 Temple of Isis, looking northeast | ||
| el-Qalʿa · القلعة | ||
| Governorate | Qinā | |
|---|---|---|
| Residents | 11.511 (2006) | |
| height | 77 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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El-Qal'a (also el-Qala, el-Qalaa, Arabic:القلعة, al-Qalʿa, „the citadel") is a egyptian Village with around 11,500 inhabitants[1] in the north of Qifṭ, the ancient Koptos, in the government Qinā and is located on the eastern side of the Nile. The local temple of Isis dates back to Roman times and should mainly be of interest to archaeologists.
background
The temple, once on the edge of the desert north of Coptus is now surrounded by a village. The temple is also the reason for the name of the village, "the fortress". Of course, the structure is closely connected to the sanctuaries of Koptos - it is less than a kilometer north of the Min Temple of Koptos - but the only thing that can at least be viewed from the outside. It is only secured by a wire fence.
The limestone temple was built under Emperor Augustus (30 BC - 14 AD) on the site of an earlier sanctuary and was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the "Great Goddess". The decoration was started under Augustus, but it was only completed under Caligula (37–41) and Claudius (41–54). The temple is quite well preserved, it has been partially preserved in its entirety, only the roof is missing. As far as the poor quality of the limestone allowed, the reliefs are quite well preserved.
The temple is first used by Richard Pococke (1704–1765) visited in 1737,[2] later he is taught by scientists of the Napoleon expedition,[3] of Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884)[4] and Adolphe Joseph Reinach[5] visited and, but only partially described. In 1977 the temple was secured on behalf of the Antiquities Authority. From 1984 to the mid-1990s, Laure Pantalacci and Claude Traunecker examined the temple and produced a comprehensive publication.
getting there
The village can be easily reached by car or taxi from the nearby one Luxor out. It's on one 1 Branch(26 ° 0 ′ 21 ″ N.32 ° 48 '34 "E.) the trunk road Qinā–Edfu immediately north of Qifṭ.
Tourist Attractions
The 16 × 24 meter 1 Temple of Isis(26 ° 0 ′ 19 ″ N.32 ° 49 ′ 4 ″ E) is tightly integrated into the village, but its east and south sides are easily accessible. This gives you a view of the two entrances in the east and in the south, which are the starting points of two cult axes located at right angles.
If one could enter the temple from the east, one would first get into the entrance hall, which gives access to the crypts in the eastern corners. In the west one is placed in the middle to a connecting room to the following sacrificial room and then to the main sanctuary (the holy of holies). Immediately south of the passage to the connecting room, a door leads to a room with the stairs to the temple roof. In the north of the connecting room there are two storage rooms.
As in many Greco-Roman temples, western January is surrounded by a walkway on three sides. In the north one reaches two rooms that are called Per-who in the far west and Per-nu Represent images of the imperial sanctuaries of Upper and Lower Egypt. A door leads to the south of the gallery Wabet ("The pure [place]") with the usual forecourt, in which the celebrations for the union of the cult images with the sun disk were carried out during the New Year celebrations. In the access area of the Wabet there is also a crypt that was used to store the cult images.
West January is dedicated to the goddess Isis, the "great goddess" (Tanetjeret-ʿat) of Koptos, Min and the child god Harpokrates.
The special thing about this temple: the second cult axis. The entrance to the south leads into an entrance hall and via the common sacrificial hall to the north sanctuary, a secondary sanctuary. The sanctuary is for Isis as well, but in a different aspect.
In particular, the depictions of victims on the southern outer facade - they come from Emperor Claudius - on the door posts of the secondary cult axis and in northern Sanctuary can be seen well at lunchtime when they are not in the shade. The southern outer wall was decorated in two registers (picture strips) and you can see Emperor Claudius sacrificing before various gods. The rear wall of the north sanctuary was also decorated in two registers, but the upper one is better preserved. In a double scene, Isis can be seen behind Harpocrates. On the back wall of the temple in the west, which does not have a fence, two symmetrical double scenes can be made out in a familiar way, in which, among other things, the king sacrifices before Isis. They lie in the sunlight in the afternoon.
kitchen
Restaurants can be found in the nearby towns Luxor and Karnak.
accommodation
Accommodation can be found in the nearby towns Luxor and Karnak.
trips
A visit to the village can be combined with that of the city Qūṣ and / or the villages el-Madamud and Shanhūr connect.
literature
- : El Qala. In:Helck, Wolfgang; Westendorf, Wolfhart (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology; Vol. 5: Building a pyramid - stone vessels. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984, ISBN 978-3-447-02489-1 , Col. 38-40. In French.
- : Le temple d’el-Qalʿa. Le Caire: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1990. Three volumes planned. Volume 1: Relevés des scènes et des textes: sanctuaire central, sanctuaire north, salle des offrandes. Volume 2: Relevés des scènes et des textes: couloir mystétieux, cour du “Nouvel An”, Ouabet, Per-nou, per-our, petit vestibule.
- : Ancient Egypt in the Roman Empire: the Roman Pharaoh and his temples; Volume 1: Roman politics and ancient Egyptian ideology from Augustus to Diocletian, temple building in Upper Egypt. Mainz: from Zabern, 2000, Pp. 63, 65, 69, figs. 71–72.
Individual evidence
- ↑Population according to the 2006 Egyptian census, Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, accessed December 16, 2014.
- ↑: A description of the east and some other countries; Volume the First: Observations on Egypt. London: W. Bowyer, 1743. Plate 27.A.
- ↑Description de l’Égypte, Antiquités, texts, Volume iii, p. 414.
- ↑Lepsius, Richard: Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia, Texts, Volume II (1904), pp. 256-257.
- ↑: Le temple d’El-Kala à Koptos. In:Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte (ASAE), ISSN1687-1510, Vol.11 (1911), Pp. 193-237, panels I-V.
