Temple of Philae

Lotus


The site of the Temple of Philae is particularly lovely, being on a small island in Lake Nasser, not far from the high dam. Motorboats convey tourists to the temple. We went there by motor boat in the afternoon and, for once, were treated to a beautiful, blue sky.



Approche de Philaë


Approche de Philaë

Approche de Philaë


This temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis.  Nahla narrated her story in a fascinating way. To summarize, Isis was the wife of the god Osiris. When Seth, Osiris's jealous brother, killed Osiris and hid his body, Isis managed to find the corpse and united with it to produce their son, the falcon-headed god, Horus. When Seth went even farther and cut Osiris's body into pieces and had them scattered all over Egypt, Isis went looking for them, in order to reassemble her husband. One of the pieces was found on Biggeh Island, just across from Philae, hence the holiness of the spot. Later, Isis was identified with the goddess Hathor.



La déesse Isis

The goddess Isis

[Photo from ]


 

Le temple de Philaë Le temple de Philaë
Entrance to the temple of Philae
Relief avec Isis/Hathor Relief avec Isis/Hathor
Reliefs showing the goddess Isis, with the solar globe on her head


The son et lumière is very pretty to see, in spite of the inanely pompous words. (The music is even worse, "mysterious" strings and celestial choirs... After that, we decided not to go see the next son et lumière.) It was during this one that a voice called several times, "Oh Nile!", which in French is pronounceded "Oh Neel", causing our "lotus" friends to turn, chuckling, in our direction.

Temple de Philaë, son et lumière Temple de Philaë, son et lumière



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