osiris as a young child and his transformation into a falcon. In the reconstruction by Favard-Meeks, these are the prince's chapel on the left (in the north), in which the great prince of Andjety becomes the divine hawk in Bahbīt, in the middle the Res-Wedja chapel and on the right the “High House in which Hor-pa-chered (Horus-the-Child) dwells ”.
The numerous fragments testify to the high quality work of the ancient stonemasons. The themes of the scenes correspond to the usual repertoire: these are mainly representations of the sacrifices of King Ptolemy II to various gods such as Isis, Osiris and Horus, but also Nut, Hathor, Tefnut, Nephthys, Hapi, Chons, Sobek and Anubis.
The holy lake was once located in the northwest of the temple ruins.
accommodation
Accommodation is available in el-Maḥalla el-Kubrā and el-Manṣūra.
trips
A visit to the excavation site can be compared to that of the city Samannūd and other places in its vicinity.
literature
- : Behbeit el-Hagar. In:Helck, Wolfgang; Otto, Eberhard (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology; Vol. 1: A - harvest. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975, ISBN 978-3-447-01670-4 , Col. 682 f.
- : Le temple de Behbeit el-Hagara: essai de reconstitution et d'interprétation. Hamburg: Buske, 1991, Studies of Ancient Egyptian Culture: Supplements; 6th, ISBN 978-3-87548-000-9 .
- : Temples of the Last Pharaohs. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-19-512633-4 , Pp. 84, 125-127, 158.
- : Behbeit el-Hagara. In:Bard, Kathryn A. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. London, New York: Routledge, 1999, ISBN 978-0-415-18589-9 , Pp. 165-167.
Web links
- The present state of the site of Behbeit el-Hagar by Christine Favard-Meeks
Individual evidence
- ↑Population according to the 2006 Egyptian census, Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, accessed July 2, 2014.
- ↑There was another temple of Isis in Busirisdescribed by Herodotus (II, 59).
- ↑Arnold, Temples, loc. cit., p. 84.
- ↑Museo Nazionale Rome, Inv.-No. 52,045. Please refer:: Le antichità egiziane di Roma imperiale. Roma: Is. Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libr. Dello Stato, 1995, ISBN 978-88-240-3894-2 , P. 131 f.
- ↑Description d’Egypte, Volume 5, pp. 160–166, Volume Antiquites V, Panel 30.1–30.9.
- ↑: Behbêt's temple of Isis. In:Journal of Egyptian Language and Antiquity (ZÄS), ISSN0044-216X, Vol.46 (1909), Pp. 62-73. — : Behbêt's Temple of Isis, 2. In:Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l’archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, Vol.35 (1913), Pp. 89-116.
- ↑: Lower and Middle Egypt: (Delta and Cairo to Asyûṭ). In:Topographical bibliography of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, statues, reliefs, and paintings; Vol.4. Oxford: Griffith Inst., Ashmolean Museum, 1934, ISBN 978-0-900416-82-8 , Pp. 40-42; PDF.
- ↑: Les divinités du temple de Behbeit el-Hagar. In:Kêmi: revue de philologie et d’archéologie égyptiennes et coptes, ISSN0373-6059, Vol.10 (1949), Pp. 43-48. — : Etat present du temple de Behbeit el Hagar. In:Kêmi: revue de philologie et d’archéologie égyptiennes et coptes, ISSN0373-6059, Vol.10 (1949), Pp. 49-57.
