The Temple of Taffeh is an ancient

Roman Egypt Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, ...

ian

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

currently located in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, the Netherlands. The temple was originally built between 25 BCE and 14 CE as part of the Roman fortress known as Taphis, in Egypt. The Egyptian government donated the temple to the Netherlands as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the

International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the effort to relocate 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. This was done in order to make way for the building of the Aswan Dam, a ...

. It is one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture relocated outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in the Netherlands.

History

The temple of Taffeh was built of sandstone between 25 BCE and 14 CE during the rule of the Roman emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

. It was part of the Roman fortress known as Taphis and measures .Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs, Oxford University Press, 1999. p.240 The north temple's "two front columns are formed by square pillars with engaged columns" on its four sides. The rear wall of the temple interior features a statue niche. In 1960, in relation to the construction of the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. When it was completed, it was the tallest earthen dam in the world, surpassing the Chatug ...

and the consequent threat posed by its reservoir to numerous monuments and archeological sites in

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 ...

such as the temple of

Abu Simbel Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive Rock-cut architecture, rock-cut Egyptian temple, temples in the village of Abu Simbel (village), Abu Simbel (), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is located on t ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

made an international call to save these sites. In gratitude, Egypt assigned several monuments to the countries that replied to this plea in a significant way, including the Netherlands. Adolf Klasens, the director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in

and a Dutch Egyptologist played a part in arranging the agreement where Egypt presented the temple to the museum. The building is constructed from 657 blocks weighing approximately 250 tons. After arriving in the Netherlands in 1979, it was reconstructed in a new wing of the museum. The new structure was designed in such a way that the Dutch weather would not affect the stone, that natural light would illuminate the temple and that visitors could see the temple before having to pay for admission. There was also an effort to replace a minimum number of damaged stones. A Greek inscription and a

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

remain carved into its walls.

References

{{coord, 23.6197, N, 32.8721, E, source:wikidata, display=title Egyptian temples Monuments and memorials in the Netherlands Relocated monuments of Lower Nubia Buildings and structures in Leiden Egypt–Netherlands relations

History

See also

References