Temple of Dendur

The Temple of Dendur, which plays such an important role at the beginning and near the end of the young adult, urban fantasy novel  Brooke and Piper is a real Egyptian temple, not a set for a film or video. It was brought, stone by stone, from the banks of the Nile River and reassembled in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some other museums may display historic structures, but none offers the visual impact that the large glass atrium with views of Central Park gives to this piece of ancient history. 

In the 1960's Egypt built the Aswan High Dam creating Lake Nasser. The rising lake would have submerged the Temple of Dendur but it was disassembled and offered to the USA as thanks for the archaeological preservation this country had sponsored in Egypt. The United States government offered the temple to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which built a large glass atrium on its north side to house this treasure.

When visiting the museum you climb the front steps, enter the Great Hall, and turning right enter the Egyptian galleries which house an outstanding collection of sculptures, mummy cases, pottery and items ancient people used in daily life. All of this hardly prepares you for the experience of entering the the atrium and viewing the temple for the first time. 

Your first sight of the Temple of Dendur is across a reflecting pool of water and past a stone pylon which stood in front of the temple in its original location. In the atrium are also several impressive Egyptian stone sculptures but one's immediate focus is the temple itself. Walking past the pool of water and the stone pylon gives a chance to view the construction of the temple and the hieroglyphs that cover the outside and inside of this stone place of ancient worship. The ancient Egyptians, like the Romans and Greeks, worshipped many gods and this temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis, wife of Osiris. 

The Temple of Dendur was built late in the history of ancient Egypt, when it had become a colony of the Roman Empire, and celebrates offerings made to Isis by Emperor Caesar Augustus, who took the place of the pharaoh in government and religion.

Back

Website Copyright 2025 George Woideck