The Ptolemaic Temple at Deir el Medina

by Jean Smith, the President of the Egyptian Society of South Africa in Cape Town.

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This is very lovely Ptolemaic temple, close to the Worker's Village. Not only is it a worthwhile visit because of its beauty, but also because it’s rarely visited; thus one is given a break from the relentless crowds at other West bank sites.

The temple is built on the site of an earlier 18th dynasty temple but the present one is purely Ptolemaic and is dedicated to the cow-headed goddess, Hat-hor. It’s still partly surrounded by a ‘wavy’ mudbrick wall, similar to that at Dendera; this is said to represent the movement of water. The temple was begun by Ptolemy IV Philopater (222-205BCE) but finished by one of the later Ptolemaic kings.

The façade is covered in Greek and Coptic graffiti but inside the main court, while one can see the ornate and typical Greek pillars; there are also simpler Egyptian forms as well. At the back, the temple is divided into three shrines; they are to the gods Hat-hor, Amun-Re-Osiris, and the western one to Amun-Sokar-Osiris. This last shrine has inscribed on the stone walls a very fine depiction of the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ scene from the ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day,’ better known as ‘The Book of the Dead.’ In the scene, Osiris (the god of the dead) is seated and presiding over the weighing of the heart against the feather of Truth. If the heart weighs more than the feather, the monster Ammit, who sits waiting nearby, will devour it and in doing so, consigns the owner to oblivion, a state greatly feared by the Egyptians.

On the left side of the court, a staircase leads up to the roof of the temple. Around the north walls of the enclosure are several votive chapels. Other chapels here also have good Ptolemaic reliefs of the king. An interesting feature is the four-headed ram above a doorway; this depicts the four winds. This rather strange figure is thought to be a representation of a god mentioned in the Pyramid texts as the god with four faces.

This site was eventually turned into a Coptic monastery from which comes the name – Deir el Medina, meaning ‘Monastery of the Town.’

In the immediate area are a few nobles' tombs from the New Kingdom and one of these is a tiny tomb belonging to Senedjem, ‘Servant in the Place of Truth’ in the 19th dynasty. The tomb is very small and consists of just a single room, but the colours used in the drawings on the walls are still as clear and vivid as they were when first done. Typical scenes of ploughing and harvesting, offering scenes, a portrait of Senedjem and his wife and a beautiful depiction of Anubis embalming the owner. This little tomb has a special quality about it - reverence towards the gods but on a human scale, and quite unlike the colossal buildings of the Pharoahs. Very worthwhile seeing.

Anubis embalming Senedjem	"Weighing of the Heart"

To find out how you can visit this fascinating site, please contact us on +27 11 678 4777 or +27 11 478 2884 or email us on: info@egyptandbeyond.co.za.

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