 Columns belonging to the pronaos of Ptolemy ’VIII. Euergetes’ II. Temple of the Month | ||
| El-Madāmūd · المدامود | ||
| Governorate | Luxor | |
|---|---|---|
| Residents | 15.091 (2006) | |
| height | 79 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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El Madamud (also Medamud, Médamoud, Medamut, Medamot, Arabic:المدامود, al-Madāmūd, fully Naǧʿ al-Madāmūd (نجع المدامود, „Hamlet of al-Madāmūd"), Ancient Egyptian: Madu, Coptic: ⲘⲈⲦⲈⲘⲞⲨⲦ, Metemout) is a village in Upper Egypt in the north of Karnak or about 8 km northeast of Luxor. To the west of the village is the Month Temple, an archaeological site.
background
The ancient Egyptian place Madu (M3dw) has been documented as the location of the Month Temple since the end of the Old Kingdom or the 1st interim period. The place name has been preserved through Coptic to this day. Obviously the place had no other function. The local temple is one of the oldest archaeologically proven temples in Egypt.
The local temple was dedicated to the triad of the gods of Madu, these are the ones mostly depicted in the shape of a bull in the late period God of War Month, his companion Rat-taui ("advice of the two countries ”), a female sun goddess, and her son Hor-pa-re-pa-chered ("Horus-Re, the child", a subsidiary form of the Harpare). Before the introduction of Amun as the main god in the Theban Gau, Month was the main god of this Gau. The Month temples are still in the Theban region Karnak and in eṭ-Ṭōd consecrated to this god. In the early days Month is usually depicted as a falcon, with the depiction as a bull mainly from the late period onwards, his combative nature and his healing powers are certainly to be emphasized. Harpare is a rare form of Horus who is only worshiped as a child or adolescent god in connection with the local triad of gods. Harpare protects the king from disease and calamity.
In Ptolemaic (Greek) times, the wind and fertility god Amun is worshiped here to the same extent, but his worship in this temple began in the New Kingdom.
A first simple temple was located in the east below today's temple. It dates to the end of the Old Kingdom or the First Intermediate Period, but before the 11th Dynasty. From the north, two pylons, one behind the other, led to a double cave sanctuary, the underground chambers of which were marked on the surface with mounds of earth. These mounds of earth certainly had the function of primeval mounds. With the rise in the water table since the Aswan High Dam was built in 1970, this early temple was lost.
Sesostris III. (12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom) had this first temple built over with its own temple. The approximately 60 × 100 m large, north-south facing temple was built from adobe bricks. Only the doorways and pillars, including the architrave, were made of limestone. The entrance to the temple was in the north. Two gates could be reconstructed from the fragments found. The Sedfest portal, which is dedicated to the coronation anniversary of Sesostris III. remembers, is now in the north part of the ground floor Egyptian Museum of Cairo, the second in the southwest part of the open-air museum in the temple of Karnak. From Sesostris III. are still his temples in Qasr es-Sagha and Madinat Madi in the Faiyūm known. Several statues of this ruler also come from the local temple.
In the 13th dynasty the temple was expanded and further decorated, especially under Sobekhotep II. In the New Kingdom Thutmose III. build his own 21 × 32 m temple in the west of the temple from the Middle Kingdom. It was oriented in a west-east direction and consisted of a pillared hall, an offering table hall and a barque sanctuary. Strictly speaking, the temple complex is already a double temple at this time.
In Greco-Roman period the temple was torn down, replaced by a new building and greatly expanded. Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (around 180-116 BC) had a pronaos (vestibule) added to the west of the temple, of which five columns and architraves still stand upright today. The Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (86 - 161) had the temple extended by a further, western courtyard with a double row of columns - the temple was now around 75 m long and 42 m wide. Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus (42 BC - 37 AD) had a gate built for the surrounding wall at the end of the Sphinx avenue.
At the end of the 4th century a Coptic church was built on the temple area.
The exploration of the temple was carried out 1925-1932 by the French Egyptologists Fernand Bisson de la Roque, Alexandre Varille and Clément Robichon on behalf of Parisians Musee de Louvre. Some of the finds are now in the Louvre and the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon issued.
getting there
The shortest route (about 8 km) largely follows the road Hurghada. For arrival and departure to Luxor you don't need a convoy between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. At night you have to rely on a chargeable convoy.
mobility
The temple area, actually the entire village, can be explored on foot.
Tourist Attractions
The 1 Month temple(25 ° 44 ′ 4 ″ N.32 ° 42 '35 "E) is located to the west of the village. It cannot actually be visited in Cairo without a special permit from the Supreme Authority for Antiquities!
The current remains of the temple date from Greco-Roman times.
An approx. 200 m long sphinx avenue leads from the ancient quay in the west of the temple to the actual temple. About 50 m in front of the temple are the remains of the gate of the emperor Tiberius on the avenue. The barque of the idol was unloaded from a ship during a procession on the quay and carried over the avenue of sphinxes to the temple.
Almost only the foundation walls and column bases of the temple remain. You enter the temple in the west and come to the forecourt, which was bordered on three sides with a double row of columns. Immediately to the east behind it are five almost completely preserved columns that belong to the pronaos of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. Both at the gate of Tiberius and at the surviving parts of the temple, representations can still be seen in the sunken relief.
South of the temple is the holy lake from Ptolemaic (Greek) times and a well. The existence of a second western entrance gate testifies that there should have been another temple here in Ptolemaic times.
About 50 m south of the Gate of Tiberius, numerous temple fragments were collected, on which cartouches and fragments of scenes can still be made out. These stone fragments also mostly come from Greco-Roman times.
kitchen
accommodation
Accommodation can be found in the nearby towns Luxor and Karnak.
literature
A brief overview can be found in
- : The temples of Egypt: dwellings, places of worship, monuments. Zurich: Artemis & Winkler, 1992, ISBN 978-3760810737 , Pp. 160 - 163.
More extensive representations can only be found in scientific publications:
- : Report on the fouilles de Médamoud. In:Fouilles de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale du Caire <Le Caire>, ISSN0768-4703, Vol.3–9 (1932) (French). Published 1926–1932.
- : Description sommaire du temple primitif de Médamoud. Le Caire: Impr. De l'IFAO, 1940.
- : La porte de Tibère à Médamoud. L'histoire d'une publication. In:Bulletin de la Société Française d'Égyptologie <Paris>, Vol.81 (1978), Pp. 18-26 (French).
Web links
- Description of the temple on the French Wikipedia.
