| |
| |
|
|
This brief
article doesn't claim to explain
in detail, by any means, all
aspects of the temple of Behbeit
el-Haggar, but to propose to
you the discovery of an ignored
site of the delta, which could
be restored, but which doesn't
seem to receive the attention
which it deserves.
This text was produced
based on a public lecture by
Mrs. Christine Favard-Meeks.
Acknowledgements to her, and
for agreeing to correct this
short text.
Situated right in the middle of the Delta, Behbeit el-Hagar
is to about fifteen kilometres to the North of Busiris.
|
|
Location
|
The research on the site have been led by Mrs. Christine Favard-Meeks, who proposed a reconstitution analysis for it.
The site is currently very ruined, and continuously ravaged by the villagers in the vicinity, who have all cut all antiquity found there, from the blocks of granite, but associated with it also are more recent acts of vandalism with reliefs cut destined to be resold.
The temple was founded by Nectanebo II (360-342), the last indigenous sovereign, and one finds there traces of the work of Ptolemy II (285-246) and III (246-222). Then no proof which can be dated to a following reign. One can affirm therefore that the temple was abandoned very early, because if a building as important had been in use there after Ptolemy III, the Lagide Pharaohs and the Roman Emperors would have certainly left a trace.
This is confirmed by the fact that, in spite of the great surface available, no building has been found in the temenos. Besides, the farmers who regularly come closer to the temple for their agriculture don't seem to have taken from the ground any objects of the Greco-Roman period.
 |
... "The temple was founded by Nectanebo II (360-342), the last indigenous sovereign, and one finds there traces of the work of Ptolemy II (285-246) and III (246-222)."
|
 |
|
It is likely that the temple collapsed prematurely in antiquity, possibly following an earthquake. For a very long time, it was believed that the sanctuary was dedicated solely to Isis. From early times, the Greek then authors then the Roman authors visiting Egypt spoke of a famous "temple of Isis".
Although collapsed, it is probable that excessively pious devotees of the goddess remained around the temple, a long after the activity of worship was interrupted.
It is certainly a fact that a block was recovered from the only decorated chapel of the reign of Nectanebo II (the chapel of sheathed Osiris, which this king worshipped in particular) in the temple of Isis in Rome, which illustrates the importance of the place for the goddess's cult. Confusion was perpetuated by the first travellers to have described the site during the 17th and 18th century.
The presence of numerous Hathor heads, on the blocks of a collapsed frieze, thus reinforced the hypothesis of a feminine goddess, and these scholars assimilated the site with the Isein of the classical authors.
The temple was built entirely in granite, and surrounded
by a defensive wall of the same stone while the surrounding
wall which delimited the temenos was in raw brick.
Its measurements had to be of about 100m. in length
by 60m. width. At the front, a hypostyle room, including
the columns whose number is difficult to specify because
of their fragmentary state, had to be in front of
the entry of the sanctuary. None have survived intact,
but their diameter can be estimated at 1.50m.
|
DESCRIPTION AND RELIGIOUS FUNCTION
|
|
|
Plan by Ch.Favard-Meeks
|
One supposes the existence of a monumental door of very large size at the entry of the sanctuary of Isis itself.
Thanks to a data base of all the blocks, numbered and photographed by Mrs. Meeks, many walls could be restored and arranged in their specified registers.
Thus, it is for example, known that all bases of the walls were decorated by geniuses of the Nile.
The temple was designed to have some chapels on the roof, but its collapse brought the blocks these components to mingle with those of the rooms beneath, making the reconstruction very difficult. Isis is very present at Behbeit el-Hagar but in the very form of universal primordial goddess, and especially as the one who presents the offerings to her brother Osiris and the one who protects him.
Isis also plays the role of goddess of the festivities, since there were many festivals which borrowed all of the different ways in the temple. The temple included an wabet (place of purity) to the south of the sanctuary, where the image of Isis was preserved, in her form of a falcon.
At the exit of the wabet, a monumental covered
staircase lead to the roof where important rituals
took place. The parallel corridor to the sanctuary
of Isis, whose external walls were also decorated,
lead to the four Osirian chapels situated at the bottom
of the temple. From north to south, these Osirian
chapels were all dedicated to a different form of
Osiris.
They included a low part and a high part
on the roof.
Only one block was recovered from
the double chapel of Hwt-sr but a few more
of the chapel dedicated to "Osiris who awakens healthy".
This one represents a synthesis of all Osirises of
the Delta.
It is proposed that the chapel of the sheathed
Osiris was placed on the roof, which dates from
Nectanebo II and which is different from the others.
It included only one register of images of offerings
to Osiris who, regenerated by these offerings, lost
his covering while being born again as a young god.
In the upper register, is found only one royal offering
to a group of seated divinities which had to occupy
the whole circumference of the chapel. Annually, semblances
of Osiris were manufactured there, according to a
specific ritual. These Osiriform statues were not
the vegetating Osirises (no plant seed was used in
their manufacture) but were assembled from clay. The
chapel called "high house" or per-qa is the
place of conservation of the small statues of Osiris.
It is thought that on the roof had to be a tabernacle
to preserve the statue of the year. It is also here
that one finds the greatest concentration of zoomorphic
divinities.
Finally, it can be said that Behbeit El-Hagar is essentially
a temple destined for the rebirth of Osiris, and therefore
of the king, in all conceivable ways. Before the reign
of Nectanebo II, a cult of the funeral statuaries
of the Saite kings already existed, probably in this
place relating to a building or a cemetery. Probably
having this fact in memory, the Egyptian theologians,
in a last attempt, called on all cults of the Delta,
to all rituals which they had in their possession
to try to protect the traditional royal function and
its protective role of the land of Egypt.
Here,
Isis is the supplier of offerings to Osiris and assume
a role of protector of the god's aspects. In return,
she is assimilated in her sanctuary as a universal
goddess, compared in Atum. She acquired a role which
she didn't always have in Egyptian religion. It is
in this role of universal and protective goddess that
her cult spilled into the whole Mediterranean basin.
 |
 |
 |
| |
Cartouche of Ptolemy
II
User-ka-n-Re-Meryamun |
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
Cartouche of Ptolemy
II
User-ka-n-Re-Meryamun |
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
Head of an Hathoric
friese |
| |
... "It therefore appears urgent to preserve and to restore this structure before the deteriorations linked to the actions the wind erosion, pollution and depredation cause the disappearance of one of the most beautiful monuments of the Delta."
|
|
|
It is certain fact that the temple
of Behbeit El-Hagar represents
a unique site, including the
blocks whose reliefs are of
an exceptional quality. It therefore
appears urgent to preserve and
to restore this structure before
the deteriorations linked to
the actions the wind erosion,
pollution and depredation cause
the disappearance of one of
the most beautiful monuments
of the Delta
It is
urgent that the Service of Antiqueries
of Egypt and the Egyptological
community mobilise themselves
for this safeguard.
You can find a more complete
text on the temple and numerous
photos in a document downloadable
in PDF,
view >>
(
505 KB screen resolution )
view >> (
2.41 MB printer resolution ).
| Text byThierry
Benderitter
English translation by Jon J Hirst
Photographs by Françoise Pascale
Plan by Christine Favard-Meeks
© Copyright OsirisNet 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)