In pictures, the opening of the "Isis" temple, 150 years after its discovery
For many years, the Isis temple in Aswan Governorate, southern Egypt, remained a dwelling place for birds and bats, before the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities moved to place it on the list of restoration works, and after two years of work inside the great archaeological edifice, it was opened today to be ready to receive visitors for the first time after its discovery 150 years ago.
The Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled Al-Anani, praised the great effort made in restoring the temple, developing and raising its tourism services, thanking all Egyptian archaeologists and restorers for their dedication and dedication to work despite the circumstances of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Isis Temple, which is 19 meters long, is located in the middle of a residential area in the center of Aswan, and its importance is due to its construction during the reign of King Ptolemy III for the worship of the god Isis and the triad of Aswan, and was found in good condition in 1871 during the extension of a railway in the area.
During the past years, the Swiss mission, which is based on excavations in Aswan, decided to use the temple as a warehouse for excavations, which drew attention again to the importance of the place and the need to intervene to revive it after decades of closure, as Fathia El Hefni, chief inspector of ancient Aswan antiquities confirms to Sky News Arabia .
In early January 2019, Al-Hefni obtained approval to start restoration operations, at which time a group of restorers, accompanied by the forty-year-old lady, set out to examine the condition of the temple.
When the team entered the temple, they were faced with complete darkness, an unpleasant smell and a random movement of birds around them, realizing that they had to create a plan to deal with these difficulties.
From the inspection, it was found that the Temple of Isis was built of sandstone, inside it a hall that includes 3 rooms, and in the eastern wall of the middle room is the Holy of Holies and inscriptions for the presentation of boats, and the place has a main door topped by an ornament and a winged sun disk, and a side door to enter and exit Kaana, and around it are brick buildings Milk was used as barracks for the Roman soldiers.
The supervisor of the Isis Temple restoration project notes that further measures are required, saying: "The temple required hard work to remove bird droppings and bats from the walls, maintain stairs and tables, restore the ceilings to their original form and add tourist services for visitors."
Al-Hefni added to "Sky News Arabia": "During our first visit, we realized the value of the ancient temple, and that it would become a front for Egyptians and foreign tourists after the opening of the Aswan governorate, so we had to move quickly and complete the experience with sound steps and with high skill."
The restoration team of 26 people was actively involved in the first stage of preparing the temple, closing the windows through which birds and bats crossed, removing their excrement and their small homes around, using mechanical methods to organize the Holy of Holies from the blood of bats, according to Hanan Abdul Ghani, director of the Aswan and Nubia Antiquities Restoration Department.
And Abdul-Ghani continues to "Sky News Arabia": Mechanical removal with brushes and scalpels is the safest way to deal with antiquities, but we have supplemented our work with chemicals for restoration so that we can eliminate the excrement and dense blood stuck on the walls.
"We cleaned the ceilings from soot (charcoal smog) and inscriptions from stains and dust, and strengthened the entrance to the temple with materials for restoration, and completed missing parts in the columns, and restored the brilliance of the colors on the drawings."
It is likely that the temple lived in it by a group of priests in the sixth century AD, and this is evidenced by the presence of crosses on the columns, altars and engravings in the different rooms, as well as the views on the external wall of the place.
From time to time, work in the temple is left for short periods, during which the team works on restoring other projects, such as the temples of Philae and the tombs of the princes in West Aswan, but they returned again to complete the renovations in "Isis" to quickly finish them in order to open it in conjunction with the National Day of Aswan Governorate.
بحضور وزير السياحة والأثار ومحافظ أسوان ..أفتتاح معبد إيزيس بعد الإنتهاء من مشروع ترميمه وتطوير الخدمات السياحية به...
Posted by الصفحة الرسمية - محافظة أسوان on Friday, January 15, 2021
