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The Temple of Debod
Debod Temple (Debut, Debot, Debout, Dabod or Dabud) was built by Pharaoh Adikhalamani in the third century BC. The Temple was originally dedicated to the god Amun. Ptolemy VI, VIII, and XII enlarged and re-dedicated it.
Dabod Temple was only 6 miles south of Aswan and was disassembled as part of the international rescue efforts at the time of the building of the Aswan High Dam. The temple is now located in Madrid, Spain, a gift from Egypt to the Spanish people for their help with the rescue of Nubian monuments in the 1960's.
"Travels in Nubia" was written by one of the very first westerners in modern times to explore the Nile south of Aswan. It was a dangerous and secret journey, John Lewis Burckhardt did not reveal his identity or purpose even to his guide. His book is a record of the further reaches of the Egyptian empire, temples mostly from the later period when the culture had dimmed a bit, but still wonderous as Mr Burckhardt found them in the sands of the early nineteenth century.
Debod Temple
Photograph by Maxime DuCamp, 1852
The Temple of Debod
Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia by John Lewis Burckhardt
A Journey along the Banks of the Nile
Published in 1819. Adapted for AscendingPassage.com, 2006.
March 30th, 1813.
After a ride of half an hour, over
a well cultivated plain, we came to the temple of Debot, which
stands upon the site of the ancient Parembole.
The Temple of Debot,
by Francois Gau, 1819
The temple is approached through three high, insulated gateways,
with projecting cornices, like that near Merowau. The distance
between the first and second gateway is twenty paces, ten paces
between the second and third, and fifteen paces between the third
and the pronaos of the temple. In front of the pronaos are four
columns, with a wall half their height.
Along the center of three of the interior walls of the pronaos
is a compartment of sculpture, the other parts of the walls are
quite bare; a peculiarity I saw nowhere else in Egypt. Adjoining the
pronaos to the left is a square chamber, the walls of which project
beyond the side of the temple, and destroy its
symmetry. There are no sculptures of any kind on the walls of this
apartment.
The cella is an oblong square, its walls are covered with
hieroglyphics and sculptures. On one side of it is a dark
apartment, opening into the pronaos, and on the other side is a
staircase leading up to the top of the temple. Below the staircase
are several small rooms.
Sanctuary, Temple of Debot,
by Francois Gau, 1819
The adytum, which is entered through a
narrow chamber three paces wide, is ten feet in length by
nine in width. In its rear wall are two fine monolith
temples of granite, the largest of which is eight feet in height by
three in width. The winged globe is sculptured over each of them.
They appear to have been receptacles for some small sacred animals,
perhaps (scarab) beetles. The places are yet visible where the hinges
of the door turned, which shut up whatever was contained within. These
monolith temples, are similar to those at Philae; but differ in their
construction from that at Gaou (Antæopolis), which is much
larger. There are no hieroglyphics in the interior, whereas that at Gaou is covered on
the inside with inscriptions and sculptures.
On each side of the adytum at Debot is a
small room, communicating with the narrow chamber behind the cella;
the walls of both are without sculptures, but contain some secret
recesses, similar to those at Kalabshe, and which were destined,
probably, for the same purposes. One of these rooms had an upper
story, like the one at Kalabshe, but it is now ruined. The other
parts of the temple are in good preservation. The sculptures
on the inside walls are much defaced; but some faint remains of
their coloring are yet visible.
The Temple of Debot,
by David Roberts, 1838
There are no sculptures whatever
on the exterior walls. A wall, now in ruins, had encompassed the
whole of this temple, including the three gateways in front of it.
I observed in the broken-up floor of the pronaos deep stone
foundations, upon which the temple is built. I should not be
surprised if subterran rooms were discovered here, as well as
in other Egyptian temples. That would be quite in the spirit of the
Egyptian hierarchy.
NEXT CHAPTER
The Temple of Debot
Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Lewis Burckhardt, published in 1819
Plan of Debut Temple
by Francois Gau, 1822
by Prisse d'Avennes 1878
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