DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4644#0045
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On ascending the Nile above Philae the ruins of the Temple of Wady Dabod are the first that present
themselves to the traveller. This, like most of the Nubian temples, was never completed. The two
outer columns are left rough as they were hewn, and offer evidence of the practice of the Egyptian
sculptors to cut the hieroglyphics after the columns were erected.
The Temple of Dabod appears to have been built by an Ethiopian monarch who succeeded
Ergamun, the contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was dedicated to Isis. Augustus and
Tiberius added, though they left unfinished, most of its sculptured enrichments. The principal
building is a portico having four columns in front, with screens that intervene, except at the
entrance between the centre columns; this led to a central and two lateral chambers, and by a
flight of steps to two others above them: there was another chamber immediately over the adytum.
A wing was added, at a later period, on one side of the portico. In the adytum, which is plain and
unsculptured, Wilkinson states that there are two monoliths bearing the names of Physcon and Cleopatra,
but Roberts says one has been removed, and describes that which remains as a shrine of red granite,
simple and beautiful in design, flanked by two columns with lotus-headed capitals of an early period,
and having an entablature with a winged Hebe, and sculpture of Nilus tying the sacred ligatures.
The approach to the Temple of Wady Dabod from the river was by steps to a stone quay, and
thence through three pylons at short distances from each other, as represented in the background to
tl P n (in this work) of Abyssinian Slaves at Korti. The first pylon is the entrance to the wall
of circuit, which incloses the other pylons and the Temple.
Roberts's Journal.
Wilkinson's Egypt.