Dandara Temple / Qena

Dandara is located 74 kilometres from Luxor and 6 kilometres west of Qena, where the Nile takes a great bow to the west. At the end of it is the Dandara Temple, built in the Greek and Roman periods, but the city dates back to much older. The layout of the original temple dates back to the era of King Khufu From the Fourth Dynasty and King Baby from the Sixth Dynasty. Many traces are indicating this, perhaps the most important of which is the cemetery that lies behind the wall of the temple and the group of establishments inside the wall of the temple, which was the centre of Hathor and her husband Hur – my unit and her son Hur – Ayah and Hathor was a symbol of love and pleasure.

The building of the temple is surrounded by a wall of mud brick with an area of ​​290 m in length, and 280 m in width and the width of this wall from the bottom range between 10-12 m, and the wall rises about 10 meters and can enter the campus of the temple through a large sandstone gate carrying a cartridge for Emperor Trajan with his surname Germanicus and Adkios Ali The internal façade of the gate. This gate is located on the northern side of the sanctuary of the temple. The gate leads to the sanctuary of the temple, which is 33 meters long by 30 meters.

On the southern side of this campus is the Great Pillar Hall, which shows its impressive façade, mounted on six pillars depicting its capitals for Hathor. The height of this facade is 17.5 meters, and its width is 42 meters.

To the north, we find a sandstone gate leading to a walled courtyard with mud-brick. This courtyard leads to the Great Hall of Pillars, which includes 24 columns whose crowns are shaped like Hathor with a woman’s head and the ear of a cow.

The area of ​​the original temple is 81 x 38 m. It was built of sandstone. The ceiling was decorated with many astronomical views and heavenly constellations, and on the sides of the hall are two small doors leading to the outside of the temple.

The large pillar hall leads to the small pillar hall, which is relatively small. Its roof carries six columns of the type known as flower heads or compound heads. This hall is known as (the sight hall) organized in three.

Eastside (left):

And on the east side.

On this site, we find three rooms, namely the purification room or the incense room. In contrast, the second room has been recorded scenes of the harvest and the scenes of days of celebrations and festivals in Dandara, while the third room – located to the east – is a passage to the sacrifice hall.

We also find three rooms on the western side: the treasury room or the treasures, then the purification room. Sometimes it is called the Nile Hall – because through this room the waters of the Nile were passing from the Holy Fountain – and the third room located to the west includes two doors, one of which is to climb to the roof of the temple, And the other is connected to the offering hall. The lower pillars hall leads to the offering hall, a roofed hall with a staircase leading to the temple’s roof.

As for the banquet hall or offerings, it is a hall that follows the celebration hall, and there are square openings for ventilation and lighting in the ceiling of this hall. To the left and right of this hall are two stairways leading to the roof of the temple where the Osirid cemeteries, whose walls contain scenes of death and resurrection

The table hall leads to the ninth hall and opens two rooms to the east called the linen room – where linen fabrics were used for worship purposes, and to the west, there is a room called the silver room.