Philae is currently an island in the reservoir of the Aswan Low Dam,
downstream of the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser, Egypt. Philae was originally
located near the expansive First Cataract of the Nile River in southern
Egypt, and was the site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex. These rapids
and the surrounding area have been variously flooded since the initial
construction of the Old Aswan Dam in 1902. The temple complex was later
dismantled and relocated to nearby Agilkia Island as part of the UNESCO
Nubia Campaign project, protecting this and other complexes before the 1970
completion of the Aswan High Dam. Geography
Philae is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Strabo, Diodorus,
Ptolemy, Seneca, Pliny the Elder. It was, as the plural name indicates, the
appellation of two small islands situated in latitude 24° north, just
above the First Cataract near Aswan. Groskurd computes the distance between
these islands and Aswan at about 100 km. Despite being the smaller island, Philae
proper was, from the numerous and picturesque ruins formerly there, the
more interesting of the two. Prior to the inundation, it was not more than 380
metres long and about 120 metres broad. It is composed of Syenite stone: its
sides are steep and on their summits a lofty wall was built encompassing the
island. Since Philae was said to be one of the
burying-places of Osiris, it was held in high reverence both by the Egyptians to
the north and the Nubians to the south. It was deemed profane for any but
priests to dwell there and was accordingly sequestered and denominated
"the Unapproachable". It was reported too that neither birds flew over it nor
fish approached its shores. These indeed were the traditions of a remote period;
since in the time of the Ptolemies of Egypt, Philae was so much resorted to,
partly by pilgrims to the tomb of Osiris, partly by persons on secular
errands, that the priests petitioned Ptolemy Physcon to prohibit public
functionaries at least from coming there and living at their expense. In the 19th
century AD, William John Bankes took the Philae obelisk on which this petition
was engraved to England. When its Egyptian hieroglyphs were compared with
those of the Rosetta stone, it threw great light upon the Egyptian
consonantal alphabet. The islands of Philae were not, however,
merely sacerdotal abodes; they were the centres of commerce also between Meroë
and Memphis. For the rapids of the cataracts were at most seasons
impracticable, and the commodities exchanged between Egypt and Nubia were
reciprocally landed and re-embarked at Syene and Philae.
The neighbouring granite quarries also attracted a numerous population of
miners and stonemasons; and, for the convenience of this traffic, a gallery
or road was formed in the rocks along the east bank of the Nile, portions of
which are still extant. Philae also was remarkable for the
singular effects of light and shade resulting from its position near the
Tropic of Cancer. As the sun approached its northern limit the shadows from the
projecting cornices and moldings of the temples sink lower and lower down the
plain surfaces of the walls, until, the sun having reached its highest altitude,
the vertical walls are overspread with dark shadows, forming a striking
contrast with the fierce light which illuminates all surrounding objects.
= Construction = The most conspicuous feature of both
islands was their architectural wealth. Monuments of various eras, extending
from the Pharaohs to the Caesars, occupy nearly their whole area. The principal
structures, however, lay at the south end of the smaller island.
The most ancient was a temple for Isis, built in the reign of Nectanebo I during
380-362 BC, which was approached from the river through a double colonnade.
Nekhtnebef is his nomen and he became the founding pharaoh of the thirtieth
and last dynasty of native rulers when he deposed and killed Nefaarud II. Isis
was the goddess to whom the initial buildings were dedicated. See Gerhart
Haeny's 'A Short Architectural History of Philae' and numerous other articles
which incontrovertibly identify Isis as the primary goddess of the sacred isle.
For the most part, the other ruins date from the Ptolemaic times, more
especially with the reigns of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Ptolemy Epiphanes, and
Ptolemy Philometor, with many traces of Roman work in Philae dedicated to
Ammon-Osiris. In front of the propyla were two
colossal lions in granite, behind which stood a pair of obelisks, each 13 metres
high. The propyla were pyramidal in form and colossal in dimensions. One stood
between the dromos and pronaos, another between the pronaos and the portico,
while a smaller one led into the sekos or adytum. At each corner of the adytum
stood a monolithic shrine, the cage of a sacred hawk. Of these shrines one is now
in the Louvre, the other in the Museum at Florence.
Beyond the entrance into the principal court are small temples, one of which,
dedicated to Isis, Hathor, and a wide range of deities related to midwifery,
is covered with sculptures representing the birth of Ptolemy Philometor, under
the figure of the god Horus. The story of Osiris is everywhere represented on
the walls of this temple, and two of its inner chambers are particularly rich in
symbolic imagery. Upon the two great propyla are Greek inscriptions
intersected and partially destroyed by Egyptian figures cut across them.
The inscriptions do not at all belong to the Macedonian era, and are of earlier
date than the sculptures, which were probably inserted during that interval
of renaissance for the native religion which followed the extinction of the
Greek dynasty in Egypt in 30 BC by the Romans.
The monuments in both islands indeed attested, beyond any others in the Nile
valley, the survival of pure Egyptian art centuries after the last of the
Pharaohs had ceased to reign. Great pains have been taken to mutilate the
sculptures of this temple. The work of demolition is attributable, in the first
instance, to the zeal of the early Christians, and afterward, to the policy
of the Iconoclasts, who curried favour for themselves with the Byzantine court
by the destruction of heathen images as well as Christian ones. It's notable
that images/icons of Horus are often less mutilated than the other carvings.
In some wall scenes, every figure and hieroglyphic text except that of Horus
and his winged solar-disk representation have been meticulously scratched out by
early Christians. This is presumably because the early Christians had some
degree of respect for Horus or the legend of Horus - it may be because they
saw parallels between the stories of Jesus and Horus.
The soil of Philae had been prepared carefully for the reception of its
buildings–being leveled where it was uneven, and supported by masonry where
it was crumbling or insecure. For example, the western wall of the Great
Temple, and the corresponding wall of the dromos, were supported by very
strong foundations, built below the pre-inundation level of the water, and
rested on the granite which in this region forms the bed of the Nile. Here
and there steps were hewn out from the wall to facilitate the communication
between the temple and the river. At the southern extremity of the dromos
of the Great Temple was a smaller temple, apparently dedicated to Hathor;
at least the few columns that remained of it are surmounted with the head of
that goddess. Its portico consisted of twelve columns, four in front and three
deep. Their capitals represented various forms and combinations of the palm
branch, the doum-palm branch, and the lotus flower. These, as well as the
sculptures on the columns, the ceilings, and the walls were painted with the most
vivid colors, which, owing to the dryness of the climate, have lost little
of their original brilliance. History
= Pharaonic era = The ancient Egyptian name of the smaller
island is Philak, or boundary. As their southern frontier, the Pharaohs of Egypt
kept there a strong garrison, and it was also a barracks for Macedonian and Roman
soldiers in their turn. The first temple structure, which was built by native
pharaohs of the thirtieth dynasty, was the one for Hathor.
= Greco-Roman era = The island temple was built during the
Ptolemaic dynasty. The principal deity of the temple complex was Isis, but
other temples and shrines were dedicated to other deities such as Hathor and
Harendotes. The temple was closed down officially in the 6th century AD by the
Byzantine emperor, Justinian. Philae was a seat of the Christian religion as well
as of the ancient Egyptian faith. Ruins of a Christian church were discovered,
and more than one adytum bore traces of having been made to serve at different
eras the purposes of a chapel of Osiris and of Christ.
= 1800s = The island of Philae attracted much
attention in the 19th century. In the 1820s, Joseph Bonomi the Younger, a
British Egyptologist and museum curator visited the island. So did Amelia
Edwards, a British novelist in 1873–1874.
The approach by water is quite the most beautiful. Seen from the level of a
small boat, the island, with its palms, its colonnades, its pylons, seems to
rise out of the river like a mirage. Piled rocks frame it on either side, and
the purple mountains close up the distance. As the boat glides nearer
between glistening boulders, those sculptured towers rise higher and even
higher against the sky. They show no sign of ruin or age. All looks solid,
stately, perfect. One forgets for the moment that anything is changed. If a
sound of antique chanting were to be borne along the quiet air–if a
procession of white-robed priests bearing aloft the veiled ark of the God,
were to come sweeping round between the palms and pylons–we should not think it
strange. These visits are only a small sample of
the great interest that Victorian-era Britain had for Egypt. Soon, tourism to
Philae became common. = 1900s =
Aswan Low Dam In 1902, the Aswan Low Dam was completed
on the Nile River by the British. This threatened many ancient landmarks,
including the temple complex of Philae, with being submerged. The height of the
dam was raised twice, from 1907–1912 and from 1929–1934, and the island of Philae
was nearly always flooded. In fact, the only times that the complex was not
underwater was when the dam's sluices were open from July to October.
It was proposed that the temples be relocated, piece by piece, to nearby
islands, such as Bigeh or Elephantine. However, the temples' foundations and
other architectural supporting structures were strengthened instead.
Although the buildings were physically secure, the island's attractive
vegetation and the colors of the temples' reliefs were washed away. Also,
the bricks of the Philae temples soon became encrusted with silt and other
debris carried by the Nile. Rescue project
The temples had been practically intact since the ancient days, but with each
inundation the situation worsened and in the sixties the island was submerged up
to a third of the buildings all year round.
In 1960 UNESCO started a project to try to save the buildings on the island from
the destructive effect of the ever increasing waters of the Nile. First,
building three dams and creating a separate lake with lower water levels
was considered. First of all, a large coffer dam was
built, constructed of two rows of steel plates between which a million cubic
meters of sand was tipped. Any water that seeped through was pumped away.
Next the monuments were cleaned and measured, by using photogrammetry, a
method that enables the exact reconstruction of the original size of
the building blocks that were used by the ancients. Then every building was
dismantled into about 40,000 units, and then transported to the nearby Island of
Agilkia, situated on higher ground some 500 metres away.
Nearby locations of interest Prior to the inundation, a little west
of Philae lay a larger island, anciently called Snem or Senmut, but now Bigeh. It
is very precipitous, and from its most elevated peak affords a fine view of the
Nile, from its smooth surface south of the islands to its plunge over the
shelves of rock that form the First Cataract. Philae, Beghé, and another
lesser island divided the river into four principal streams, and north of
them it took a rapid turn to the west and then to the north, where the
cataract begins. Bigeh, like Philae, was a holy island;
its and rocks are inscribed with the names and titles of Amenhotep III,
Rameses the Great, Psammetichus II, Apries, and Amasis II, together with
memorials of the later Macedonian and Roman rulers of Egypt. Its principal
ruins consisted of the propylon and two columns of a temple, which was
apparently of small dimensions, but of elegant proportions. Near them were the
fragments of two colossal granite statues and also an excellent piece of
masonry of much later date, having the aspect of an arch belonging to some
Greek church or Saracen mosque. See also
Abu Simbel - island and site Agilkia - island and site
Bigeh - island and site Elephantine - island and site
Aswan Diocese of Philae
Luxor References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:
Smith, William, ed.. "Philae". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography.
London: John Murray. Further reading
Arnold, Dieter. Temples of the Last Pharaohs. Oxford University Press. ISBN
978-0-19-512633-4. Dijkstra, Jitse H. F.. Philae and the
End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. Peeters. ISBN 978-90-429-2031-6.
Haeny, Gerhard. "A Short Architectural History of Philae". Bulletin de
l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale 85.
Kockelmann, Hölger. "Philae". In Dieleman, Jacco; Wendrich, Willeke. UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures,
UC Los Angeles. Vassilika, Eleni. Ptolemaic Philae.
Peeters. ISBN 978-90-6831-200-3. Winter, Erich. "Philae". Textes et
langages de l'Égypte pharaonique: cent cinquante années de recherches,
1822–1972. Hommage à Jean-François Champollion. Institut français
d'archéologie orientale. External links
Philae Satellite view @ Google Maps @ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
Sacred Temple Island of Philae Philae @ Mark Millmore's Ancient Egypt
Philae @ EgyptSites Cruising the Nile: Philae
Philae @ Akhet Egyptology Philae Temple Photos