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Amara West Temple
The temple at Amara, on the West side of the Nile, was built in the rule of Pharaoh Ramesses II to honor the god of Thebes, Amun.
Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
Amara West Temple
In the plain of Amara (Aamara) are the ruins of a fine Egyptian temple. The shafts of six large columns of the pronaos remain, constructed
of calcareous stone, and they are the only specimen of that kind I
have seen. Most Egyptian temples in Nubia are built of sandstone.
The columns of Aamara Temple,
Photograph by Francis Frith, 1862.
The
sculptures upon these columns are in imitation of those of Philae,
and are of middling execution, the figure of Thoth the ibis most frequently occurs. Over
each compartment or group of figures is a square blank tablet, as
if to receive an inscription. The same thing is seen at Dakke,
Kalabshe, and Philae, but not in the more northern Egyptian temples.
All the capitals of the columns are wanting. Of the cella nothing
remains but mounds of rubbish, except the lowest part of the walls.
The foundations are of stone, reposing upon a
substructure of bricks burnt in the sun. The walls were probably
built of alternate layers of stone and brick. A thick enclosure of
brick surrounds the site of the temple, at about fifty yards
distance from the columns.
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Edited excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
Ruins of Amara Temple,
by Ernst Weidenbach, 1845.
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