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The Temple of Kalabsha (Kalabshe)
The temple at Kalabsha was built by the last of the Ptolemy Pharaohs (and thus Cleopatra) and by Roman Emperor Augustus to honor the local god Mandulis, considered a form of Horus, and Osiris. It is one of the finest, as well as one of the largest Egyptian temples in Nubia.
Both Kalabsha and nearby Beit el Wali temple were relocated to an island above the waters of the Aswan dam in the 1960's as part of an extensive rescue project. A free standing granite gate from Kalabsha temple, previously unknown and found during the rescue project, was given by Egypt to Germany and now is in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.
The Great Temple at Kalabsha
Excerpt from: Travels in Nubia
by John Lewis Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
March 28, 1813.
After a slow ride of six hours we reached el Kalabsha (Kalabshe, Kalapsche or Kalabshee), the largest
village on the west bank of the river between Aswan and Derr. At
the foot of the hill, in the midst of the village, and reaching
down to the river, is the ruin of a very large temple.
The Temple at Kalabsha,
by David Roberts, 1838
The front of
the portico consists of a large propylon (pylon) of great beauty and
simplicity, with a gate in the center. There had been a colonnade along the side wall of the
portico, but one column only now remains, three feet three inches in
diameter. Fragments of the other columns are lying in the area. On
each side of the portico, and communicating with it, is a narrow,
dark passage, with a door opening into the area which surrounds the
temple, opposite a large gateway formed in the wall of the outer enclosure.
The front of the pronaos is decorated with four
beautiful columns and two pilasters. The columns are united by a
wall rising to half their height, similar to what is seen at
Meharraka, Dakke, Dandour, Kardassy, and Debot, a mode of
construction belonging apparently to the times in which the temples
at Tintyra (Dendera) and Philae were built. The roof of the pronaos has fallen
in, and now covers the floor, only two of the columns which supported it remain. There are no sculptures of any kind, either on the
propylon, or in the pronaos, except on the front wall of the cella.
Cut away view of the Temple at Kalabshe,
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
The cella is fifteen paces in length by
nine in breadth and projects several feet into the pronaos. This forms an insulated chamber in the midst of the
temple. I observed this mode of construction at Dakke, and
afterwards at Philae. Two low columns stand within the cella. In the
adytum are the remains of columns, lying on the ground, the only
instance of the kind I have seen in any Egyptian temple. In its
walls are some low dark recesses, and windows or loop-holes like
those in the temple at Tintyra. Its roof is formed of single blocks
of stone reaching the whole breadth, and upwards of three feet in
thickness.
There is a chamber behind the adytum, communicating with it by two doors. The roof has fallen in, but it
may be seen that this chamber was lower than the adytum and had a
chamber over it. In the walls of this chamber
are several cells, or recesses. Each of these contains two small
rooms, one behind the other,
just sufficiently large to hold one person. They are closed in
front by a stone, which may be removed at pleasure. These were,
perhaps, prisons for meditating priests, or places of probation for
those who aspired to the priesthood. The persons who were placed in
them may be literally said to have been shut up in the wall. There is not the slightest appearance of any recess being there
when the stones which close the outer entrance are in their places.
Wall art from the the Temple at Kalabshe,
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
The walls of the cella and adytum are covered with painted
figures, the colors of which still remain tolerably perfect, more
so than those at Philae. A coat of plaster was
laid upon the walls by the Greeks to receive the paintings of
their saints, which has now fallen off. The
colors generally used are red, blue, green, and black. The
hawk-headed Horus, with a staff in one hand, is painted of a light
green color. The variously colored striped robes of Osiris have a most gaudy appearance. The hair of all the figures is painted black, though in some it is
blue. The spaces between the different figures are covered with
hieroglyphics, painted red.
On the lower part of the side walls of
the adytum are single human figures, each with an animal by its
side, generally an ox, a gazelle, or a goose. The exterior walls of
the temple are covered with sculptures of colossal figures, like
those at Tintyra and Edfou. They are rudely
executed, and by no means correspond with the beauty of the
sculpture on the interior of the chambers. Heads of sphinxes
project from the walls, as at Tintyra. Through
these, perhaps, the priests delivered their oracles.
The Temple at Kalabshee.
Much of the mud brick enclosure wall remains.
by François Chrétien Gau, 1819
The walls of the portico are prolonged the whole length of the
temple. A transverse wall in the rear of the
chamber behind the adytum forms a high enclosure all round. At
about twenty feet beyond is the general enclosure to the
whole building. This is carried to the foot of the hill, which has
been cut down perpendicularly so as to serve as the end wall. In
the south-west corner of the area thus formed around the temple is
a small quadrangle formed on one side by three columns, and on the
adjacent interior side by a short wall built across the area. Here
a grotto has been hewn in the perpendicular rock,
similar to what I noticed behind the temple at Dandour. It consists
of a single chamber, with the winged globe over its entrance, but
without any other sculpture. A flight of steps leads from the
propylon down to a paved terrace which extends to the foundations
of an oblong building, standing just over the river, where are some
fragments of columns. Visitors by water, during the inundations,
might have stepped from their vessel into this building.
The Temple at Kalabshe,
by David Roberts, 1838
The temple of Kalabshe deserves to rank, with that of Dakke,
among the most precious remains of Egyptian antiquity. I have
given merely a rapid description of it, I hope sufficient to
show that it deserves to be investigated closely in all its
details. In its site, it is to be compared with the temples of
Tintyra and Edfou. It belongs to the best period of Egyptian
architecture, though it bears traces, in several of its parts, of a
less careful and more hurried execution. The walls are uncommonly well built. The
existing columns have the Philae capitals, but are less nicely
worked.
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The Temple of Kalabshe (Kalabsha)
Excerpt from: Travels in Nubia by John Lewis Burckhardt
Published in 1819.
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