Bigeh (; Ancient Egyptian ''znmwt'') is an island and archaeological site situated along the

Nile River The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

in historic

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

and within the Aswan Governorate of southern

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The island has been situated in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam since the dam's initial completion in 1902.

Ancient Egypt

It was formerly an island in the First Cataract of the

and its fortification controlled the access to ancient

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

and Nubia. It is a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, located close to

Philae The Philae temple complex (; , , Egyptian: ''p3-jw-rķ' or 'pA-jw-rq''; , ) is an island-based temple complex in the reservoir of the Aswan Low Dam, downstream of the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser, Egypt. Originally, the temple complex was ...

and Agilkia Islands and their ancient

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s in the reservoir. Bigeh Island was sacred to the

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ians. They believed that

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

was buried on the island and a temple that stood on it was known as ''Abaton'', Greek for "untrodden place", because only priests were allowed to set foot there. The temple was mentioned by both Seneca and Lucan. The god

Thoth Thoth (from , borrowed from , , the reflex of " eis like the ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an African sacred ibis, ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine count ...

bore the epithets of "Great and Splendid God in Bigeh" and "He that Pacifies the ''Nsr.t'' in Bigeh".Boylan, Patrick (1922). ''Thoth, Or the Hermes of Egypt''. p. 169 It is thought that there may have been a temple of Thoth on the island. In the mid or late 3rd century AD, an embassy from King Talakhidamani of

Kush KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, tha ...

visited the Abaton with gifts.Josefine Kuckertz (2021)
"Meroe and Egypt"
in Wolfram Grajetzki,

Solange Ashby Solange Ashby is an African studies, Africanist and Archaeology, archaeologist whose expertise focuses on language, religion and the role of women in ancient Egypt and Nubia. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languag ...

and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), ''UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology'', Los Angeles.

Gallery

File:David Roberts Temple Island Philae.jpg, Bigeh (foreground) and

with temple,
in the First Cataract of the

.
(1838 painting by David Roberts). File:BigaTemplePylonGate.jpg, Bigeh island ruins in 2006 in the Old Aswan Dam reservoir.

References

External links

Archaeological sites in Egypt Aswan Governorate History of Nubia Islands of the Nile River islands of Egypt World Heritage Sites in Egypt {{Egypt-geo-stub