The Dendera Temple complex (Ancient Egyptian: Iunet or Tantere; the 19th-century English spelling in most sources, including Belzoni, was Tentyra; also spelled Denderah) is located about south-east of Dendera, Egypt. It is one of the best-preserved temple complexes of ancient Egypt. The area was used as the sixth nome of Upper Egypt, south of Abydos.
Description
The entirety of the complex sprawls across roughly 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a sizable mudbrick wall. Dendera, an oasis on the banks of the Nile, was inhabited by thousands at its peak. Due to its massive size, the structures throughout the complex were constructed over many eras, such as the Middle Kingdom, the Ptolemaic Era, and the period characterized by Roman provincial rule. There is evidence that there was an even earlier building on this site, circa 2250 B.C.E., which could have begun during the reign of Pepi I and completed during the reign of his son, Merenre Nemtyemsaf I. Evidence also exists of a temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1500 BC). The earliest extant (surviving) building in the compound today is the mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – last of the native pharaohs (360–343 BC).
The features in the complex include:
Hathor temple (the main temple) Temple of the birth of Isis Sacred Lake (source of water for sacred rituals and for everyday use) Sanatorium This would have functioned similarly to a Roman bathhouse, but strictly for bathing and an overnight stay to manifest healing dreams. The waters at Dendera were sacred and were often used to bless the inscriptions on statues so that they could cure diseases. Mammisi of Nectanebo II Christian Basilica A basilica is a church that has been granted special privileges. This would have been utilized by Coptic Christians in the region, as opposed to the northern Roman Catholic Christians. Roman Mammisi a Barque shrine (Def.: Boat; French, “barque”/ Late Latin “barca”) Used as a resting place for the statues of the gods when outside of the temple during festivals Gateways of Domitian and Trajan the Roman Kiosk
The Dendera Temple is not to be confused with the Dendera Necropolis, which consists of a series of tombs. The Dendera Necropolis dates back to the Early Dynastic Period and up to the First Intermediate Period, which pre-dates the Middle Kingdom construction of the Temple of Hathor. The necropolis runs across the eastern edge of the western hill and over the northern plain.
Hathor temple
The temple that dominates this complex, the structure that commands the attention of those who visit, is the Temple of Hathor. The original temple structure underwent continuous modifications throughout the Middle Kingdom and up until the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan. The existing temple's structure began construction in 54 B.C.E, the late Ptolemaic period, under the reign of Ptolemy Auletes. The hypostyle hall was built in the Roman period under Tiberius.
In Egypt, Trajan was quite active in constructing buildings and decorating them. He appears, together with Domitian, in offering scenes on the propylaeum of the Temple of Hathor. His cartouche also appears in the column shafts of the Temple of Khnum at Esna.
Layout elements of the temple are:
Large Hypostyle Hall
Small Hypostyle Hall
Laboratory
Storage magazine
Offering entry
Treasury
Exit to well
Access to stairwell
Offering hall
Hall of the Ennead
Great Seat and main sanctuary
Shrine of the Nome of Dendera
Shrine of Isis
Shrine of Sokar
Shrine of Harsomtus
Shrine of Hathor's Sistrum
Shrine of gods of Lower Egypt
Shrine of Hathor
Shrine of the throne of Rê
Shrine of Rê
Shrine of Menat collar
Shrine of Ihy
The Pure Place
Court of the First Feast
Passage
Staircase to roof
Depictions of Cleopatra VI, which appear on temple walls, are good examples of Ptolemaic Egyptian art. On the rear of the temple exterior is a carving of Cleopatra VII Philopator (the popular, well-known Cleopatra) and her son, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar (Caesarion), who was fathered by Julius Caesar.
There are ten dead deities represented at Dendera, specifically on/in Hathor's temple, that can be connected to the nine dead deities at Horus's temple in Edfu. This would be due to the either parental or marital relationship between Hathor and Horus.