Temple of Satet

Coordinates: 24°05′04″N 32°53′14″E / 24.0844°N 32.8872°E / 24.0844; 32.8872
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Temple of Satet in hieroglyphs
sV13
t		 F29pr

Pr-Sṯt
Per-Setjet

The Temple of Satet or Satis was an ancient

Ptolemaic Period
. The temple of Satet is the best example of an ancient Egyptian temple whose construction is attested over the entire pharaonic period.

Earliest times to first intermediate period

The earliest temple was built c. 3200 BC

Old Kingdom by both royal and private individuals and comprised mainly small faience
figures, showing humans and animals. Beyond that, on the South side, granaries and a mud brick administrative building were located.

Pepi I, the second pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty ordered once more a rebuilding of the temple. The old plan was kept, but the brick walls were enlarged [4] and a granite sanctuary for the goddess' statue was added.[5] By this time, the god Khnum was also worshipped in the temple. In his fifth year of reign, Pepi's successor Merenre Nemtyemsaf I came to Elephantine to receive the submission of Nubian chieftains. On that occasion he might have visited the temple to renew the shrine erected by his father.[6]

Middle Kingdom

Modern reconstruction of the temple of Senusret I.

Towards the end of the First Intermediate period, in the early Eleventh Dynasty, the Theban king Intef III totally renovated the temple. The central chapel was left at its original place between the three natural boulders. The hall which stood in front of the chapel was paved and decorated with limestone slabs for the first time.[4]

Shortly after, Mentuhotep II did further modifications in the temple, building an entirely new sanctuary.[5] He added new inscriptions and, on the North side, a columned courtyard and a lake part of an installation to celebrate the Nile flood, which the Ancient Egyptians believed, started in Elephantine. The temple was then still mainly made out of mudbricks, with only the most important walls lined with decorated limestone blocks.

Less than 100 years later, early in the subsequent dynasty, pharaoh Senusret I replaced Mentuhotep's structure with a totally new temple and courtyard.[7] While all earlier building follow the same layout and exclusively used mudbricks, the new temple was entirely made in limestone. By this time, the level of the temple was above the rock niche of the Old Kingdom. However, the main sanctuary was built directly over the old one, therefore keeping the old tradition. The temple of Senusret I was fully decorated, but only few fragments of the decoration survived, these include the remains of a long inscription of the king. At the same time, the god Khnum was given his own separate temple on the island. The temple of Satet was originally adorned with many statues, among which is a statue of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Amenemhat V that bears a dedication to the goddess:

The good god, lord of the two lands, lord of the ceremonies, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Sekhemkare, the son of Ra Amenemhat, beloved of Satet, lady of Elephantine, may he live for ever.

Another statue once adorning the temple belongs to king Senusret III. There is also a dyad of king Sobekemsaf I adoring the goddess that was certainly once in the temple. Indeed, even though these statues were all discovered in the nearby sanctuary of the local saint Heqaib, according to their inscriptions they must originally have been in the temple of Satet.[8]

New Kingdom and later times

Modern reconstruction of the 18th Dynasty temple of Satet.

During the

New Kingdom period, the temple was built anew under queen Hatshepsut (1507–1458 BC) in the early 18th Dynasty and further enlarged by her successor, Thutmose III.[9] The temple was then a solid rectangular building, some 15.9 m × 9.52 m (52.2 ft × 31.2 ft) in size, completely surrounded by a 20.10 m × 13.52 m (65.9 ft × 44.4 ft) walkway that had 7 × 10 pillars on the outside.[10] The sanctuary of the new temple was placed directly over the sanctuary of the older periods. Evidently the New Kingdom temple kept the old tradition of the sanctuary's place. There are indications for further construction work during the 26th Dynasty (664–525 BC), but very little of that temple has survived. There are several blocks of a gateway that was once about 7.35 m (24.1 ft) high, that led to a brick enclosure wall, the latter perhaps once belonging to the temple. Shortly before the Persian conquest of Egypt, pharaoh Amasis II (570–526 BC) added a colonnade or kiosk to the temple. Six limestone columns and screen walls were found.[11][12]

A totally new temple was built under

Ptolemy VIII (182–116 BC) finally added a pronaos to the temple with two by four columns.[14]

Nilometer

One of the two and the best preserved nilometer is associated with the Temple of Satet.[15]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Temple of Satet in Elephantine.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-41-518589-9
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5
    .
  3. ^ Seidlmayer, p. 336
  4. ^
    ISBN 380530501-X
    , 11-23
  5. ^ a b Seidlmayer, p.337
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5
    .
  7. ^ Seidlmayer, p. 338
  8. ISBN 380530496X
    , p. 113, no. 102; 116, no. 108
  9. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5
    .
  10. ^ W. Kaiser, G. Dreyer, P. Grossmann, W. Mayer, S. Seidlmayer: Stadt und Temple von Elephantine, Achter Grabungsbericht, in Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, Kairo 36 (1980), 254-264
  11. ISBN 0195126335
    , p. 88
  12. ^ Seidlmayer, p. 339
  13. ISBN 3170117688
    , 48-49
  14. ^ Arnold: Temples of the last Pharaohs, p. 189, 202
  15. ^ "Nilometer of Satet Temple (Elephantine)". Madain Project. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.

24°05′04″N 32°53′14″E / 24.0844°N 32.8872°E / 24.0844; 32.8872

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Temple_of_Satet&oldid=1117540137"