An old temple built by new kings
Edfu is dedicated to Horus, the falcon god of kingship, and it was built by the Ptolemies, the Greek-speaking dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. Its walls record the date the foundations were laid, 23 August 237 BCE, under Ptolemy III, and the ceremonies that marked the end of the work in 57 BCE, under Ptolemy XII, the father of Cleopatra. It took 180 years.
The new kings were Macedonian, but the temple is entirely Egyptian. The Ptolemies needed the support of the powerful priesthood, and the priests designed the building following plans and rules they believed went back to the gods themselves. That is why Edfu is the clearest example we have of the classic plan of an Egyptian temple, even though it is one of the last ever built.
Why did it survive?
Two things saved it. The first is age: at a little over 2,000 years, Edfu is more than a thousand years younger than the temples of Karnak, and had less time to fall apart. The second is burial. After the temple fell out of use in late antiquity, wind-blown sand and the silt of Nile floods filled the courts and halls, up to about 12 metres. People built houses on top, and the roof became part of a village. When Auguste Mariette began to clear it in 1860, the stone underneath was intact: walls, columns, roof slabs and many of the carvings.
So you can walk through it almost as the priests did. Most Egyptian temples have lost their roofs, and with them the darkness that was part of their design. Edfu still has it.
From sunlight to darkness
The temple runs on a single axis, about 137 metres from the gate to the back wall. You enter through the pylon, a gateway between two sloping towers about 36 metres high, the shape of the hieroglyph for “horizon”, where the sun rises. On its front the king strikes his enemies, a scene repeated on temple gates for three thousand years. Behind it lies a large open court surrounded by columns, the only part of the temple where ordinary people might be admitted on festival days.
Then the building closes in step by step. Two hypostyle halls follow (from the Greek hypo, under, and stylos, column), forests of columns with capitals shaped like plants. The floor rises a little, the ceiling drops, the light fades. Side rooms stored offerings, perfumes and the temple’s treasures; one, a “laboratory”, has the recipes for incense and oils carved on its walls. At the end, in almost total darkness, is the sanctuary.
A shrine older than the temple
In the sanctuary stands a naos, that is, a stone shrine for the god’s statue, carved from a single block of dark granite. It is older than the temple around it: it was made for an earlier building on the same site under Nectanebo II (reigned 360-342 BCE), the last native pharaoh of Egypt, and the Ptolemaic builders kept it as the heart of their new temple. In front of it, a modern copy of a sacred boat recalls how the statue of Horus was carried out in procession.
A library carved in stone
Edfu is covered in texts, inside and out, and many explain the temple itself. Building inscriptions give its measurements, the names of its rooms and its history. Others describe it as the island that rose from the waters at the creation of the world. On the inner face of the enclosure wall, a long sequence of scenes and texts tells the struggle between Horus and his uncle Seth, the god of chaos, who appears as a small hippopotamus speared again and again. Scholars think it was the script of a ritual drama performed at the temple, one of the earliest theatre texts we have.
A goddess comes to visit
Every year the statue of Hathor left the temple of Hathor at Dendera and sailed about 180 km up the Nile to Edfu, stopping at other temples on the way while crowds watched from the banks. The texts call it the Festival of the Beautiful Meeting: Hathor was the wife of Horus, and for fourteen days the two gods stayed together at Edfu, with offerings, processions and feasts, before she went home. Edfu was one link in a chain of temples along the river, with Dendera to the north and Philae to the south.
Where to see it
Edfu lies on the west bank of the Nile, roughly halfway between Luxor and Aswan, and almost every Nile cruise stops there. The temple is a short ride from the river by carriage or taxi. Go early or late in the day, when the court is in shade and the groups are fewer, and check opening hours with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Sources
- Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt), “Temple of Edfu”.
- D. Kurth, The Temple of Edfu: A Guide by an Ancient Egyptian Priest (2004).
- Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC), University of Chicago, Tell Edfu Project, “Temple of Horus” and “History of excavation”.
- H. W. Fairman, The Triumph of Horus (1974).
- B. Watterson, The House of Horus at Edfu (1998).
